2001 NAIA football rankings

One human poll made up the 2001 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) football rankings, sometimes called the NAIA Coaches' Poll or the football ratings. Once the regular season was complete, the NAIA sponsored a playoff to determine the year's national champion. A final poll was then taken after completion of the 2001 NAIA Football National Championship.

Poll release dates
The poll release dates were:
 * August 21, 2001 (Preseason)
 * September 11, 2001 (Week 1)
 * September 25, 2001 (Week 3)
 * October 2, 2001 (Week 4)
 * October 9, 2001 (Week 5)
 * October 16, 2001 (Week 6)
 * October 23, 2001 (Week 7)
 * October 30, 2001 (Week 8)
 * November 6, 2001 (Week 9)
 * November 11, 2001 (Final)
 * January 6, 2002 (Postseason)

Leading vote-getters
Since the inception of the Coaches' Poll in 1999, the #1 ranking in the various weekly polls has been held by only a select group of teams. Through the postseason poll of the 2001 season, the teams and the number of times they have held the #1 weekly ranking are shown below. The number of times a team has been ranked #1 in the postseason poll (the national champion) is shown in parentheses.

In 1999, the results of a postseason poll, if one was conducted, are not known. Therefore, an additional poll has been presumed, and the #1 postseason ranking has been credited to the postseason tournament champion, the Northwestern Oklahoma State Rangers.