The College Football Researchers Association was originally founded by the late Anthony Cusher in 1982. It was an organization modeled after the Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) consisting of college football fans and writers dedicated to researching and analyzing the history of the game. They published their results in a monthly bulletin produced by Robert Kirlin until after the ’92 season when the association ceased operations and several successor organizations, operating under different names, were created.
In fall of 2009, under the coordination of Brad Matthews and with the involvement of several past members, the College Football Researchers Association was reorganized, and a group of both new and original CFRA voters was assembled to recreate this influential poll.
This poll has since regained its prominent place in the world of college football, as the NCAA has acknowledged the CFRA’s re-emergence in their official football record book which can be found here: http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/2011/FBS.pdf.
You will also see on the chart on p. 70 of this book that the CFRA is the only multi-voter poll in the country that has elected a national champion in all 141 seasons college football has been played, thus making it the most comprehensive and historical poll in the entire country.