Oklahoma's the real all-time AP Poll No. 1, says a better system than the AP's own

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By Jason Kirk Aug 3, 2016, 8:43am EDT

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The Associated Press Top 25, the long-time gold standard of college football rankings, has been the data source for a lot of good ideas.

The latest: the Top 100, an all-time ranking by the AP itself, uses total weekly poll appearances (one point each), weekly No. 1 appearances (two points each), and final No. 1 rankings (10 points each) to rank the best programs since the poll began in 1936.

It's pretty good and one way to look at a large part of the sport's history.

There's a much better all-time AP Poll ranking system out there, though.

The AP's ranking gives equal points for ranking No. 25 in week two and ranking No. 2 at the end of a season.

That's flawed and somewhat self-promotional, since it implies (1.) appearing in the AP Poll at any point in the season is exactly as valuable as appearing in a season's final ranking and (2.) all rankings other than No. 1 are equally valuable.

I was looking around to see if anybody had already done a version based only on final AP Top 25s. It should also give fuller credit for ranking No. 2 or No. 3 than ranking No. 24 or No. 25.

College Football News has done just such a thing, which is good, because it meant I didn't have to. Their system awards 25 points for a team finishing No. 1 in a final AP Poll, 24 points for No. 2, and so on. Those points for all seasons are then added together. Take a look here at the CFN 135-team ranking; it also includes breakouts by decade*.

Compare the top 25s in the two systems (bolded teams ranked higher in CFN's):

AP Top 100 scoring system		CFN's all-time AP Poll scoring system
Ranking	Program	Ranking	Program
1	Ohio State	1	Oklahoma
2	Oklahoma	2	Alabama
3	Notre Dame	3	Ohio State
4	Alabama	4	Michigan
5	USC	5	Notre Dame
6	Nebraska	6	USC
7	Michigan	7	Nebraska
8	Texas	8	Texas
9	Florida State	9	Tennessee
10	Florida	10	Penn State
11	LSU	11	LSU
12	Penn State	12	Auburn
13	Miami	13	Georgia
14	Tennessee	14	Florida State
15	Georgia	15	Miami
16	Auburn	16	UCLA
17	UCLA	17	Florida
18	Texas A&M	18	Michigan State
19	Michigan State	19	Arkansas
20	Washington	20	Texas A&M
21	Arkansas	21	Clemson
22	Clemson	22	Ole Miss
23	Pitt	23	Georgia Tech
24	Wisconsin	24	Washington
25	Iowa	25	Wisconsin

Obviously, the one that is best is the one that ranks your team the highest.

The other big flaw that can't be overcome by polling data alone is that this only goes back to 1936. That's a long time, but it barely covers half the sport's history. Most of the sport's national era, at least.

But CFN's methodology is a much better use of the AP's data than the AP itself came up with, since it isn't swayed by overrated preseason teams, midseason overcorrections, or teams that gorged on weak September schedules. And it recognizes that finishing in the top five is a much bigger deal than finishing No. 22.

And hey, guess what?

The No. 1 teams in the two systems are meeting in Norman, Oklahoma on September 17 and in Columbus, Ohio one year after that.

Fans of whichever team wins will count that as evidence in favor of the system that makes their team look better, all because it might help impress a few high school football players, and that's how college football is meant to work.

* Our Bill Connelly has also used advanced stats to figure out the 10 best programs for each decade.

Elsewhere!

BYU joining the Big 12 in football only wouldn't be that bad of a deal, but this further goes to show how weird of a fit UConn would be.

Michigan has new Nike Jumpman uniforms. We have pre-Crying Jordan'd them for you. Download and unleash on social media when the time is right. (To all Michigan fans suddenly insisting Crying MJ is played out: that's a good way to get Crying MJ'd.)

Speaking of Twitter, automatic flag emoji hashtags suddenly make it look like every Georgia fan is rooting for Uganda.

Mack Brown took a jab at Texas A&M over his former rival's debacle of a women's coaching clinic.

How do Big 12 expansion candidates rank on the all-time AP 100 thing? It's BYU, and then whatever.

The country's No. 1 recruit, a Bama commit, is reportedly visiting Michigan. Must be all the Jumpmans, folks.

Bret Bielema's Online Cookbook has gained a new recipe!

New UCF head coach Scott Frost has a lot to learn about The Civil conFLiCT with UConn, the most passionate and hate-filled of the country's truly classic rivalries.

PREVIOUS: A Vandy player won something? (And then he immediately signed with the SEC Network.)

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