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Number of Seasons Ranked in the Past 50 Years
Posted on 8/1/25 at 8:43 pm
Posted on 8/1/25 at 8:43 pm
How many times over the past 50 years (starting with and including 1975) has your football team finished the season ranked in the AP top 25? Here is how current SEC teams fared.
Alabama - 38 times
Oklahoma - 36 times
Georgia - 34 times
Texas - 30 times
Florida - 27 times
LSU - 27 times
Auburn - 26 times
Tennessee - 23 times
Texas A&M - 21 times
Arkansas - 15 times
Ole Miss - 12 times
Missouri - 11 times
Mississippi State - 10 times
South Carolina - 10 times
Kentucky - 5 times
Vanderbilt - 2 times
I was surprised to see that no teams had finished with 40 or more appearances. Alabama was the only team to finish ranked 75% of the time or more, and they squeaked in at 76%. I was also surprised to see Florida, LSU, Auburn and Tennessee were all around the 50% mark.
What are your takeaways?
Alabama - 38 times
Oklahoma - 36 times
Georgia - 34 times
Texas - 30 times
Florida - 27 times
LSU - 27 times
Auburn - 26 times
Tennessee - 23 times
Texas A&M - 21 times
Arkansas - 15 times
Ole Miss - 12 times
Missouri - 11 times
Mississippi State - 10 times
South Carolina - 10 times
Kentucky - 5 times
Vanderbilt - 2 times
I was surprised to see that no teams had finished with 40 or more appearances. Alabama was the only team to finish ranked 75% of the time or more, and they squeaked in at 76%. I was also surprised to see Florida, LSU, Auburn and Tennessee were all around the 50% mark.
What are your takeaways?
14
Posted on 8/1/25 at 8:45 pm to captdalton
quote:
What are your takeaways?
Ole Miss sucks.
Posted on 8/1/25 at 8:49 pm to captdalton
Shameful what Arkansas has become
Posted on 8/1/25 at 8:52 pm to captdalton
The years from 1997-2006 were awful for Alabama. My college years fell in there. 
Posted on 8/1/25 at 9:02 pm to Hogo Stiglitz
quote:
Shameful what Arkansas has become
Something happened in 1992 that changed the trajectory of our football program.
Posted on 8/1/25 at 9:02 pm to CapstoneGrad06
quote:
My college years
A foreign concept to dalton.
Posted on 8/1/25 at 9:05 pm to captdalton
People don't realize what a force Arkansas was under Frank Broyles. It's fair to say they were a top 5 program nationally in the 60s. Broyles' coaching tree is extremely impressive, both among the men who played and coached under him. In 1996 the Broyles award was established to honor the best assistant coach in college football to honor his legacy in that regard.
In 1976 he stepped down as head football coach, but retained his position as athletic director until the end of 2007. It's fair to say he oversaw the Arkansas football program leading them to greatness, and then also their demise. A King Lear figure, if you will.
The move from the SWC to the SEC was necessary, but they ended up being golden handcuffs. It cut off Arkansas from their lifeblood of recruiting the state of Texas.
I thought maybe the Walton family would back their NIL program to the max to bring them back to glory, but while they seem to be supporting basketball, I haven't seen many signs in the way of football.
I don't think I'm surprised at how low the 15 times is for Arkansas. But ten of those were under Broyles, Lou Holtz and Ken Hatfield. That means in the last 35 years Arkansas has finished in the top 25 only five times. I don't know exactly when it gets better than that, either. I guess they'll roll the dice on someone after Pittman, and we'll see how it goes.
What I do know is that as a Texas fan I grew up during a time when Arkansas was relevant. I constantly see people talk about Arkansas-Texas as some kind of rivalry, but it's only one sided. Arkansas just hasn't been important enough for so long for Texas to even care about the Razorbacks. Arkansas fans have always hated our guts (I mean, to know us is to hate us, so I don't blame them - everyone hates Texas as soon as they're affiliated with us in some way), but it's tough to return the hate when they matter so little.
In 1976 he stepped down as head football coach, but retained his position as athletic director until the end of 2007. It's fair to say he oversaw the Arkansas football program leading them to greatness, and then also their demise. A King Lear figure, if you will.
The move from the SWC to the SEC was necessary, but they ended up being golden handcuffs. It cut off Arkansas from their lifeblood of recruiting the state of Texas.
I thought maybe the Walton family would back their NIL program to the max to bring them back to glory, but while they seem to be supporting basketball, I haven't seen many signs in the way of football.
I don't think I'm surprised at how low the 15 times is for Arkansas. But ten of those were under Broyles, Lou Holtz and Ken Hatfield. That means in the last 35 years Arkansas has finished in the top 25 only five times. I don't know exactly when it gets better than that, either. I guess they'll roll the dice on someone after Pittman, and we'll see how it goes.
What I do know is that as a Texas fan I grew up during a time when Arkansas was relevant. I constantly see people talk about Arkansas-Texas as some kind of rivalry, but it's only one sided. Arkansas just hasn't been important enough for so long for Texas to even care about the Razorbacks. Arkansas fans have always hated our guts (I mean, to know us is to hate us, so I don't blame them - everyone hates Texas as soon as they're affiliated with us in some way), but it's tough to return the hate when they matter so little.
This post was edited on 8/1/25 at 9:09 pm
Posted on 8/1/25 at 9:11 pm to captdalton
We sucked before Spurrier...badly...that is why. Add in Mullen and Napier's terrible records..our schedule does not allow us to win with bad teams or coaches. Tennessee is certainly shocking.
This post was edited on 8/1/25 at 9:12 pm
Posted on 8/1/25 at 9:16 pm to captdalton
quote:
LSU - 27 times
quote:
What are your takeaways?
LSU was really, really bad in the 90’s.
Posted on 8/1/25 at 9:20 pm to SEC Doctor
Go screw up a different thread.
Posted on 8/1/25 at 9:36 pm to Poker_hog
Yea something happened but it happened in 1998 when the inmates took over the asylum.
Dropped a few rungs more in 2012 and hasn't recovered since
Dropped a few rungs more in 2012 and hasn't recovered since
Posted on 8/1/25 at 10:02 pm to SL Xpress
quote:
What I do know is that as a Texas fan I grew up during a time when Arkansas was relevant. I constantly see people talk about Arkansas-Texas as some kind of rivalry, but it's only one sided. Arkansas just hasn't been important enough for so long for Texas to even care about the Razorbacks. Arkansas fans have always hated our guts (I mean, to know us is to hate us, so I don't blame them - everyone hates Texas as soon as they're affiliated with us in some way), but it's tough to return the hate when they matter so little.
How old are you? That game was big for both fanbases until we moved to the sec and we have been equal or better after that. The rivalry is still there but texas isn’t close to what they were in the swc in a great while. No one in Arkansas considers texas to be Goliath anymore.
Damn, 2 decent years in a row and they think their shite don’t stink….haha
Posted on 8/1/25 at 10:04 pm to captdalton
Would have thought Bama and Georgia would have been higher.
Posted on 8/1/25 at 10:28 pm to captdalton
LSU is 17/25 in the last 25 years so we are trending up.
Posted on 8/1/25 at 10:45 pm to Morpheus
You are 17th? Shocking honestly..I would have guessed around 7 or 8.
This post was edited on 8/1/25 at 10:45 pm
Posted on 8/1/25 at 11:22 pm to Gatorbait2008
Really?
Posted on 8/1/25 at 11:25 pm to MrLahey
quote:70’s through the early 2000’s were not very kind to us. That’s what happens when you fly the confederate flag in the stands until the late 90’s though.
Ole Miss sucks.
Posted on 8/1/25 at 11:25 pm to Morpheus
With the sucess Les had and the Burrow teams and Chip Kelly. Yea.
This post was edited on 8/1/25 at 11:28 pm
Posted on 8/2/25 at 6:45 am to Gatorbait2008
quote:
You are 17th? Shocking honestly..I would have guessed around 7 or 8.
He is saying that LSU finished the season ranked 17 of the last 25 seasons (68% of the time). That is better than 27 out of the last 50 (54% of the time).
What I took from it is that even the top programs do have down periods. Looking outside the conference, here is how some other top programs did the past 50 years.
Ohio State - 40/50
Michigan - 39/50
Notre Dame - 29/50
USC - 30/50
Nebraska - 33/50
Miami - 29/30
Florida State - 35/50
Oregon - 20/50
Penn State - 31/50
It is really hard to finish every season ranked in the top 25. Ohio State has been the best, but even they failed to finish ranked 20% of the time.
One thing that was interesting was to see how good Nebraska really was when they were rolling. Nebraska finished ranked 33 seasons in a row from 1969-2001. They finished in the top ten 23 of those seasons. It was also interesting to see that most of the blue bloods, with the exception of Nebraska, were able to rebound from their down periods.
Posted on 8/2/25 at 6:56 am to captdalton
What I take from this is the SEC was just kind of average before the year 2000. Except for Alabama not much history before then. I too lazy to look but I bet the SEC has more Natty's from 2000 to now as a whole then from 1900 to 2000 when you take Alabama out of course.
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