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Topic: AP Poll trivia and minutiae heading into 2026

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FearlessF

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Re: AP Poll trivia and minutiae heading into 2026
« Reply #28 on: September 13, 2026, 10:36:31 AM »
polls after the 2nd week are as important as the preseason poll
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Cincydawg

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Re: AP Poll trivia and minutiae heading into 2026
« Reply #29 on: September 13, 2026, 02:35:11 PM »
So they basically switched Texas and OSU, but dropped OSU to 6 instead of 4.  

I don't really agree and don't really care.

medinabuckeye1

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Re: AP Poll trivia and minutiae heading into 2026
« Reply #30 on: Today at 11:55:37 AM »
So update:
The top-5 appearances is the only one in play so I'll focus on that first.  Most of the current top-5 are not teams that are all that high on the all-time list, the current top-5:

  • Texas - 7th all-time with 294 appearances
  • Georgia - 10th all-time with 217
  • Notre Dame - 4th all-time with 327
  • Ole Miss - 25th all-time with 69
  • Indiana - 48th all-time with 22 (Indiana is tied for 5th from 2024-2026 and 15 of their 22 top-5 appearances have been in that time)
Looked at the other way around, here are the all-time most frequent top-5 teams and where they are currently ranked:
  • 467 Alabama, 8
  • 466 Ohio State, 7
  • 432 Oklahoma, nr
  • 327 Notre Dame, 3
  • 325 Michigan, 18
  • 296 Nebraska, nr
  • 294 Texas, 1
  • 286 USC, 12
  • 257 Florida State, nr
  • 217 Georgia, 2
  • 215 Miami, FL 6
  • 188 Florida, 21
  • 187 Penn State, 
  • 140 LSU, 10
  • 130 Auburn, nr

Notre Dame is pulling away from #5 Michigan but they are not a threat to catch Oklahoma anytime soon.  

Texas is pulling away from USC and gaining on Nebraska but not a threat to catch Michigan anytime soon.  

Georgia is pulling away from Miami but not a threat to catch FSU anytime soon.  

The race for #1 all-time is interesting (at least to me).  If you look at the votes in the AP Poll, there is a humongous gap between #5 Ohio State and #6 Alabama so if one of the top-5 teams takes a loss Ohio State will probably ascend to the top-5 but realistically if both teams keep winning undefeated Alabama will eventually pass 1-loss Ohio State so time is on the side of the Tide.  Also, as @rolltidefan stated upthread, Alabama doesn't really have the schedule to jump Ohio State until probably the UGA game on October 10.  Meanwhile, Ohio State probably can't jump any of the undefeated teams so the Buckeyes need to keep winning and wait for other teams to lose.  

Texas is 10th all-time with 52 appearances at #1 and if they stay there for two more weeks they'll catch #9 Georgia.  

There is no change nor even potential change anywhere close to the top in all-time appearances in the top-10.  

Of the 13 all-time most frequently ranked teams only #3 Oklahoma (925) and #8 Nebraska (733) are currently unranked.  The Sooners were ranked last week and are still getting votes while the Cornhuskers are 3-0 with two very winnable games coming up so both of them could get ranked within a week or two.  

Of interest to @rolltidefan  and @FearlessF (from opposite sides), Alabama's current streak of weeks appearing in the poll is now up to 299 (starting with the 2008 Preseason Poll).  That is good for 2nd all time and they are now just 49 weeks away from catching the all-time leader of 348 straight appearances by Nebraska from October 12, 1981 through September 22, 2002.  

FearlessF

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Re: AP Poll trivia and minutiae heading into 2026
« Reply #31 on: Today at 11:57:51 AM »
it sucks to suck
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medinabuckeye1

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Re: AP Poll trivia and minutiae heading into 2026
« Reply #32 on: Today at 12:32:48 PM »
it sucks to suck
Well hold on to the memory of being ranked almost continuously for about 50 years.  Nebraska's three longest appearance streaks were:
  • 348 1981-2002 1st all-time
  • 112 1969-1977 16th all-time
  • 62 1977-1981 61st all-time


Those three were VERY close to being linked into one even bigger streak.  Timeline:

1969:
Nebraska started out unranked and lost their opener at home to #5 USC.  Then they beat aTm and Minnesota (both bad teams in 1969) to move to 2-1 and sneak into the rankings at #20 (there were only 20 then) on October 6, 1969.  Then they lost 17-7 at #7 Mizzou and fell back out.  Then they beat Kansas, OkSU, and #18 Colorado and moved into the rankings at #20 on November 3, 1969.  They stayed ranked until 1977.  

1977:
Nebraska was coming off of a 9-3-1 campaign that saw them finish #9 and started #15 but they lost their opener at home to a bad Washington State team and fell out of the September 12, 1977 Poll.  I think they were looking ahead because the next week they beat #4 Alabama and jumped back in at #14.  They were only out for one week in 1977 and remained ranked until falling out in 1981.  

1981:
Nebraska was coming off of a 10-2 campaign that saw them finish #7 and started #6.  They dropped to #7 without playing then lost 10-7 to Iowa in Iowa City.  In retrospect it wasn't a bad loss as Iowa won the Big Ten that year and finished #18 but that was Hayden Fry's third year and he hadn't done much the first two.  In fact, Iowa hadn't finished above .500 since 1961.  Anyway, the Iowa loss didn't drop the Cornhuskers out but when they lost at home to Penn State on September 26 they fell to 1-2 (win over FSU) and out of the poll.  They were out for two weeks and then a 59-0 win over Colorado got them back in at #19 on October 12, 1981 and they were not absent from the poll again until late September of 2002.  

From 1970-2001 Nebraska appeared in 509 of 512 polls (99.4%).  That was 35 more than #2 Michigan (474/512 or 92.6%), 76 better than #3 Ohio State (423/512 or 82.6%), and nearly 100 better than #4 Penn State (411/512 or 80.3%).  

FearlessF

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Re: AP Poll trivia and minutiae heading into 2026
« Reply #33 on: Today at 12:42:52 PM »
Well hold on to the memory of being ranked almost continuously for about 50 years.  Nebraska's three longest appearance streaks were:
  • 348 1981-2002 1st all-time
  • 112 1969-1977 16th all-time
  • 62 1977-1981 61st all-time


1981:
Nebraska was coming off of a 10-2 campaign that saw them finish #7 and started #6.  They dropped to #7 without playing then lost 10-7 to Iowa in Iowa City.  In retrospect it wasn't a bad loss as Iowa won the Big Ten that year and finished #18 but that was Hayden Fry's third year and he hadn't done much the first two.  In fact, Iowa hadn't finished above .500 since 1961.  Anyway, the Iowa loss didn't drop the Cornhuskers out but when they lost at home to Penn State on September 26 they fell to 1-2 (win over FSU) and out of the poll.  They were out for two weeks and then a 59-0 win over Colorado got them back in at #19 on October 12, 1981 and they were not absent from the poll again until late September of 2002. 

1981 was my freshman year at UNL
Frickin Hawkeyes - I think Osborne could have stayed ranked w/o that bad lookin loss to start the season
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MikeDeTiger

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Re: AP Poll trivia and minutiae heading into 2026
« Reply #34 on: Today at 01:09:19 PM »
Well hold on to the memory of being ranked almost continuously for about 50 years.  Nebraska's three longest appearance streaks were:
  • 348 1981-2002 1st all-time
  • 112 1969-1977 16th all-time
  • 62 1977-1981 61st all-time


Those three were VERY close to being linked into one even bigger streak.  Timeline:

So Nebraska was unranked in only three polls from 1969 to 2002?

Stout.

medinabuckeye1

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Re: AP Poll trivia and minutiae heading into 2026
« Reply #35 on: Today at 01:14:22 PM »
1981 was my freshman year at UNL
Frickin Hawkeyes - I think Osborne could have stayed ranked w/o that bad lookin loss to start the season
Possibly.  It also didn't help that Iowa lost the next week at Iowa State which made the loss look worse.  

1981 was a strange year for the Hawkeyes.  In addition to the win over Nebraska they also beat #5 Michigan in Ann Arbor but three of their four losses were to mediocre teams:
  • ISU finished 5-5-1 and beat Iowa 23-12 in Ames
  • Minnesota finished 6-5 and beat Iowa 12-10 in Iowa City
  • Illinois finished 7-4 and beat Iowa 24-7 in Champaign.  

Iowa and Ohio State shared the Big Ten title at 6-2.  The other eight Big Ten teams all played a full round-robin but the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes did not play each other.  Behind the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes were:
  • 6-3 Michigan (beat IL but lost to tOSU, IA, and UW)
  • 6-3 Illinois (beat Iowa and UW but lost to tOSU, M, and PU)
  • 6-3 Wisconsin (beat tOSU and M but lost to IA, IL, and MSU)

Five teams finished within 1/2 a game of the Championship.  


Curiously Minnesota beat both co-champs (12-10 over Iowa in Iowa City, 35-31 over tOSU in Minneapolis) but still only managed to go 4-5 in the league.  

Iowa went to Pasadena based on the old "Longest Loser Rule" because they hadn't been since 1959 (1958 season).  Iowa got spanked 28-0 by the Huskies in the Rose Bowl and finished 8-4 and #18 while Ohio State beat unranked Navy in the Liberty Bowl and finished 9-3 and #15.  

medinabuckeye1

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Re: AP Poll trivia and minutiae heading into 2026
« Reply #36 on: Today at 01:18:50 PM »
So Nebraska was unranked in only three polls from 1969 to 2002?

Stout.
It is.  From November 3, 1969 through September 22, 2002 the only polls they were not ranked in were:
  • September 12, 1977 at 0-1 after a home loss to a bad Washington State team (they got right back in by beating #4 Bama)
  • September 28, 1981 at 1-2 after a home win over FSU sandwiched between a road loss to Iowa and a home loss to PSU
  • October 5, 1981 at 2-2
That is it.  


medinabuckeye1

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Re: AP Poll trivia and minutiae heading into 2026
« Reply #37 on: Today at 01:31:12 PM »
Five teams finished within 1/2 a game of the Championship. 
Big Ten Standings heading into the final weekend of 1981:
  • 6-2 Michigan vs tOSU
  • 5-2 Ohio State at #7 M
  • 5-2 Iowa at MSU
  • 5-3 Illinois at NU
  • 5-3 Wisconsin at MN
  • 4-4 Minnesota vs UW
  • 4-4 Michigan State at #19 IA
  • 3-5 Purdue at IU
  • 2-6 Indiana vs PU
  • 0-8 Northwestern vs IL


Michigan controlled their own destiny as they would have won the league outright with a win over the Buckeyes.  

Ohio State controlled their own destiny for at least a share of the league title but they couldn't get to Pasadena without a win AND a loss by Iowa due to the Longest Loser Rule.  

Iowa needed a win AND an Ohio State win to get a share of the title and the Rose Bowl berth.  

All other teams were eliminated because the tOSU/M winner would be either 7-2 (M) or 6-2 (tOSU) and only Iowa could catch either of those.  

 

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