The Greatest Program Of All-Time Is ...

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 teams since 1936 according to the AP polls.

All-Time Decade Rankings

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.

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 with the No. 25 team getting one point.  Through the decades, the AP ranked the top ten teams for a few years before going back to the top 20 rankings, and eventually, 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.

One fascinating thing to note: all the club teams that played during World War II. Notice the rankings of the all-star teams like the Iowa Pre-Fight juggernaut and the Bainbridge NTS powerhouse. In the end, though, the big-name programs you'd think would rock, did. There's a reason the superpowers of today got their reputations - they won.

However, things can change in a big hurry. When we did this in 2000, Notre Dame was on top of the world by a huge margin. Over a decade later and a following down period, things have changed up a bit.

So here we go - here are the greatest college football programs since 1936 according to the AP rankings.

RANK	TEAM	POINTS
1	Oklahoma	946.5
2	Michigan	919
3	Ohio State	908
4	Alabama	874
5	Notre Dame	872.5
6	USC	757
7	Texas	750.5
8	Nebraska	701
9	Tennessee	678
10	Penn State	645
11	LSU	530
12	Auburn	517
13	Georgia	517
14	Miami	511
15	UCLA	503
16	Florida	469
17	Florida State	446
18	Arkansas	414
19	Michigan State	364
20	Texas A&M	337
21	Washington	330
22	Georgia Tech	317.5
23	Wisconsin	305
24	Pittsburgh	293
25	Iowa	291
26	Ole Miss	284.5
27	Clemson	284
28	Colorado	258
29	Army	239
30	TCU	230
31	Minnesota	229
32	Maryland	225.5
33	Arizona State	223
34	Virginia Tech	222
35	Missouri	217.5
36	Duke	210
37	Navy	207.5
38	California	207
39	North Carolina	198
40	Purdue	195.5
41	Syracuse	190.5
42	West Virginia	194
43	Stanford	186
44	BYU	180
45	Illinois	177
46	SMU	168
47	Oregon	185
48	Houston	164
49	Boston College	150
50	Kansas State	154
51	Oklahoma State	137
52	Baylor	131.5
53	Boise State	128
54	Northwestern	127
55	Oregon State	124
56	Washington State	123
57	Mississippi State	105
58	Texas Tech	104
59	Kansas	96
60	Penn	95
T61	Fordham	88
T61	Kentucky	88
T61	Rice	88
64	Santa Clara	85.5
65	NC State	85
66	Tulane	80.5
67	Tulsa	79
68	Louisville	78
69	Arizona	76
T70	Air Force	75
T70	Utah	75
72	Cornell	68
73	Nevada	66
74	Indiana	63
75	Dartmouth	60
T76	Miami, Ohio	57
T76	South Carolina	57
78	Virginia	56
79	Princeton	55
80	Yale	54
81	Holy Cross	49.8
T82	Wyoming	48
T82	Duquesne	46
84	Iowa Pre-Flight	45
85	Villanova	41
86	Rutgers	38
87	Cincinnati	37
88	William & Mary	33
T89	Colorado State	31
T89	Toledo	31
T91	Bainbridge NTS	30
T91	Great Lakes	30
93	Wake Forest	24
T94	East Carolina	23
T94	Pacific	23
T94	Randolph Field	23
97	Carnegie-Mellon	20
98	Southern Miss	19
T99	Del Monte PF	18
T99	Marshall	18
101	Utah State	16
T102	Saint Mary's (Cal.)	14
T102	Vanderbilt	14
T104	Georgetown	13
T104	Hawaii	13
106	Norman Pre-Flight	12.5
107	Columbia	12
T108	El Toro Marines	10
T108	San Diego State	10
T110	Fresno State	9
T110	Hardin-Simmons	9
T110	Iowa State	9
T110	New Mexico St	9
T110	Temple	9
T115	Colorado College	8
T115	Fort Pierce	8
T117	Delaware	7
T117	Lafayette	7
T119	2nd Air Force	6
T119	Marquette	6
T119	Ohio	6
122	UCF	5
T123	Bowling Green	3
T123	Central Michigan	3
125	Saint Mary's PF	2

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