Oklahoma football: In poll era, Sooners rank No. 1 all-time
By Chip Rouse
Some Oklahoma football fans may already be aware of this historical flashback, but for those who aren’t, it bears repeating with a month to go before the Sooners’ 2021 season opener on Sept. 4.
A year or so ago, College Football News did an analysis using the historical data of both the Associated Press and UPI/Coaches Poll to determine the greatest college teams of all-time since the inception of both weekly polls.
A brief history lesson about the weekly college football rankings:
The weekly AP Top-25 poll, which began in 1936, is the oldest of the two weekly rankings. The Coaches Poll started out as a “Top-20” ranking in 1950 and was originally published by United Press International. It expanded to a “Top-25” ranking in 1990.
The media affiliation of the Coaches Poll has changed several times over the years.
From 1991-96, the Coaches Poll was issued by USA Today/CNN, and it was the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll from 1997-2004. Since 2005, USA Today has been the sole publishing source of the weekly Coaches Poll. Beginning in 2014, Amway became the title sponsor of the Amway Coaches Poll.
CFN’s methodology was to take every year’s final ranking in both polls and award 25 points for the national champion, 24 for the runner-up, 23 points for No. 3 and so forth. In the early years of the polls, it was only a Top-10 and later a Top 20 before expanding to 25. In those cases, points were adjusted accordingly.
The Oklahoma Sooners are ranked No. 1, as the Greatest College Team of All-Time, for both poll eras.
You can check out CFN’s full results for the AP Greatest Teams of All-Time by clicking here; and the Coaches Poll’s version of the Greatest Teams of All-Time by clicking here.
Based on the point differential using CFN’s methodology, the Sooners should still be on the top perch in both all-time rankings.
Enjoy the moment, Sooner fans.