Greatest Teams of the 1950s - The AP Rankings

The AP poll is has been the most consistent ranking system over the long history of college football. Going by the final rankings, what programs come out best? Here are the top programs of the late 1950s according to the AP polls.

Decade Rankings - 1950s

The AP Rankings 
 
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By the AP Rankings - The Greatest Programs Ever
- 2012 AP Preseason Poll | Top Teams of All-time
- Top Teams of the 1930s | Top Teams of the 1940s
- Top Teams of the 1950s | Top Teams of the 1960s
- Top Teams of the 1970s | Top Teams of the 1980s
- Top Teams of the 1990s | Top Teams of the 2000s 
- Top Teams of the 2010s

The AP rankings might now be irrelevant since they don't have anything to do with determining a national champion anymore, but they're still great to use when analyzing college football on a historical scale.

Around since 1936, the AP college football poll has been through World War II, has changed and adapted with the times, and has often looked to make a statement when needed - like in 2003 by naming USC the national champion, even though LSU took home the BCS title..

Since the AP poll is the only consistent ranking system from 1936 through today, CFN came up with a scoring system to compare and contrast how the programs finished over the decades. Every time a team finished No. 1 in the final poll, it got 25 points. The No. 2 team got 24 points, No. 3 got 23 points, and so on.  Through the decades, the AP ranked the top ten teams for a few years before going back to the top 20 rankings, and eventually, the it went  to the top 25 system it's at now.

According to the scoring system, consistent production isn't necessarily rewarded. For example, if a team finished 17th for four straight years, it would get a total of 36 points (No. 17 gets 9 points). A team that finished the beginning of the decade No. 2 (24 points) and the end of the decade ranked tenth (16 points), but wasn't ranked any year in between, would get a total 40 points.

So with all of that in mind ...

1950 AP National Champions: 1950 Oklahoma - 1951 Tennessee - 1952 Michigan State - 1953 Maryland - 1954 Ohio State - 1955 Oklahoma - 1956 Oklahoma - 1957 Auburn - 1958 LSU - 1959 Syracuse

Rank	Team	Points
1	Oklahoma	212
2	Michigan State	154
3	Notre Dame	120
T4	Ohio State	120
T4	Wisconsin	107
6	Georgia Tech	104
T7	Maryland	102
T7	Tennessee	102
9	UCLA	97
10	Mississippi	94
11	Army	92
12	Texas	91
13	Auburn	87
14	TCU	82
15	Syracuse	72
16	Navy	69
T17	Illinois	67
T17	Michigan	67
19	Iowa	64
20	USC	63
T21	Clemson	58
T21	Miami, Fla.	58
23	Alabama	56
24	LSU	48
T25	Texas A&M	47
T25	Princeton	47
	others receiving votes
	Kentucky	46
	California	45
	Baylor	40
	Duke	40
	Florida	39
	West Virginia	37
	Stanford	36
	Pittsburgh	34
	Arkansas	33
	Washington	33
	Rice	27
	Wyoming	24
	Georgia	21
	Purdue	21
	Tulsa	21
	Air Force	20
	Penn State	20
	Oregon State	16
	Arizona State	14
	Minnesota	14
	Texas Tech	14
	Virginia	13
	Mississippi St	12
	San Francisco	12
	NC State	11
	South Carolina	11
	Virginia Tech	10
	Boston Univ.	10
	George Washington	9
	Missouri	8
	SMU	8
	Washington St	8
	Washington & Lee	8
	Holy Cross	7
	Oklahoma St	7
	Colorado	6
	Rutgers	6
	Tulane	6
	VMI	6

By the AP Rankings - The Greatest Programs Ever
- 2012 AP Preseason Poll | Top Teams of All-time
- Top Teams of the 1930s | Top Teams of the 1940s
- Top Teams of the 1950s | Top Teams of the 1960s
- Top Teams of the 1970s | Top Teams of the 1980s
- Top Teams of the 1990s | Top Teams of the 2000s 
- Top Teams of the 2010s