swardboy
8/19/2013, 04:35 PM
All-Time Decade Rankings
The AP Rankings
By the AP Rankings - The Greatest Programs Ever
- 2013 AP Preseason Poll (http://cfn.scout.com/2/557954.html) | Top Teams of All-time (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097657.html)
- Top Teams of the 1930s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097646.html) | Top Teams of the 1940s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097648.html)
- Top Teams of the 1950s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097649.html) | Top Teams of the 1960s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097651.html)
- Top Teams of the 1970s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097652.html) | Top Teams of the 1980s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097653.html)
- Top Teams of the 1990s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097654.html) | Top Teams of the 2000s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097655.html)
- Top Teams of the 2010s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1212444.html)
The AP rankings might now be irrelevant since they don't have anything to do with determining a national champion anymore, but they're still great to use when analyzing college football on a historical scale.
The AP college football poll has been through World War II, has changed and adapted with the times, and has often looked to make a statement when needed - like in 2003 by naming USC the national champion, even though LSU took home the BCS title..
Since the AP poll is the only consistent ranking system from 1936 through today, CFN came up with a scoring system to compare and contrast how the programs finished over the decades. Every time a team finished No. 1 in the final poll, it got 25 points. The No. 2 team got 24 points, No. 3 got 23 points, and so on with the No. 25 team getting one point. Through the decades, the AP ranked the top ten teams for a few years before going back to the top 20 rankings, and eventually, it went to the top 25 system it's at now.
According to the scoring system, consistent production isn't necessarily rewarded. For example, if a team finished 17th for four straight years, it would get a total of 36 points (No. 17 gets 9 points). A team that finished the beginning of the decade No. 2 (24 points) and the end of the decade ranked tenth (16 points), but wasn't ranked any year in between, would get a total 40 points.
One fascinating thing to note: all the club teams that played during World War II. Notice the rankings of the all-star teams like the Iowa Pre-Fight juggernaut and the Bainbridge NTS powerhouse. In the end, though, the big-name programs you'd think would rock, did. There's a reason the superpowers of today got their reputations - they won.
However, things can change in a big hurry. When we did this in 2000, Notre Dame was on top of the world by a huge margin. Over a decade later and a following down period, things have changed up a bit.
So here we go - here are the greatest college football programs since 1936 according to the AP rankings.
RANK
TEAM
POINTS
1
Oklahoma
953
2
Michigan
943
3
Ohio State
927
4
Alabama
923
5
Notre Dame
918
6
Nebraska
783
7
USC
782
8
Texas
771
9
Tennessee
678
10
Penn State
646
11
LSU
590
12
Georgia
531
13
Auburn
526
14
Miami
511
T15
Florida
486
T15
Florida State
486
17
UCLA
477
18
Arkansas
439
19
Michigan State
380
20
Texas A&M
356
The AP Rankings
By the AP Rankings - The Greatest Programs Ever
- 2013 AP Preseason Poll (http://cfn.scout.com/2/557954.html) | Top Teams of All-time (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097657.html)
- Top Teams of the 1930s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097646.html) | Top Teams of the 1940s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097648.html)
- Top Teams of the 1950s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097649.html) | Top Teams of the 1960s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097651.html)
- Top Teams of the 1970s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097652.html) | Top Teams of the 1980s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097653.html)
- Top Teams of the 1990s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097654.html) | Top Teams of the 2000s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097655.html)
- Top Teams of the 2010s (http://cfn.scout.com/2/1212444.html)
The AP rankings might now be irrelevant since they don't have anything to do with determining a national champion anymore, but they're still great to use when analyzing college football on a historical scale.
The AP college football poll has been through World War II, has changed and adapted with the times, and has often looked to make a statement when needed - like in 2003 by naming USC the national champion, even though LSU took home the BCS title..
Since the AP poll is the only consistent ranking system from 1936 through today, CFN came up with a scoring system to compare and contrast how the programs finished over the decades. Every time a team finished No. 1 in the final poll, it got 25 points. The No. 2 team got 24 points, No. 3 got 23 points, and so on with the No. 25 team getting one point. Through the decades, the AP ranked the top ten teams for a few years before going back to the top 20 rankings, and eventually, it went to the top 25 system it's at now.
According to the scoring system, consistent production isn't necessarily rewarded. For example, if a team finished 17th for four straight years, it would get a total of 36 points (No. 17 gets 9 points). A team that finished the beginning of the decade No. 2 (24 points) and the end of the decade ranked tenth (16 points), but wasn't ranked any year in between, would get a total 40 points.
One fascinating thing to note: all the club teams that played during World War II. Notice the rankings of the all-star teams like the Iowa Pre-Fight juggernaut and the Bainbridge NTS powerhouse. In the end, though, the big-name programs you'd think would rock, did. There's a reason the superpowers of today got their reputations - they won.
However, things can change in a big hurry. When we did this in 2000, Notre Dame was on top of the world by a huge margin. Over a decade later and a following down period, things have changed up a bit.
So here we go - here are the greatest college football programs since 1936 according to the AP rankings.
RANK
TEAM
POINTS
1
Oklahoma
953
2
Michigan
943
3
Ohio State
927
4
Alabama
923
5
Notre Dame
918
6
Nebraska
783
7
USC
782
8
Texas
771
9
Tennessee
678
10
Penn State
646
11
LSU
590
12
Georgia
531
13
Auburn
526
14
Miami
511
T15
Florida
486
T15
Florida State
486
17
UCLA
477
18
Arkansas
439
19
Michigan State
380
20
Texas A&M
356