According to AP College Basketball Polls, where do all teams historically rank? These are the best basketball programs of all time using the final AP rankings.
AP Poll College Basketball Rankings: Best Program of All Time
AP Poll, all-time college basketball rankings
1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | years 2000 | 2010s | 2020
college football The Best AP Programs of All Time
The AP Top 25 Poll is best known for its football rankings, but it has also been among the most consistently trusted systems for basketball. The football side started in 1936, basketball in the 1948-1949 season.
No other ranking is as good when it comes to providing a historical snapshot of college basketball.
According to the final AP rankings for each season, how and where have all the college basketball teams been ranked since they started? What did voters think over the years?
Just like we do with football rankings, take all the final AP rankings and use our simple point system: The No. 1 final AP in each season gets 25 points, the No. 2 team 24, the No. 3 23, and so on. to the bottom.
Now, with that being said, there is one massive Difference between soccer and basketball.
It’s a bug, and there’s no way around it. Unlike football, since at least 1968, the AP publishes its final basketball rankings at the end of the regular season and not after the whole season is over. Therefore, the NCAA Tournament is not taken into account in almost all AP college basketball rankings for the year.
The AP has always named a national champion in college football, and that mattered in the old days of polling and bowling. But then came the BCS, and it still mattered to some degree, and now we have the College Football Playoff to define a national champion. That’s not the deal for basketball.
You can look at this in two different ways.
For one, that makes these rankings a true representation of how good basketball teams were each season. To be blunt, the NCAA Tournament, which didn’t officially become the dominant force over the NIT until 1971, is a gimmick. A team can finish seventh in their conference, heat up over two weekends, and be in the thick of the national title hunt.
On the other hand, the 1988 NCAA Tournament champion Kansas Jayhawks were not in the final AP Top 25. The 1985 Villanova Wildcats were unranked, and the 1983 NC State Wolfpack was ranked 16th. So those teams, and others, get little to no credit in the rankings below, showing that determining a national title in depending on the opinion of the judges is probably not the best way to do it.
So there are a lot of structural inconsistencies, but…
Based on the final AP college basketball rankings from the 1948-1949 season through the end of the 2021-2022 regular season, who earned the most all-time recognition from AP voters?
AP Poll, all-time college basketball rankings
1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | years 2000 | 2010s | 2020
college football The Best AP Programs of All Time
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AP Poll: Final all-time college basketball standings from 1949 to 2022
1 Kentucky 1082
2 North Carolina 944
3 duke 921
4 KANSAS 857
5 UCLA 732
6 Louisville 518
7Arizona 475
8 Indiana 458
9 State of Michigan 416
10 Ohio State 415
11 Syracuse 403
12 Cincinnati 400
13 Michigan 398
14 Illinois 394
15 Villanueva 387
16 Our Lady 358
17 Purdue 324
18 Maryland 314
19 Marquette 311
20 George Town 286
21 Gonzaga 285
22 Oklahoma 283
T23 Utah 271
T23 UConn 271
25 Arkansas 271
AP Poll, all-time college basketball rankings
1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | years 2000 | 2010s | 2020
college football The Best AP Programs of All Time
NEXT: AP Rankings: Greatest College Basketball Programs of All Time 26 to 140
AP Poll College Basketball Rankings: Greatest Programs of All Time: 26 to 167
26 State of North Carolina 266
27 Iowa 255
28 State of Kansas 251
29 UNLV 248
T30 Oklahoma State 240
T30 Virginia 240
T30 West Virginia 240
33 Saint John 232
34 Memphis 228
T35 Bradley 214
T35 wake of the forest 214
37 al 207
38 DePaul 197
39 Missouri 193
40 Wisconsin 190
41 hole 189
42 Houston 184
43 fl 179
T44 Tennessee 178
T44 Tiles 160
46 State of Florida 159
T46 LSU 157
T46 San Francisco 157
49 Stanford 151
50 Minnesota 150
AP Poll, all-time college basketball rankings
All-Time College Basketball Final Standings | 1950 | 1960
1970 | 1980 | 1990 | years 2000 | 2010s | 2020
college football The Best AP Programs of All Time
51 Western Kentucky 147
52 State of Mississippi 140
53 Temple 132
54 vanderbilt 130
55 Duquesne 128
S56 BYU 124
T56 State of Oregon 124
58 Saint Louis 123
T59 Dayton 122
T59 Baylor 122
61 Room 121
62 Wichita State 115
63 New Mexico 114
64 South Carolina 112
64 USC 112
T66 Xavier 110
T66 Auburn 110
68 Seton Room 108
69 Washington 106
70 Iowa State 105
T71 Georgia Tech 104
T71 St. Bonaventure 104
T73 State of Arizona 98
T73 Providence 98
75 Boston University 96
76 San Jose 95
77 Santa Cruz 93
78 Loyola-Chicago 92
79 David 89
80 Texas Tech 87
81 Pennsylvania 85
T82 Oregon 83
T82 UMass 83
84 Miami 81
85 Long Beach State 77
86 Seattle 71
87 San Diego State 67
88 ECU 66
89 caliber 65
90 UTEP 62
91 Princeton 61
T92 colorado 58
T92 Creighton 58
Butler T94 57
T94 Dragon 57
96 Tulsa 56
97 Louisiana Tech 55
98 State of New Mexico 50
99 Clemson 46
100 Colombian 42
T101 Oklahoma City 41
T101 Wyoming 41
103 george washington 38
T104 Jacksonville 37
T104 State of Utah 37
T106 Bowling green 34
T106 Washington State 34
T108 Santa Clara 33
T108 Texas A&M 33
110 New York University 31
T111 Rutgers 30
T111 Murray Estate 30
T113 Georgia 28
T113 TCU 28
115 Santa Maria 26
T116 State of Indiana 25
T116 Nevada 25
T116 Old Miss 25
116 State of Pennsylvania 25
T120 Detroit 22
121 University of Charleston 20
T122 Nebraska 19
T122 New Orleans 19
T122 Niagara 19
T122 Toledo 19
T126 Idaho 18
T126 Oral Roberts 18
T126 VCU 18
T129 Fordham 17
T129 Tulano 17
T131 Loyola Monte Maria 16
T131 Western Michigan 16
T133 Fresno State 15
T133 Northern Iowa 15
T133 Southern Illinois 15
T133 Virginia Tech 15
T133 Yale 15
138 Marshal 14
139 long island 13
T140 buffalo 11
T140 Charlotte 11
T140 Chattanooga 11
T143 State of Idaho 10
T143 UAB 10
T145 East Tennessee 9
T145 Navy 9
T145 State of San Jose 9
T145 Weber State 9
T149 State 8 Ball
T149 Rutgers 8
T149 Sienna 8
T152 Austin Peay 7
T152 Centennial 7
T152 Hamline 7
T152 University of Miami 7
T152 Wolfford 7
T157 Canisius 6
T157 Pepper 6
T157 SW State of Missouri 6
T157 State of Texas 6
T157 IMV 6
T162 Pacific 4
T162 Winthrop 4
164 Boise State 3
T165 Richmond 2
T165 State of Colorado 2
T167 Hawaii 1
T167 Miss of the South 1
AP Poll, all-time college basketball rankings
All-Time College Basketball Final Standings | 1950 | 1960
1970 | 1980 | 1990 | years 2000 | 2010s | 2020
college football The Best AP Programs of All Time
The story originally appeared on College Football News