CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Four => Big Ten => Topic started by: medinabuckeye1 on February 20, 2026, 02:15:43 PM
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All data from College Poll Archive (https://www.collegepollarchive.com/football/index.cfm).
I've broken the 90 years of AP Polls into six 15 year segments and I will continue making a post like this roughly each week (I'm a little late this week), one for each segment. Here are the previous posts:
- 1936-1950 (https://www.cfb51.com/big-ten/90-years-of-ap-polls-the-first-15-1936-1950/)
- 1951-1965 (https://www.cfb51.com/big-ten/90-years-of-ap-polls-the-second-15-1951-1965/)
- 1966-1980 (https://www.cfb51.com/big-ten/90-years-of-ap-polls-the-third-15-1966-1980/)
Each post lists the top-25 programs from that 15 years as measured by total appearances, top-10 appearances, and top-5 appearances. For this week I'm displaying the top-25 from 1981-1995 along with all of the teams that are top-25 for the first 60 years (1936-1995) and for the entire 90 years (1936-2025). Starting with AP Poll Appearances:
(https://i.imgur.com/nPrgerd.png)
AP Top-10 Appearances:
(https://i.imgur.com/4ZE46e2.png)
AP Top-5 Appearances:
(https://i.imgur.com/aFGOvmk.png)
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For this week I'm displaying the top-25 from 1981-1995 along with all of the teams that are top-25 for the first 60 years (1936-1995) and for the entire 90 years (1936-2025).
perfect - 1981 was my freshman year at Nebraska - I switched from a Buckeye fan to a Husker.
I obviously had a GREAT 15 season run capped off by the 94 & 95 seasons. I attended both bowl games following those seasons, watching the Huskers win MNC in the orange vs the Canes, and in the Fiesta vs Spurrier's gators.
The Huskers have had a rough stretch the past 25 seasons, but I can die a happy man because of the 20 seasons starting in 1981.
(https://i.imgur.com/yVebq8l.jpeg)
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perfect - 1981 was my freshman year at Nebraska - I switched from a Buckeye fan to a Husker.
Bandwagoner.
Conversely, this is one of the absolute worst 15 years for Texas. 1984-1994 were just terrible, with only the 1990 season being a positive outlier. And even that one ended with a humiliating record-setting loss to Miami in the 1991 Cotton Bowl.
Dark times indeed.
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perfect - 1981 was my freshman year at Nebraska - I switched from a Buckeye fan to a Husker.
The reverse is true for the team you switched from. 1981-1995 was by far the worst stretch for the Buckeyes:
(https://i.imgur.com/Yv3jWoA.png)
I know that @betarhoalphadelta (https://www.cfb51.com/index.php?action=profile;u=19) will point this out so I'll do it preemptively: I fully realize that your "worst" 15 year stretch being a time when you were ranked almost 3/4 of the time, top-10 almost 1/3 of the time, and top-5 more than 10% of the time is a #helmetschoolproblem. I'm a dozen or so years younger so I was only 6 in 1981 and this is basically why I was more of a Browns/NFL fan when growing up than a Buckeyes/CFB fan. From about 1981 to about 1992 the Browns were pretty good (VERY good by Browns' standards) and the Buckeyes were pretty mediocre (VERY bad by Buckeyes' standards).
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Conversely, this is one of the absolute worst 15 years for Texas. 1984-1994 were just terrible, with only the 1990 season being a positive outlier. And even that one ended with a humiliating record-setting loss to Miami in the 1991 Cotton Bowl.
Dark times indeed.
(https://i.imgur.com/9TO7RnX.png)
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These have been the best years for UGA….ever.
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Jekyll and Hyde for the Badgers. Mostly Hyde. The 80s were about the worst era for the Badgers. But that brought us Barry.