There are two main historical college football polls that have separated themselves from the rest of the traditional polls. The Associated Press Top 25 is by and large the one that most folks like to look at, but right there with the AP Poll is the USA TODAY Coaches Poll. It has changed its namesake and sponsorship several times, now known as the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll.
Ohio State has been at or near the top more often than not, and now there’s some data to back up the Buckeyes being one of the best in the history of the poll thanks to Pete Fiutak of College Football News.
We’ve already looked at Ohio State’s place in the AP Poll (which is very similar), but according to the method used by Fiutak, the Buckeyes are also a monster in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll throughout history.
From College Football News:
CFN devised a scoring system giving every UPI/USA TODAY national champion 25 points, the No. 2 team 24, No. 3 23, and so on down to the bottom of the top 20 in the early years, and then it became the top 25 after USA TODAY took over.
So let’s see what the top 25 looks like. Here are the top 25 historical programs when it comes to ranking them based on appearances in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll, starting from No. 25 down to No. 1.