re: Top to bottom SEC has always been the best conference in college football.

Here is another way of rating conferences since 1936. The UPI/Coaches poll was added in 1950. The UPI did not differ materially from the AP. I prefer the AP anyway, since most of the coaches turned over the duty to their SIDs anyway and certainly did not have time to study other teams except those whom they played. Anyway, any poll, human or computer is nothing more than an informed guess, so the best we can hope for is a sense of how thing were. IMO, the AP is as good as any.

This following is contained in another thread on this board. Link: https://www.secrant.com/rant/sec-football/a-ranking-for-every-conference-for-every-decade-since-the-1930s-sec-tops-by-far/77769800/

The following rankings are based on a CFN listing which is basically a compilation of AP final poll results for each year of a decade. 25 pts for finishing num 1...1 for 25. Then I calculated the pts for each team in a conference for that decade and added them plus the number of teams to get a final ranking for each decade. Interestingly and to my own surprise, the SEC was the top ranked conf each decade except the 50s when Bama was down and only finished 23rd. The SEC usually led in teams and points, demonstrating that even though it is good at the top, it is not a top-heavy conf. The Big 8 and at times the Big 10 were. The other conferences are fairly far behind the SEC and Big 10. The SEC was the top conference even in the "down" 70s and 80s. Of course, sometimes the diffrence between 1 and 2, 2 and 3 may be irrelevant. Or maybe no one had a great decade. The ACC was worse than I thought as was the PAC6/8/10/12.

(In general, if a team was in a conference for half the decade, I included them.)

(There are no doubt several errors since I did much of this in my head and by hand. So, check em out. But I think they won't materially affect much.)


30s ( 1936-1939) (Bama was 50-6-2, 2 NCs, 2 RB wins from 1930-35. I.e., was higher than 5 for the entire decade. LSU 40-15-6 1 Sug Bowl loss. UT 46-11-2 no bowls.)
1:.SEC: Bama 5, UT 5, LSU 10, Tulane 21 (4, 63)
2:.Big10: Minn 3, NW 14, OSU 19 (3, 42)
3.SWC: TCU 9, A&M 18, Ark 23 (4, 27)
4.ACC: Duke 3 (1, 23)
5.PACx: USC 10, Wash 21 (2, 21)
6.Big 8: Neb 12, Mo 23 (2, 17)
Ind/Others: ND 1, Pitt 2, Fordham 7, Santa Clara 8, HC 13, Duq 14, Vill 14, Cornell 20, Carnegie Tech 23

40s
1.SEC: UT 5, UGA 8, GT 12, Bama 15, LSU 20, Miss 25 (6, 71)
2.Big10: Mich 1, OSU 6, Minn 11, NW 13 (4, 73)
3.SWC: Tex 4, SMU 19, Rice 21 (3, 33)
4.ACC: Duke 7, NC 14 (2, 31)
5.PACx: Cal 16, USC 17, Stanford 24 (3, 21)
6.Big 8: OU 14 (1,12)
Ind/O: ND 2, Army 3, Navy 9, Penn 10, Tulsa 18, Io Pre-Flight 21, BC 23

50s
1.Big10: Mich St 2, OSU 4, Wisc 5, Ill 17, Mich 17, Io 19 (6, 92)
2.SEC: GT 6, UT 7, Miss 10, AU 13, Bama 23, LSU 24 (6, 73)
3.SWC: Tex 12, TCU 14, A&M 25 (3, 27)
4ACC: Maryland 7, Clemson 21 (2, 25)
5.PACx: UCLA 9, USC 20 (2, 24)
6.Big8: OU 1 (1, 25)
Ind/O: ND 3, Army 11, Syr 15, Navy 16, Miami 21, Princeton 25

60s
1.SEC: Bama 1, LSU 7, Miss 11, UT 15, AU 19, UGA 21 (6, 82)
2.Big10: OSU 4, Purdue 12, MSU 13, Minn 16, Mich 23 (5, 62)
3.SWC: Ark 2, Tex 2 (2, 48)
4.PACx: USC 6, UCLA 10, OSU 17 (3, 45)
5.Big 8: Mo 9, Neb 14, OU 18, Kan 22, Col 25 (5, 42)
6.ACC: none
Ind/O: ND 5, PSU 8, Navy 20, GT 23

70s
1:.SEC: Bama 2, AU 13, UT 15, LSU 17, UGA 21 (5, 62)
2:.Big 8: OU 1, Neb 2, Col 20 (3, 55)
3:.Big10: Mich 4, OSU 6 (2, 42)
4:.PACx: USC 5, UCLA 16, Stanford 19, Washington 25 (4, 39)
5:.SWC: Tex 9, Ark 10, A&M 22 (37)
6:.ACC: Maryland 18, NC State 23 (2, 11)
Ind/O: ND 7, PSU 8, Ariz St 10, Hous 12, Pitt 14, Mia O. 24

80s
1:.SEC: AU 7, UGA 9, Bama 11, LSU 18, UF 22, UT 24 (6, 65)
2:.PACx: UCLA 5, USC 12, Wash 16, Ariz St 23 (48)
3:.Big 8: Neb 1, OU 4 (2, 47)
4:.Big10: Mich 3, OSU 12, Io 21 (3, 42)
5:.SWC: SMU 14, Ark 20, A&M 24 (4, 20)
6:.ACC: Clem 10 (1, 16)
Ind/O: Miami 2, PSU 6, FSU 7, BYU 15, Pitt 17, ND 19

90s
1:.SEC: UF 2, UT 4, Bama 8, AU 16, UGA 17 (5, 83)
2:.Big8/SWC/12: Neb 3, Col 10, A&M 11, KSU 13, Tex 24 (5, 69)
3:.Big10: Mich 5, PSU 6, OSU 8, Wisc 18, Io 25 (5, 68)
4:.ACC: FSU 1, NC 21, GT 23 (3, 33)
5:.PACx: Wash 14, UCLA 19, Ariz 22 (3, 23)
Ind/O: Miami 7, ND 12, VT 15, Syr 20

00s
1:.SEC: UF 5, LSU 6, UGA 7, AU 13, Bama 15, UT 20 (6, 90)
2:.Big10: OSU 4, Mich 10, Io 14, PSU 17, Wisc 23 (5, 62)
3:.Big12: Tex 1, OU 2, Neb 22 (53)
4:.ACC: Miami 8, VT 9, FSU 16 (3, 45)
5:.PACx: USC 3, Oreg 12, Wash St 25 (3, 38)
Ind/O: Boise 11, TCU 18, WVU 19, Utah 21, Louisville 23

10s (thru 2017)
1:.SEC: Bama 1, LSU 9, AU 13, UGA 14, SC 16, MSU 20, Mo 22, A&M 25 (8, 88)
2:.Big10: OSU 2, MSU 7, Wisc 11, Mich 21 (4, 63)
3:.Big12: OU 3, TCU 10, OSU 12, Bay 17 (4, 62)
4:.PACx: Stan 5, Oreg 6, USC 15, Wash 24 (4, 54)
5:.ACC: Clem 4, FSU 8 (2, 40)
Ind/O: ND 17, Boise 19, UCF 21

Some individual notes:
(1) A&M has been ranked in 6 of the 9 decades with a high water mark of 11 in the 90s.
(2) As I've often noted, LSU's history is vastly underappreciated. They have been ranked in 8 of the 9 decades, including 4 times in the top 10, with a hw mark of 6 in the 00s. I think only Bama and OSU have finished ranked in every decade. LSU is tied with UGA for 2nd only behind Bama in winning at least 1 SEC title in every decade of it's existence. LSU and UGA have won in 7 decades.
(3) Ark has been ranked in 4 decades with a hw mark of 2 in the 60s. Close but not since moving to the SEC.
(4) Missouri has been ranked 3 times, including hw mark of 9 in the 60s.
(5) Our own MSU is ranked 20 in the 10s. Congratualations. So too is SC at 16, Mo at 22 and A&M at 25. Ark just missed. The SEC newbies are adding value.