The Top 100 College Football Programs: All-Time Final AP Poll

It goes without saying that when Nick Saban left coaching, the University of Alabama was going to take a hit in terms of its college football status.

Hey, it's still Alabama, with all the history and the most national titles, but coming off the greatest dynasty the sport had ever seen there's just no way for the Crimson Tide to maintain that kind of consistent success at the same level. Factor in NIL and the transfer portal, and Saban himself may not have been able to do it (which was part of the reason why he stepped down).

In terms of barometers, there's already one that reflects the change when coupled with Ohio State winning the national championship last season, the All-Time Associated Press Poll. Following its bowl loss, four-loss Alabama came in at No. 17 for its lowest final ranking since Saban's first season in 2007. Not only did the Crimson Tide famously be in the top spot, No. 1, at some point of every season between 2008 and 2002 (it "only" got to No. 3 in 2023), but it never finished out of the top 10 in the final poll for 16 straight seasons.

Thats' right up there with Bobby Bowden's amazing run, with Florida State finishing in the top five 14 straight seasons from 1987-2000. However, the Seminoles only won two national titles during that time period. Things also caught up to FSU as well, as it followed with five seasons finishing in the AP Top 25, but all below No. 10, and three of Bowden's final four seasons it finished unranked.

Even with all that, Florida State is not in the top 10 of the All-Time Associated Press Poll, either.

The unofficial rankings were originally compiled and organized by Charles Woodroof, former SEC assistant director of media relations, and was a regular part of the annual SEC football media guide. The league has stopped keeping track, but we've made it a regular staple here on BamaCentral and Alabama Crimson Tide On SI.

It includes the same points structure as the regular rankings, and features the final poll of every season since its creation in 1936. Specifically, a first-place vote is worth 25 points, second 24 points, and all the way down to one point for No. 25, although the majority of years there were fewer than 25 teams listed.

From 1936 to 1961 the wire service ranked 20 teams. From 1962 to 1967 only 10. It went back to 20 from 1968 to 1988 before expanding to 25 teams in 1989. Consequently, the all-time poll is weighted a bit toward the most recent results.

When Saban took over at Alabama, the Crimson Tide was fifth on the all-time list, with Oklahoma at No. 1. It took a lot of his time in Tuscaloosa to move up to the top spot. This year the program slipped a spot, but it would take a lot for it to fall out of the top three, never mind fifth, where there's a pretty large gap down to No. 6.

Here's the top 100 through the 2024 season:

Rank	Team	Points	Top 20	Top 10	Top 5	1st	2nd
1	Ohio State	1,034	63	44	30	6	8
2	Alabama	1,030	62	49	31	13	5
3	Oklahoma	981.5	60	45	33	6	4
4	Notre Dame	901.5	60	40	26	8	6
5	Michigan	892	62	41	18	3	2
6	Texas	699	46	29	12	3	2
7	USC	691	53	28	19	5	5
8	Nebraska	638	43	30	13	4	2
9	Penn State	637	46	29	15	2	3
10	Georgia	633	40	28	15	3	3
11	Tennessee	608	43	25	13	2	4
12	LSU	597	44	23	10	3	3
13	Florida State	578	32	20	17	3	2
14	Florida	501	31	19	11	3	1
15	Auburn	479	36	19	9	2	2
16	Miami (Fla.)	478	31	15	10	5	4
17	Clemson	463	34	14	8	3	3
18	Michigan State	406.5	28	18	9	1	4
19	UCLA	383	32	17	9	0	1
20	Washington	348	25	13	7	0	3
21	Arkansas	333	28	14	4	0	1
22	Texas A&M	331.5	27	13	4	1	0
23	Ole Miss	329.5	26	13	4	0	2
24	Wisconsin	328	22	14	3	0	1
25	Oregon	312.5	18	12	7	0	3
26	Iowa	303	24	14	3	0	1
27	TCU	295	18	12	4	1	2
28	Georgia Tech	262.5	22	11	5	0	2
29	Stanford	257	20	10	4	0	1
30	Pittsburgh	235	19	10	6	2	1
31	Colorado	228	20	8	5	1	0
32	Missouri	212.5	18	9	3	0	0
33	Virginia Tech	212	15	7	1	0	1
34	Arizona State	205.5	17	8	3	0	1
35	Kansas State	196	13	6	0	0	0
36	Minnesota	191	17	10	5	4	0
37	Oklahoma State	190	17	4	2	0	0
38	Army	186	15	8	6	2	2
39	BYU	178	15	3	2	1	0
40	North Carolina	174	18	8	1	0	0
(tie)	Boise State	174	11	5	2	0	0
42	Baylor	173.5	17	3	1	0	0
43	Maryland	167.5	17	5	3	1	0
(tie)	Syracuse	167.5	14	5	2	1	0
45	Navy	165.5	14	8	7	0	1
46	California	163	12	6	4	0	1
(tie)	West Virginia	163	16	6	2	0	0
48	Houston	159.5	16	7	2	0	0
49	Utah	152	11	4	2	0	1
50	Illinois	147	12	6	3	0	0
51	Northwestern	141	11	6	0	0	0
52	Purdue	133.5	15	5	1	0	0
53	Duke	133	16	5	2	0	1
54	SMU	131	12	6	3	0	1
55	Boston College	119.5	10	4	2	0	0
56	Washington State	114	10	5	0	0	0
57	South Carolina	113	9	3	1	0	0
58	Louisville	108	8	2	0	0	0
59	Oregon State	104	8	3	1	0	0
60	Mississippi State	92.5	12	1	0	0	0
61	Texas Tech	84	8	0	0	0	0
(tie)	Cincinnati	84	5	3	1	0	0
(tie)	N.C. State	84	11	0	0	0	0
64	Kansas	79	6	3	0	0	0
65	Kentucky	78	10	2	0	0	0
66	Arizona	73	8	2	1	0	0
67	Indiana	71	7	3	2	0	0
68	Tulane	67.5	8	3	1	0	0
69	Rice	66	8	4	1	0	0
70	Pennsylvania	60	7	2	0	0	0
71	Air Force	59	5	2	0	0	0
72	Central Florida	58	3	2	0	0	0
(tie)	Fordham	58	6	2	1	0	0
74	Virginia	56	6	0	0	0	0
75	Santa Clara	55	6	2	0	0	0
76	Tulsa	49	6	1	1	0	0
77	Miami (Ohio)	48	5	2	0	0	0
78	Cornell	43	5	1	1	0	0
79	Dartmouth	35	5	1	0	0	0
(tie)	Princeton	35	4	2	0	0	0
81	Iowa Pre-Flight	34	2	2	1	0	1
(tie)	Yale	34	4	0	0	0	0
83	Wyoming	33	3	1	0	0	0
84	Duquesne	31	3	2	0	0	0
(tie)	Colorado State	31	3	0	0	0	0
(tie)	Iowa State	31	3	1	0	0	0
87	Utah State	27	1	1	0	0	0
88	Holy Cross	26.5	5	1	0	0	0
89	Villanova	26	3	1	0	0	0
90	Rutgers	25	4	0	0	0	0
(tie)	Southern Miss	25	3	0	0	0	0
92	Louisiana	23	3	0	0	0	0
(tie)	Wake Forest	22	4	0	0	0	0
94	March Field	22	2	2	0	0	0
(tie)	Marshall	21	1	1	0	0	0
96	Brainbridge NTS	20	2	1	1	0	0
97	Great Lakes	19	2	1	0	0	0
98	Randolph Field	18	1	1	1	0	0
(tie)	William & Mary	18	3	0	0	0	0
(tie)	East Carolina	18	2	1	0	0	0
(tie)	Toledo	18	2	0	0	0	0