An All-time First for Venerable AP Top 25

UNDATED (AP) — The Associated Press has been ranking the best teams in college football for the last 80 seasons.

For the first time since that first poll in 1936, the AP has compiled an all-time Top 100 based on a formula that counts poll appearances (one point) to mark consistency, No. 1 rankings (one bonus point) to acknowledge elite programs, and a bonus for AP championships won (10 points).

The top five teams using those criteria: Ohio State, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Alabama and Southern California. Washington was 20th on the list and Oregon 28th, with Washington State at No. 59, Boise State at No. 61 and Oregon State at No. 65 on the all-time list.

Before the AP started asking its member sports writers and editors to vote for the top teams, then-sports editor Alan J. Gould in 1935 went about ranking them himself. In the final rankings he named Minnesota, Princeton and TCU co-No. 1s, and Gophers fans, as the story goes, hanged Gould in effigy. Gould, who died in 1993, recalled in 1985 that it created a "storm," especially in the Big Ten. He quickly realized it was best to spread the blame -- or responsibility -- for the rankings around.