Oklahoma football ranks No. 1 in all-time Coaches Poll preseason rankings

With fall practice starting up this week for many college programs, including Oklahoma football, there is growing anticipation for the two major national media preseason top-25 polls.

The Coaches Poll should be coming out in the next week or so, followed by the preseason Associated Press Top 25.

Earlier this season, we posted an article on the all-time No. 1 team in the final season rankings released in the Coaches Poll. Oklahoma and Ohio State are tied for the No. 1 spot in the all-time, end-of-season Coaches Poll.

Now the editors at College Football News have gone back to the first year of the Coaches Poll Preseason Top-25 rankings in 1978 and examined where teams ranked in the initial Coaches Poll rankings every season up to and including 2021.

The Coaches Poll first began in 1950 under the auspices of United Press International, 15 years after the Associated Press launched its college football top 25 poll, but the Coaches Poll did not come out with a preseason top-25 ranking until 1978.

The scoring system used to rank the various college teams was similar to the earlier Coaches Poll all-time ranking: 25 points were awarded to the No. 1 team every season in the preseason ranking, 24 for No. 2 and so on.

In the final analysis, the Oklahoma Sooners came out on top as the all-time No. 1 team in the Coaches Poll preseason rankings with 742 total points. Ohio State was No. 2 with 722 points, Florida State No. 3 (683), Michigan No. 4 (647) and Alabama No. 5 (639).

Two other former or current Big 12 teams were ranked among the all-time preseason top 25. Nebraska was No. 6 with 588 points, and Texas finished in the No. 10 spot with 518 points.