College Football: Rankings in the Weekly AP Poll (1936-2010)

Post Highlights

• Army has the best average ranking (7.1) in the weekly AP poll amongst schools currently in the FBS.

• Connecticut has the worst average ranking (21) in the weekly AP poll amongst schools in BCS conferences.

• The Big Ten has the best average ranking (10.6) in the weekly AP poll amongst current FBS conferences.

 

Important Note: Be sure to check out College Poll Archive this season.  They have a lot of in-depth information and compilations on the AP poll.  I was planning on writing a longer post, but College Poll Archive pretty much covers all the information you could want about the AP poll.  I wish I would have run into the site awhile back.

 

Most college footballs fan would never guess that Army has the best average ranking (7.1) in the weekly AP poll amongst schools currently in the FBS.

Listed below is a breakdown of the rankings each current FBS school has received in the weekly AP poll.

 

Breakdown of AP Poll Rankings by School

Note: The tally and further information doesn’t include this year’s preseason poll.  I will update this post after the season.

Legend: Avg Rk (Average rank school has received in the weekly AP poll), High Rk (Highest rank the school has attained in the weekly AP poll), Rk Mode (Most common ranking(s) received by the school in the weekly AP poll)

Check out this post for more in-depth information on each school’s highest weekly AP poll ranking.

Atlantic Coast
School	Avg Rk	High Rk	Rk Mode
Boston College	15.6	1	19, 25
Clemson	14.4	1	15
Duke	12.6	2	16
Florida St	8.6	1	1
Georgia Tech	11.9	2	7
Maryland	12.1	1	13, 17
Miami FL	8.5	1	1
North Carolina	13.3	1	19
North Carolina St	17.3	3	17
Virginia	16.5	1	16
Virginia Tech	13.0	2	14
Wake Forest	18.4	11	18
Big East
School	Avg Rk	High Rk	Rk Mode
Cincinnati	14.1	4	5, 20
Connecticut	21.0	16	16, 25
Louisville	15.6	3	17
Pittsburgh	11.9	1	17
Rutgers	17.2	7	15
South Florida	16.6	2	19, 23
Syracuse	13.8	1	18
West Virginia	14.1	2	17
Big Ten
School	Avg Rk	High Rk	Rk Mode
Illinois	12.1	2	11
Indiana	15.1	4	20
Iowa	12.5	1	9
Michigan	8.9	1	4
Michigan St	11.5	1	2
Minnesota	11.4	1	1
Nebraska	7.4	1	1
Northwestern	12.0	1	10
Ohio St	8.5	1	1
Penn St	9.9	1	2, 7, 10
Purdue	13.0	1	17
Wisconsin	12.8	1	9
Big 12
School	Avg Rk	High Rk	Rk Mode
Baylor	13.9	3	20
Iowa St	17.7	9	19, 20
Kansas	14.1	2	19
Kansas St	12.8	2	7, 13, 14, 20
Missouri	13.7	1	19
Oklahoma ¹	7.3	1	1, 2, 3
Oklahoma St	14.8	3	12
Texas	8.6	1	2
Texas A&M	12.3	1	5
Texas Tech	15.3	2	12, 19
Pac-12
School	Avg Rk	High Rk	Rk Mode
Arizona	15.1	3	17
Arizona St	14.1	2	18
California	11.8	1	4
Colorado	11.6	1	7, 9
Oregon	13.2	1	7
Oregon St	15.3	4	8, 18
Stanford	14.6	2	16
UCLA	11.4	1	4, 14
USC	8.7	1	1
Utah	14.9	2	14
Washington	12.3	1	12
Washington St	15.5	3	19
Southeastern
School	Avg Rk	High Rk	Rk Mode
Alabama	8.6	1	2
Arkansas	11.6	1	9
Auburn	11.0	1	5
Florida	9.7	1	5
Georgia	11.4	1	7
Kentucky	12.8	3	7
Louisiana St	10.9	1	9
Mississippi	11.7	1	5, 6, 7
Mississippi St	17.6	7	16, 19
South Carolina	16.6	2	19
Tennessee	10.3	1	8
Vanderbilt	15.4	7	19
Independents
School	Avg Rk	High Rk	Rk Mode
Army	7.1	1	1
BYU	15.2	1	19
Navy	9.1	2	4
Notre Dame	8.1	1	1
Conference USA
School	Avg Rk	High Rk	Rk Mode
Central Florida	23.0	21	21, 25
East Carolina	18.1	9	20
Houston	13.5	2	14
Marshall	15.9	10	11, 15
Memphis	25.0	25	25
Rice	13.3	5	15
SMU	11.5	1	6
Southern Miss	20.3	9	25
Tulane	14.3	4	19
Tulsa	16.3	4	19
UAB	-	-	-
UTEP	24.0	23	24
Mountain West
School	Avg Rk	High Rk	Rk Mode
Air Force	15.7	4	18
Boise St	12.6	2	9
Colorado St	19.5	10	24
New Mexico	-	-	-
San Diego St	17.2	13	14
TCU	12.9	1	4
UNLV	-	-	-
Wyoming	16.5	6	16
Mid-American
School	Avg Rk	High Rk	Rk Mode
Akron	-	-	-
Ball St	18.1	12	14
Bowling Green	21.4	15	20
Buffalo	-	-	-
Central Michigan	24.0	23	23, 25
Eastern Michigan	-	-	-
Kent St	19.0	19	19
Miami OH	16.0	10	16
Northern Illinois	18.4	12	12, 21
Ohio	17.3	15	17
Temple	17.9	13	17, 19, 20
Toledo	18.8	12	25
Western Michigan	-	-	-
Sun Belt
School	Avg Rk	High Rk	Rk Mode
Arkansas St
Florida Atlantic	-	-	-
Florida Intl	-	-	-
Mid Tennessee St	-	-	-
North Texas	18.0	16	16, 20
Troy	-	-	-
UL Lafayette	14.5	14	14, 15
UL Monroe	-	-	-
Western Kentucky	-	-	-
Western Athletic
School	Avg Rk	High Rk	Rk Mode
Fresno St	20.1	8	24
Hawaii	19.4	10	24
Idaho	-	-	-
Louisiana Tech	25.0	25	25
Nevada	17.2	10	19
New Mexico St	16.5	14	15
San Jose St	19.0	18	18, 19, 20
Utah St	15.7	10	10, 18, 19

¹ I didn’t include this year’s AP preseason poll in the tally, but if I did Oklahoma’s most common ranking would now be the No. 1 ranking.

As mentioned earlier Army has the best average ranking (7.1) in the weekly AP poll amongst schools currently in the FBS.  For more info checkout the lists below.

Best Average AP Weekly Ranking (Current FBS Schools)

Rk	School	Avg Rk
1	Army	7.13
2	Oklahoma	7.28
3	Nebraska	7.40
4	Notre Dame	8.11
5	Miami FL	8.49
6	Ohio St	8.52
7	Florida St	8.56
8	Alabama	8.59
9	Texas	8.61
10	USC	8.73
11	Michigan	8.87
12	Navy	9.11
13	Florida	9.68
14	Penn St	9.89
15	Tennessee	10.29

Best Average AP Weekly Ranking (Current FBS/Non-BCS Schools)

Rk	School	Avg Rk
1	Army	7.13
2	Navy	9.11
3	SMU	11.53
4	Boise St	12.55
5	TCU	12.86
6	Rice	13.30
7	Houston	13.54
8	Tulane	14.29
9	UL Lafayette	14.50
10	BYU	15.23
11	Utah St	15.67
12	Air Force	15.72
13	Marshall	15.90
14	Miami OH	16.00
15	Tulsa	16.31

Worst Average AP Weekly Ranking (Current FBS/BCS Schools)

School	Avg Rk
Connecticut	21.00
Wake Forest	18.36
Iowa St	17.73
Mississippi St	17.63
NC St	17.33
Rutgers	17.23
South Florida	16.64
South Carolina	16.57
Virginia	16.53
Boston College	15.64
Louisville	15.63
Washington St	15.50
Vanderbilt	15.38
Texas Tech	15.33
Oregon St	15.32

Below is a listing of which schools have been ranked the most in each specific ranking in the weekly AP poll.

Most Times Ranked at a Specific AP Weekly Ranking

No. 1				No. 6
Rk	School	Times		Rk	School	Times
1	Oklahoma	97		1	Nebraska	64
2	Notre Dame	95		2	Michigan	62
3	Ohio St	94		3	Texas	53
4	USC	90		4	USC	43
5	Nebraska	70		5	Ohio St	42
No. 2				No. 7
Rk	School	Times		Rk	School	Times
1	Oklahoma	97		1	Michigan	49
2	Alabama	83		2	Notre Dame	47
3	Texas	69		3	USC	46
4	Nebraska	68		4	Nebraska	44
5	Ohio St	66		5t	Penn St	43
				5t	Texas	43
No. 3				No. 8
Rk	School	Times		Rk	School	Times
1	Oklahoma	97		1	Tennessee	56
2	Michigan	64		2	Notre Dame	51
3	Nebraska	61		3	Ohio St	50
4	Alabama	59		4	Michigan	43
5	Texas	55		5	Nebraska	38
No. 4				No. 9
Rk	School	Times		Rk	School	Times
1	Michigan	79		1	Ohio St	58
2	Ohio St	60		2	Notre Dame	50
3	Alabama	59		3	Nebraska	41
4	Nebraska	54		4	Tennessee	39
5	Oklahoma	49		5	Penn St	38
No. 5				No. 10
Rk	School	Times		Rk	School	Times
1	Michigan	62		1	Penn St	43
2	Notre Dame	54		2	Tennessee	36
3t	Texas	52		3	Oklahoma	36
3t	USC	52		4t	LSU	31
5	Florida	48		4t	Michigan	31
				4t	Texas	31
No. 11				No. 16
Rk	School	Times		Rk	School	Times
1	Notre Dame	39		1	UCLA	27
2	Tennessee	36		2t	Auburn	24
3	Ohio St	33		2t	Clemson	24
4	Nebraska	32		4t	Alabama	23
5	Michigan	32		4t	LSU	23
				4t	Oklahoma	23
No. 12				No. 17
Rk	School	Times		Rk	School	Times
1	Michigan	42		1	USC	31
2	Washington	35		2	LSU	26
3	Ohio St	32		3t	Tennessee	25
4	LSU	31		3t	UCLA	25
5	Texas	30		5t	Auburn	24
				5t	Texas	24
No. 13				No. 18
Rk	School	Times		Rk	School	Times
1	LSU	33		1	Washington	26
2	Michigan	30		2	USC	25
3	Alabama	28		3	LSU	24
4	Texas	27		4	UCLA	23
5t	Georgia	26		5	Arizona St	22
5t	Tennessee	26
No. 14				No. 19
Rk	School	Times		Rk	School	Times
1	Michigan	34		1	North Carolina	25
2	UCLA	32		2t	Florida	24
3	LSU	30		2t	UCLA	24
4	Georgia	28		4t	BYU	22
5	Ohio St	27		4t	Georgia	22
				4t	Missouri	22
				4t	Penn St	22
No. 15				No. 20
Rk	School	Times		Rk	School	Times
1	Alabama	28		1	Michigan	26
2	Clemson	27		2	Florida	24
3	UCLA	26		3t	Auburn	21
4	Michigan	23		3t	Oklahoma	21
5t	Tennessee	22		3t	Penn St	21
5t	USC	22		3t	USC	21
No. 21
Rk	School	Times
1	Wisconsin	13
2t	Ohio St	12
2t	Texas A&M	12
4	BYU	11
5t	Alabama	10
5t	Virginia Tech	10
No. 22
Rk	School	Times
1	Texas A&M	15
2	Michigan St	12
3	Virginia Tech	11
4t	Auburn	10
4t	Washington	10
No. 23
Rk	School	Times
1t	Texas A&M	12
1t	Virginia	12
3	Georgia	10
4t	Georgia Tech	9
4t	Virginia Tech	9
No. 24
Rk	School	Times
1t	Clemson	12
1t	Wisconsin	12
3	Michigan St	10
4t	Colorado St	9
4t	Georgia Tech	9
No. 25
Rk	School	Times
1t	Boston College	12
1t	BYU	12
1t	Michigan St	12
4	Clemson	10
5t	Arizona St	9
5t	Southern Miss	9

Michigan has been ranked the most at six different ranking spots (No. 4, 5, 7, 12, 14, 20); the most by any school.  Michigan also places in the top five of 13 different ranking spots; the most by any school.

The Big Ten has the best average ranking (10.6) in the weekly AP poll amongst current FBS conferences.  For more info checkout the list below.

Breakdown of AP Poll Rankings by Conferences

Note: The tally below reflects the conference’s actual AP poll rankings.  Meaning Oklahoma’s rankings in the AP poll when they were a school from the Big Eight conference, weren’t counted as Big 12 AP poll rankings.

Legend: Avg Rk (Average rank the conference has received in the weekly AP poll), High Rk (Highest rank the conference has attained in the weekly AP poll), Last (Last time the conference attained its highest rank), Rk Mode (Most common ranking(s) received by the conference in the weekly AP poll)

Conference	Avg Rk	High Rk	Last	Rk Mode
Atlantic Coast	13.6	1	2000: Florida St	18
Big 12	11.8	1	2008: Texas ¹	2
Big East	13.3	1	2002: Miami FL	1
Big Ten	10.6	1	2010: Ohio St	4
Conference USA	19.1	6	2004: Louisville	25
Independents	10.4	1	1993: Notre Dame	1
Mid-American	17.8	10	2003: Miami OH	20
Mountain West	15.3	2	2010: TCU	15, 20
Pac-12	11.9	1	2010: Oregon	16
Southeastern	10.8	1	2010: Auburn	7
Western Athletic	15.2	1	1984: BYU	19
Big Eight	9.0	1	1995: Nebraska	2
Southwest	10.8	1	1995: Texas A&M	10

¹ With this year’s preseason poll, Oklahoma is the last school from the Big 12 to attain a No. 1 ranking.

Now a member of the ACC, Miami FL is the only school from the Big East to attain a No. 1 ranking in the AP weekly poll.

The last ACC school not named Florida State to attain a No. 1 ranking in the AP weekly poll, was Virginia in 1990.

Schools from the SEC have been ranked No. 1 in the AP weekly poll in every season since 2006.  In every season from 1956 to 1962 schools from the SEC were ranked No. 1 in the AP weekly poll.  It’s the most consecutive seasons (7) one conference had schools ranked No. 1 in the AP weekly poll.

Additional Information

The following schools have held every ranking spot (1-25) in the weekly AP poll.

Alabama	Michigan	Pittsburgh
Auburn	Michigan St	Purdue
Arkansas	Minnesota	USC
California	Mississippi	Syracuse
Clemson	Missouri	Tennessee
Colorado	Nebraska	Texas
Florida	Northwestern	Texas A&M
Florida St	Notre Dame	TCU
Georgia	Ohio St	UCLA
Iowa	Oklahoma	Washington
Maryland	Oregon	Wisconsin
Miami FL	Penn St

Reference: College Football at Sports-Reference.com, College Poll Archive, College Football Data Warehouse