The top twenty-five

The sport I like to watch the most on the telly is about to begin again. Yep, it's college football season! That got me athinkin', not just about this upcoming season but who over the past twenty years has been the best college football program? Neat idea, I thought. But how do I rank them? And where would my beloved Buckeyes fall into the mix?

There were many scenarios running through my head but I decided to keep it simple. I went back and looked at the final AP college football poll for all years since 1990. My first criteria was they must have finished in the top twenty at least five times. That gave me a list of twenty-five teams. After that, I assigned the point values, a one if you finished first and a twenty if you finished, well you get the idea with the lowest point value being the winner. But I needed something else. What about when you finish out of the top twenty? I decided to give that value a twenty-five.

Not one team finished in the top twenty in every year. Several missed as many as half the seasons. I would guess most have a rough idea of where many of the teams ranked but I think there are a few surprises. If a team hasn't been ranked in the last five it doesn't mean they weren't any good in the early nineties. That being said, here they are based on my simple system.

In order: 1-Florida 184pts; 2-Florida St. 225pts; 3-Ohio State 240pts; 4-Michigan 246; 5-Miami 254; 6-Texas 286; 7-Nebraska 288; 8-Tennessee 294; 9-Penn St 299; 10-USC 313; 11-Oklahoma 317; 12-Alabama 320; 13-Virginia Tech 337; 14-Georgia 345; 15-LSU 352; 16-Notre Dame 363; 17-Auburn 365; 18-Kansas St 367; 19-Colorado 370; 20-Wisconsin 396; 21-Texas A/M 397; 22-Boise St 413; 23-Iowa 415; 24-Georgia Tech 436 and bringing up the rear, 25-UCLA 441.

Some surprises I noted: I was surprised Kansas State rated at all but they had a strong run from 1993 through 2003 making the poll every year but 2001. Notre Dame was a little lower than I expected as was Iowa. Boise St made the list six times since 2002 but never appeared before that and LSU was surprisingly absent before most of 2001. I was also surprised Tennessee ranked as high as they did but they were fairly consistent only out of the top seven times.

Hope your team fared well; Go Bucks, although I'm not happy about crowning the Florida teams the winners.