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The Power Four => Big Ten => Topic started by: medinabuckeye1 on July 22, 2026, 12:52:05 PM
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AP Appearances, 1936-2025 (1,267 total polls):
- 1,016 Ohio State
- 943 Michigan
- 922 Oklahoma
- 907 Alabama
- 907 Notre Dame
- 830 USC
- 806 Texas
- 733 Nebraska
- 717 Penn State
- 695 Georgia
- 686 LSU
- 649 Tennessee
- 648 Florida
- 604 Auburn
- 590 Florida State
- 553 UCLA
- 552 Miami, FL
- 519 aTm
- 516 Clemson
- 482 Washington
- 432 Arkansas
- 419 Michigan State
- 416 Wisconsin
- 400 Oregon
- 368 Iowa
The top of this list is locked in for the foreseeable future. Ohio State's lead over #2 Michigan is 73 and there are typically 16 or 17 polls each year so it would take about half a decade for anything to change there. Michigan's lead over #3 is smaller at 21 but it would still take more than a year of OU being ranked AND Michigan being unranked for the Sooners to overtake the Wolverines.
Alabama and Notre Dame have been tied since Bama caught Notre Dame on October 30, 2022. The Irish were #5 in the preseason poll that year but dropped out after starting the year with back-to-back losses to #2 Ohio State and unranked Marshall. They were unranked for the rest of September and all of October but returned at #20 in the November 6, 2022 Poll. They have been ranked ever since and currently have the fifth longest active streak of being ranked:
- 295 Bama 2008-2025
- 148 Georgia 2017-2025
- 96 Ohio State 2020-2025
- 64 Oregon 2022-2025
- 56 Notre Dame 2022-2025
- 50 Ole Miss 2023-2025
- 34 Miami 2024-2025
- 29 Indiana 2024-2025
Those eight are the only streaks that extend back beyond the 2025 season.
Bama's streak is the second longest of all time behind only Nebraska's streak of 348 straight weeks of being ranked from 1981-2002. Bama needs 53 more weeks to catch Nebraska. If that occurs it will be early in the 2028 season.
Ohio State's current steak of 96 weeks is the 24th longest of all time. Ohio State also had the 11th (10th at the time) longest streak of 132 straight weeks ranked from 2012-2020. Those two streaks are separated only by the two polls during the COVID year of 2020 when Ohio State was ineligible due to the B1G not playing.
Georgia's streak of 148 weeks ranked from 2017-2025 is the 9th longest of all-time and if they remain ranked for the entire 2026 season they will move into the all-time top-5 passing OU 70-81, M 69-80, Miami 85-95, and Texas 00-10.
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Fun stuff, thanks. You know I loathe "rankings", but everything in this is factual at least, just an observation about rankings, so it's cool.
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Moving on to top-10 appearances (1,267 polls from 1936-2025):
- 735 Ohio State
- 649 Bama
- 637 Oklahoma
- 610 Notre Dame
- 568 Michigan
- 518 Nebraska
- 493 USC
- 491 Texas
- 435 Penn State
- 400 Georgia
- 388 Florida State
- 357 Florida
- 348 Tennessee
- 335 LSU
- 331 Miami, FL
- 296 Auburn
- 227 aTm
- 225 UCLA
- 220 Clemson
- 204 Oregon
- 201 Arkansas
- 194 Washington
- 189 Michigan State
- 173 Wisconsin
- 154 Mississippi
Ohio State has the top spot locked down for at least the next few years as #2 Bama is 86 appearances behind so it would take them more than five years to catch up even if they were top-10 every week and Ohio State was out of the top-10 completely every week. #3 Oklahoma is within striking distance (I'm defining that as 'could mathematically catch up within a year') of Bama as they are only down 12 appearances but that is still a pretty big deficit to overcome in a single season. After that, ND, M, and UNL are locked into 4th, 5th, and 6th respectively. Texas could catch USC this year for 7th.
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Top-5 Appearances (1,267 Polls from 1936-2025):
- 467 Bama
- 464 tOSU
- 432 Oklahoma
- 325 Michigan
- 323 Notre Dame
- 296 Nebraska
- 290 Texas
- 286 USC
- 257 Florida State
- 214 Miami, FL
- 213 Georgia
- 188 Florida
- 187 Penn State
- 140 LSU
- 130 Auburn
- 129 Tennessee
- 128 Clemson
- 110 UCLA
- 109 Michigan State
- 95 Oregon
- 90 aTm
- 85 Washington
- 75 Army
- 70 Pitt
- 68 Ole Miss
This is the first one where my Buckeyes aren't #1 but it is REALLY close. Also, on ESPN's preseason top-25 the Buckeyes are #1 and the Crimson Tide are well outside the top-5 so this will likely move to a gap of just two spots once the preseason poll comes out. Then assuming Ohio State doesn't lose or look just awful in a win over Ball State the Buckeyes should move to within one spot of the lead heading into their showdown with the Longhorns in Austin. My point is that the lead is very much in play this season.
Oklahoma is in a kind of 'no man's land' more than a year behind the top two and 107 appearances (at least 6 years) ahead of #4.
Notre Dame is in a similar situation vis-a-vis Michigan as Ohio State's situation vis-a-vis Bama. Ie, Notre Dame will probably start in the top-5 and should catch the Wolverines after a week-1 win over Wisconsin in Green Bay.
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Appearances at #1 (1,267 polls from 1936-2025 - the date after the school is their most recent appearance at #1):
- 141 Bama, 9/29/2024
- 120 Ohio State, 11/30/2025
- 101 Oklahoma, 9/18/2011
- 98 Notre Dame, 12/2/2012
- 91 Southern California, 8/18/2012
- 72 Florida State, 11/23/2014
- 70 Nebraska, 10/22/2000
- 68 Miami, FL, 12/8/2002
- 54 Georgia, 9/8/2024
- 50 Texas, 8/11/2025
- 41 Florida, 11/29/2009
- 38 LSU, 1/14/2020
- 36 Michigan, 1/9/2024
- 29 Michigan State, 10/10/1966
- 27 Army, 10/20/1958
- 25 Clemson, 11/1/2020
- 21 Penn State, 10/13/1997
- 21 Pittsburgh, 11/1/1982
- 18 Tennessee, 1/5/1999
- 18 Minnesota, 11/28/1960
- 16 Oregon, 12/8/2024
- 15 Washington, 11/3/1992
- 11 Iowa, 10/29/1985
- 9 Auburn, 1/11/2011
- 7 Colorado, 1/2/1991
- 7 UCLA, 10/25/1988
- 7 Syracuse, 10/3/1960
- 7 Texas A&M, 11/11/1957
There are some oddly large gaps at the top of this one. Ohio State at #2 is 21 weeks behind #1 Bama and 19 weeks ahead of #3 Oklahoma. That is more than a year so even if Ohio State were to go coast-to-coast this year, they still wouldn't catch Bama and even if Oklahoma were to go coast-to-coast this year they still wouldn't catch Ohio State. So as I see it:
- Bama in a class by themselves.
- Ohio State second and also in a class by themselves.
- OU/ND/USC fighting for third
- UGA/TX fighting it for sixth
- Then they are close enough to all be pretty fluid.
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You should do your own blog thing…
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(https://i.imgur.com/1paaBX2.jpeg)
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(https://i.imgur.com/tnkD74J.png)
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seems odd - accurate???
(https://i.imgur.com/xQwKJK9.jpeg)
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seems odd - accurate???
(https://i.imgur.com/xQwKJK9.jpeg)
Checks out per the site I use (https://www.collegepollarchive.com/football/ap/app_streaks_seasons.cfm?streak=final&active=no). I had a hard time finding it but same figures.
After that 5-way tie for 6th:
- 13 Oklahoma (70-82) and Michigan (38-50) are tied for 11th.
- 12 Texas (98-09), Georgia (97-08), and Florida (90-01) are tied for 13th.
- 11 Tennessee (89-99), Bama (71-81), and Notre Dame (64-74) are tied for 16th.
- 10 Bama (59-68) is 19th. This one is particularly impressive because most of those years there were only 10 teams in the poll.
- 9 Georgia (current), Notre Dame (current), Oregon (07-15), Ohio State (02-10), Oklahoma (00-08), Penn State (67-75), and Notre Dame (41-49) are tied for 20th.
Note that Bama's and Ohio State's streaks are active. Here are the active streaks:
- 18 Bama - will catch FSU (87-04) for 3rd if they finish 2026 ranked. Will catch M (85-04) for 2nd if they finish 2026 and 2027 ranked. Would have to finish ranked every year through 2040 to catch Nebraska (69-01) for 1st.
- 14 Ohio State - Will move into 6th alone if they finish 2026 ranked. Will catch USC (67-82) for 5th if they finish 2026 and 2027 ranked.
- 9 Georgia
- 9 Notre Dame
- 5 Oregon
- 4 Texas
- 3 Mississippi
- 2 BYU
- 2 Indiana
- 2 Miami, FL
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The aforementioned site that I use (https://www.collegepollarchive.com/football/ap/app_streaks_seasons.cfm?streak=any&active=no) tracks both what @FearlessF (https://www.cfb51.com/index.php?action=profile;u=10) just posted (streaks of seasons finishing ranked) and also streaks of seasons ranked in at least one poll. Here is that list (active streaks in bold):
- 59 Ohio State 68-26
- 45 Bama 59-03
- 43 Notre Dame 64-06
- 42 Florida State 77-18
- 41 Nebraska 63-03
- 40 Michigan 68-07
- 39 USC 62-00
- 34 Florida 80-13
- 34 Penn State 67-00
- 31 UCLA 65-95
- 30 Georgia 98-26
- 30 Oklahoma 66-95
- 29 Oregon 98-26
- 28 Oklahoma 99-26
- 27 LSU 00-26
- 27 Wisconsin 97-23
- 27 Miami, FL 80-06
- 27 Washington 77-03
- 26 Notre Dame 36-61
- 25 USC 02-26
- 24 Tennessee 85-08
- 22 VaTech 93-14
- 22 Michigan State 48-69
- 21 Michigan 38-58
- 20 Bama 07-26
- 20 Texas 94-13
- 19 BoiseSt 02-20
- 19 Texas 67-85
- 18 aTm 85-02
- 18 Ohio State 48-65
- 17 OkSU 08-24
- 17 ASU 68-84
- 16 Notre Dame 11-26
- 16 Colorado 88-03
- 16 GaTech 51-66
- 16 Oklahoma 45-60
- 15 Clemson 11-25
- 15 TCU 05-19
- 15 Georgia 75-89
- 15 Dook 43-57
- 15 Penn 39-53
- 13 Utah 14-26
- 13 Mississippi 52-64
- 12 Michigan 15-26
- 12 Auburn 00-11
- 12 KSU 93-04
- 12 Clemson 86-97
- 12 Pittsburgh 73-84
- 11 Penn State 16-26
- 11 Texas 16-26
- 11 Stanford 09-19
- 11 WVU 02-12
- 11 Tennessee 65-75
- 11 Ohio State 36-46
FWIW, I'm going to promote my alma mater: We are in the 91st year of AP Polls. Ohio State has been ranked in all but three of those years:
- Ohio State was ranked in each of the first 11 years (36-46).
- Ohio State was NOT ranked at any point during 1947.
- Ohio State was ranked 18 straight years (48-65).
- Ohio State was NOT ranked at any point during 1966 and 1967 (this was during the 10-team era).
- Ohio State has been ranked in each of the last 59 years (68-26).
Final note on this:
Clemson's streak is the only one in jeopardy. The Tigers were ranked at least once in each of the 15 years from 2011-2025 but they are NOT ranked in the preseason poll. They are "26th" in that they are first among "others receiving votes" and only 5 points behind #5 Mizzou but they open their season tomorrow night as a 10.5 point underdog in Baton Rouge against #11 LSU.
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how did I know you would find something to post that had tOSU at #1 and UNL @ #5???
;)
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(https://i.imgur.com/tnkD74J.png)
On this subject . . .
Eight B1G teams are currently ranked:
- 1 Ohio State
- 2 Oregon
- 6 Indiana
- 14 USC
- 16 Michigan
- 17 Washington
- 18 Penn State
- 22 Iowa
For the other (checks notes) 10, here is how many polls have been released since they were last ranked:
- 9 Illinois #23 on 10/19/25 then lost at UDub and fell out.
- 10 Nebraska #25 on 10/12/25 then lost at MN and fell out.
- 41 UCLA #20 on 10/29/23 then lost at Zona and fell out.
- 49 Wisconsin #19 on 9/5/23 then lost at WSU and fell out.
- 62 Minnesota #21 on 9/25/22 then lost at home to PU and fell out.
- 64 Michigan State #11 on 9/11/22 then lost at WDub and fell out.
- 75 Purdue #25 on 10/17/21 then lost at home to UW and fell out.
- 83 Northwestern #10 in the 2020 final poll.
- 114 Maryland #21 on 9/8/19 (September Maryland!) then lost at Temple and fell out.
- 218 Rutgers #21 on 11/18/2012 then lost at Pitt and fell out.
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On this subject . . .
Eight B1G teams are currently ranked:
- 1 Ohio State
- 2 Oregon
- 6 Indiana
- 14 USC
- 16 Michigan
- 17 Washington
- 18 Penn State
- 22 Iowa
For the other (checks notes) 10, here is how many polls have been released since they were last ranked:
- 9 Illinois #23 on 10/19/25 then lost at UDub and fell out.
- 10 Nebraska #25 on 10/12/25 then lost at MN and fell out.
- 41 UCLA #20 on 10/29/23 then lost at Zona and fell out.
- 49 Wisconsin #19 on 9/5/23 then lost at WSU and fell out.
- 62 Minnesota #21 on 9/25/22 then lost at home to PU and fell out.
- 64 Michigan State #11 on 9/11/22 then lost at WDub and fell out.
- 75 Purdue #25 on 10/17/21 then lost at home to UW and fell out.
- 83 Northwestern #10 in the 2020 final poll.
- 114 Maryland #21 on 9/8/19 (September Maryland!) then lost at Temple and fell out.
- 218 Rutgers #21 on 11/18/2012 then lost at Pitt and fell out.
Funny that Purdue was last ranked in 2021 but won the Big Ten West in 2022. But then again I think that was the season where all 7 Big Ten West teams had a mathematical chance to finish in a seven-way 4-5 tie in the conference as late as 2 or 3 games left in the season.
Also interesting that Rutgers has never been ranked since joining the Big Ten in 2014. And it does not look like they will break that streak in 2026 after losing to UMass last night.
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Funny that Purdue was last ranked in 2021 but won the Big Ten West in 2022. But then again I think that was the season where all 7 Big Ten West teams had a mathematical chance to finish in a seven-way 4-5 tie in the conference as late as 2 or 3 games left in the season.
Yeah, they won the B1G-W but that was a tallest midget competition that year and Purdue was never ranked in part because their six losses were spread throughout the year:
- Purdue had votes in the preseason poll (34th or 9th among ORV). They lost their opener to PSU and dropped to just 1 vote in the week 1 poll.
- They obliterated Indiana State but that wasn't enough to move the needle and they still only had one vote after that.
- The next week they lost a close one at Syracuse and lost their only vote.
- Then they won four straight and at 5-2/3-1 they were "26th" or first among ORV.
- They they lost close at Wisconsin which sounds not too bad but Wisconsin was 3-4/1-3 coming into that game so after that loss they had no votes at all. That was followed by a week off then a home loss to Iowa.
- They beat #21 Illinois on the road on Nov 12 but they still got no votes at 6-4/4-3.
- A win over NU got them a couple votes and a win at IU got them close again at "30th" or 5th among ORV in the 11/27/2022 poll but then they lost badly to Michigan in the B1GCG and dropped to "31st" and got obliterated in their bowl game to finish "36th" with just 3 points.
Ironically, I think that if they hadn't won the B1G-W they'd have had a pretty good chance of finishing ranked. They wouldn't have lost the B1GCG and they'd have gotten a MUCH easier bowl draw where a win likely gets them into the final poll.
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Also interesting that Rutgers has never been ranked since joining the Big Ten in 2014. And it does not look like they will break that streak in 2026 after losing to UMass last night.
It is REALLY bad. They have easily the longest drought of any major conference school. The next closest are WVU, Stanford, Maryland, and Cal all at 112-117 so only roughly half as long as Rutgers. Schools with longer droughts:
- 1,261 Marquette, WI (I know that @847badgerfan (https://www.cfb51.com/index.php?action=profile;u=5) will appreciate that)
- 1245 Carnegie Mellon, PA
- 1229 Gerogetown, DC
- 1220 Duquesne, PA
- 1185 St. Mary's, CA
- 1167 Columbia, NY
- 1153 Fordham, NY
- 1149 Santa Clara, CA
- 1134 Cornell, NY
- 1132 Pacific, CA
- 1130 Bucknell, PA
- 1128 Boston
- 1128 San Francisco
- 1121 Villanova, PA
- 1114 Penn
- 1087 Holy Cross
- 1073 Princeton
- 1070 George Washington, DC
- 1058 VMI
- 1021 NMST
- 1019 Rice, TX
- 892 Dartmouth, NH
- 867 Yale, CT
- 854 Richmond, VA
- 793 Colgate, NY
- 451 Wyoming
- 360 Miami, OH
- 348 BGSU, OH
- 332 UTEP
- 263 Central M
- 248 Hawaii
- 248 UCONN
- 247 Nevada
- 231 Southern Miss
- 222 OhioU
- 219 LaTech
I don't exactly know what their requirements are for being excluded but I don't see a bunch of WWII era training camps such as Great Lakes Naval and Iowa Pre-Flight that I know were ranked during WWII so those have been excluded.
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kick Rutgers out
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Final note on this:
Clemson's streak is the only one in jeopardy. The Tigers were ranked at least once in each of the 15 years from 2011-2025 but they are NOT ranked in the preseason poll. They are "26th" in that they are first among "others receiving votes" and only 5 points behind #5 Mizzou but they open their season tomorrow night as a 10.5 point underdog in Baton Rouge against #11 LSU.
I was saying . . .
Maybe it is just that Lane's squad is REALLY good but Dabo's team looks like hot garbage.
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Some updates based on the Week 1 poll:
Ohio State is now closer to #1 Bama than #3 Oklahoma in total appearances at #1 but the order at the top is still locked in for the foreseeable future. Bama 141; Ohio State 122; Oklahoma 101; Notre Dame 98; USC 91.
Notre Dame moved into a tie with Michigan for the fourth most top-5 appearances of all-time at 325. Meanwhile, Ohio State is now down just one to #1 Bama in total top-5 appearances. The Irish can take over #4 alone and the Buckeyes can more into a tie for #1 by winning this weekend.
Michigan's streak of appearances in the poll has come to an end.
Two of the seasons being ranked at least once streaks are in serious jeopardy:
Clemson was ranked at least once in each of the 15 seasons from 2011-2025 and they were the first team out in the preseason poll but they got obliterated in Baton Rouge and they have no votes in the current poll. Clemson hosts an FCS team this weekend then UNC next weekend. I don't think that winning both of those would get them ranked. After that they have a week off then travel out to the Bay Area for a West Coast ACC game (that is just a stupid phrase) at California. They *MIGHT* get ranked at 3-1 but if not their next game after Cal is hosting the Hurricanes which doesn't look promising at this point.
Kansas State was ranked at least once in each of the seven seasons from 2019-2025 but they haven't been ranked since early last year and they currently have no votes. They did obliterate an FCS opponent in their opener we'll see how things go for them.
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Some updates based on the Week 1 poll:
Meanwhile, Ohio State is now down just one to #1 Bama in total top-5 appearances.
very likely to happen, potentially even with a close loss. though that's unlikely, imo.
even with a loss, it is still somewhat likely to happen before bama gets back into top 5. Bama doesn't really have the schedule to jump 7-8 spots until after the uga game (oct 10). osu, unless they get blasted by texas and look bad in it, will be in the 7-8 range even with a loss. and it's likely a couple more in front of them will drop by mid oct, bringing them back in the top 5.
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I also ponder when the #1 team loses close to he #4 team at their place whether they should drop at all, I think 3-4 slots would be OK.
Swap Texas and OSU I guess.
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Clemson was ranked at least once in each of the 15 seasons from 2011-2025 and they were the first team out in the preseason poll but they got obliterated in Baton Rouge and they have no votes in the current poll. Clemson hosts an FCS team this weekend then UNC next weekend. I don't think that winning both of those would get them ranked. After that they have a week off then travel out to the Bay Area for a West Coast ACC game (that is just a stupid phrase) at California. They *MIGHT* get ranked at 3-1 but if not their next game after Cal is hosting the Hurricanes which doesn't look promising at this point.
Based on what I saw Saturday, there's a real chance Clemson is just trash this year, and the preseason was their best chance to crack the rankings.
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Based on what I saw Saturday, there's a real chance Clemson is just trash this year, and the preseason was their best chance to crack the rankings.
It sure looked like it but they have a fairly lightweight schedule so they might the poll late in the season at 8-4 even if they are 'just trash this year.' Their only remaining ranked opponent is a home game against Miami on October 3.