





size="5" face="verdana, arial, sans serif">All-Time Decade Rankings







The AP Rankings











Follow us ... please! ...



@ColFootballNews





- Suggestions or something we missed?

Let us know







By the AP Rankings - The Greatest Programs

Ever

- AP Preseason Poll |

Top

Teams of All-Time



- Top Teams of the 1930s |

Top

Teams of the 1940s



-

Top

Teams of the 1950s |

Top

Teams of the 1960s

-

Top

Teams of the 1970s

|

Top

Teams of the 1980s

-

Top

Teams of the 1990s

|

Top

Teams of the 2000s

-

Top

Teams of the 2010s







The AP rankings might 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, 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. Also, one big year can change things up fast.

Oklahoma was great last year, Michigan wasn't, so the gap between the two

widened. Last year, OU was only ten points ahead of the Wolverines, 953 points

to 943. Ohio State, Alabama and Notre Dame are closing fast, but one program

stands as the far and away best of all-time - at least according to this

formula.







So here we go - here are the greatest college

football programs since 1936 according to the AP

rankings.





























1





Oklahoma

995





2

Michigan

943





3

Ohio State

941





4

Alabama

940





5

Notre Dame

932





6

Nebraska

782





7

USC

773





8

Texas

741





9

Penn State

665





10

Tennessee

659





11

LSU

584





12

Georgia

553





13

Auburn

550





14

Miami

528





15

Florida State

511





T16

Florida

486





T16

UCLA

486





18

Arkansas

415





19

Michigan State

403





20

Texas A&M

383





21

Georgia Tech

343





22

Washington

323





23

Ole Miss

322





24

Clemson

317





25

Wisconsin

309







Others Receiving Votes







26

Iowa

302





27

Pitt

293





28

Colorado

258





29

Stanford

241





30

Army

239





31

Maryland

238





32

Arizona State

236





33

Minnesota

236





34

TCU

230





35

Missouri

219





36

Purdue

215





T37

Duke

213





T37

Virginia Tech

213





39

Oregon

204





40

North Carolina

199





T41

California

198





T41

Navy

198





43

West Virginia

194





44

Syracuse

191





45

SMU

184





46

BYU

178





47

Illinois

177





48

Kansas State

168





49

Houtson

164





50

Oklahoma State

146





51

Baylor

145





52

Southern Miss

143





53

Oregon State

139





54

Boise State

136





55

Northwestern

135





56

Washington State

131





57

Boston College

128





58

Texas Tech

116





59

Rice

107





60

NC State

105





61

Lousiville

102





62

Mississippi State

100





T63

Kansas

96





T63

Kentucky

96





65

Fordham

88





66

Santa Clara

85





67

Tulane

81





68

Penn

76





T69

Air Force

75





T69

Utah

75





T71

Cornell

68





T71

Miami University

68





T71

Tulsa

68





74

Virginia

66





75

Indiana

63





76

Dartmouth

60





77

Princeton

55





78

Yale

54





79

Holy Cross

52





80

Wyoming

48





T81

Arizona

46





T81

Duquesne

46





83

Iowa Pre-Flight

44





84

Villanova

41





85

Rutgers

40





86

Cincinnati

37





87

William & Mary

33





88

March Field

32





T89

Colorado State

31





T89

Toledo

31





91

Bainbridge NTS

30





92

Great Lakes

29





93

Utah State

26





T94

East Carolina

23





T94

Pacific

23





T94

Randolph Field

23





97

Wake Forest

22





98

UCF

21





99

Carnegie Tech

20





T100

St. Mary's (CA)

19





T100

Vanderbilt

19





T102

Del Monte Pre-Flight

18





T102

Marshall

18





104

Nevada

15





T105

Georgetown

13





T105

Hawaii

13





T105

Norman Pre-Flight

13





T108

Columbia

12





T108

San Francisco

12





110

Tuslsa

11





T111

Boston University

10





T111

El Toro Marines

10





T111

San Diego State

10





T114

George Washington

9





T114

Hardin-Simmons

9





T114

New Mexico State

9





T114

Temple

9





T118

Colorado College

8





T118

Fort Pierce

8





T118

Iowa State

8





T118

Washington & Lee

8





T122

Delaware

7





T122

Lafayette

7





T122

St. Mary's Pre-Flight

7





T125

Fresno State

6





T125

Marquette

6





T125

Ohio

6





T125

Sec. Air Force

6





T125

VMI

6





130

San Jose State

5





131

Northern Illinois

4





T132

Bowling Green

3





T132

Central Michigan

3











