Arizona football: AP names Wildcats the 54th-best program all-time

Is this where you thought the Wildcats would be?

The AP Poll has existed for 80 years, so it has seen programs rise and fall over the course of the past eight decades.

Before releasing this year’s preseason poll, the AP decided to look back at all of those polls from the last 80 years, and come up with a list of the best college football programs over that span.

Here’s their scoring system:

To determine the all-time Top 25, the AP formula counted poll appearances (one point) to mark consistency, No. 1 rankings (two points) to acknowledge elite programs and gave a bonus for AP championships (10 points).

Somewhat surprisingly to me, the Arizona Wildcats ended up placing 54th, garnering 168 points. This was higher than what I was expecting to see, considering Arizona has never seen long-term football success.

Here’s where all the Pac-12 teams ranked:

5. USC Trojans

17. UCLA Bruins

20. Washington Huskies

27. Colorado Buffaloes

28. Oregon Ducks

30. Arizona State Sun Devils

32. Stanford Cardinal

45. California Golden Bears

54. Arizona

59. Washington State Cougars

64. Utah Utes

65. Oregon State Beavers

I wish Arizona had been given some of the deeper stats that the AP gave the top 25 in this ranking to see the best and worst decades when looking at polls. I would venture to guess that the Wildcats earned a majority of their points in the past decade.

What’s the thing that stands out to you about this list?

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