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An all-time first for venerable AP Top 25

Sports

August 3rd, 2016 by Ric Hanson

UNDATED (AP) – The Associated Press has been ranking the best teams in college football for the last 80 seasons. For the first time since that first poll in 1936, the AP has compiled an all-time Top 100 based on a formula that counts poll appearances (one point) to mark consistency, No. 1 rankings (one bonus point) to acknowledge elite programs, and a bonus for AP championships won (10 points).

The top five teams using those criteria: Ohio State, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Alabama and Southern California. Nebraska was sixth, Iowa 25th, Missouri No. 35, Kansas State No. 44, Kansas 63rd and Iowa State tied with Fordham at 83rd on the all-time list.

Before the AP started asking its member sports writers and editors to vote for the top teams, then-sports editor Alan J. Gould in 1935 went about ranking them himself. In the final rankings he named Minnesota, Princeton and TCU co-No. 1s, and Gophers fans, as the story goes, hanged Gould in effigy. Gould, who died in 1993, recalled in 1985 that it created a “storm,” especially in the Big Ten. He quickly realized it was best to spread the blame — or responsibility — for the rankings around.