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 2000s according to a CFN formula using all the AP’s final rankings.
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Texas came up with a historic national championship win over USC in 2005, and that was just enough – along with lots and lots of other great seasons under Mack Brown – to become the program of the 2000s.
USC had the best run for a stretch – most notably taking the 2003 AP national championship even though LSU won the BCS title – and Oklahoma was fantastic, but the Longhorns ended up on top.
Taking all the AP final rankings, CFN devised a scoring system giving every AP national champion 25 points, the No. 2 team 24, No. 3 23, and so on down to the bottom.
2000 AP National Champions
2000 Oklahoma
2001 Miami
2002 Ohio State
2003 USC
2004 USC
2005 Texas
2006 Florida
2007 LSU
2008 Florida
2009 Alabama
2000s AP Rankings Greatest Teams
These rankings are created according to the CFN scoring system – this isn’t the official AP ranking of its all-time greatest teams.
1 | Texas | 190 |
2 | Oklahoma | 170 |
3 | USC | 168 |
4 | Ohio State | 158 |
5 | Florida | 141 |
6 | LSU | 134 |
7 | Georgia | 127 |
8 | Miami | 125 |
9 | Virginia Tech | 122 |
10 | Michigan | 96 |
11 | Boise State | 93 |
12 | Oregon | 90 |
13 | Auburn | 84 |
14 | Iowa | 79 |
15 | Alabama | 78 |
16 | Florida State | 71 |
17 | Penn State | 70 |
18 | TCU | 67 |
19 | West Virginia | 62 |
20 | Tennessee | 61 |
21 | Utah | 59 |
22 | Nebraska | 57 |
23 | Louisville | 56 |
24 | Wisconsin | 54 |
25 | Washington State | 49 |
OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES | ||
BYU | 48 | |
Kansas State | 48 | |
Notre Dame | 46 | |
Boston College | 39 | |
Maryland | 37 | |
Mississippi | 37 | |
Texas Tech | 37 | |
Cincinnati | 36 | |
Oregon State | 36 | |
California | 30 | |
Washington | 30 | |
Missouri | 29 | |
Georgia Tech | 28 | |
Clemson | 26 | |
Colorado | 23 | |
Purdue | 21 | |
Illinois | 20 | |
South Carolina | 20 | |
Kansas | 19 | |
Pittsburgh | 18 | |
Arizona State | 17 | |
Miami Univ. | 16 | |
N. C. State | 14 | |
Rutgers | 14 | |
Colorado State | 12 | |
Syracuse | 12 | |
Arkansas | 11 | |
Oklahoma State | 10 | |
Stanford | 10 | |
UCLA | 10 | |
Wake Forest | 8 | |
Hawaii | 7 | |
Virginia | 7 | |
Fresno State | 4 | |
Bowling Green | 3 | |
Central Michigan | 3 | |
Toledo | 3 | |
Marshall | 2 | |
Michigan State | 2 | |
Mississippi State | 2 | |
Navy | 2 | |
Iowa State | 1 |