The Associated Press released Wednesday a [top 100 college basketball ranking][1] based on appearances in its weekly poll, which started in Jan., 1949 when St. Louis University became the first school ranked No. 1.
The AP awarded one point for an appearance in the poll, which ranked the top 20 teams from 1949 to midway through the 1960-61 season; reduced the list to a top 10; then went back to top 20 for the 1968-69 season through 1987-88; top 25 since. Two points were awarded for a No. 1 ranking.
The top 10 performers in the all-time AP poll:
1 – Kentucky (1,111 points, 124 No. 1 rankings, 75.37 percent of all polls)
2 – North Carolina (1,098/110/76.68)
3 – Duke (1,032/129/67.6)
4 – UCLA (957/134/60.17)
5 – Kansas (857/65/63.49)
6 – Indiana (662/54/48.38)
7 – Louisville (627/2/54.41)
8 – Arizona (594/37/45.41)
9 – Syracuse (581/17/47.77)
10 – Cincinnati (500/45/35.81)
The AP also included the date of a school’s first ranking, its best and worst full decades and a “poll point” sentence or two on each school in the top 100.
Other Big 12 schools to make the top 100: 20 – Oklahoma, 34 Oklahoma State, 36 – Texas, 42 – West Virginia, 44 – Kansas State, 53 – Iowa State, 71 – Baylor.
TCU and Texas Tech did not make the cut.
The AP doesn’t release a poll after the NCAA tournament, so this ranking system does not take into account national titles.
The formula revealed the 1990s as KU’s best poll-performing decade, although if this decade continues on its current pace, it will eclipse the ’90s. The 1960s, in which Kansas appeared in just 30.14 percent of the polls was listed as the worst decade.
Kansas has the nation’s longest active poll-appearance streak, appearing in every top 25 since Feb. 2, 2009.
Of all the numbers listed next to the 100 schools, Louisville earning the No. 1 spot in the poll just twice has to be the most amazing. The Cardinals’ first No. 1 ranking (March 16, 2009) came in the 520th poll in which they were ranked. UCLA has the most No. 1 rankings with 134 and Kansas has the fifth-most with 65.
[1]: http://www.collegebasketball.ap.org/top-100
