Greatest Teams of the 2010s - 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 2010s according to the AP polls.

Decade Rankings - 2010s

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 ...

2010 AP National Champions: 2010 Auburn - 2011 Alabama

1	Oregon	45
2	LSU	42
T3	Alabama	41
T3	Stanford	41
T5	Oklahoma State	36
T5	TCU	36
T7	Boise State	35
T7	Wisconsin	35
9	Oklahoma	30
10	Michigan State	27
11	Auburn	25
T12	Ohio State	21
T12	South Carolina	21
14	USC	20
T15	Nevada	15
T15	Virginia Tech	15
17	Michigan	14
18	Baylor	13
19	Florida State	12
T20	Kansas State	11
T20	Mississippi State	11
22	West Virginia	9
T23	Houston	8
T23	Missouri	8
T23	Nebraska	8
	OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
	Georgia	7
	Texas A&M	7
	Southern Miss	6
	UCF	5
	Clemson	4
	Arkansas	3
	Maryland	3
	Tulsa	2
	Cincinnati	1
	N. C. State	1

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