The Associated Press college football poll has taken on less significance as of late, but historically speaking there are few polls as important to the game. As we head in to the third season of the College Football Playoff era, the AP took some time to remind us all of its relevance and released an all-time AP Top 100 poll.
Inside that poll was a top 25 and some Badgers fans may be shocked to find the Cardinal and White inside the all-time top 25 list. Wisconsin occupies the No. 24 spot all-time in the AP Poll’s mind.
Wisconsin got there not so much on the strength of the Alvarez years on (although it did help), but rather on its overall strength as a program back in the 1960’s. According to the AP poll listing, Wisconsin appeared in 63.69 percent of all the polls in that decade.
As for the Alvarez era and beyond? Wisconsin has appeared 215 times in the AP Poll since its first appearance back in 1992 (out of 334 total appearances in the AP Poll in school history).
Hurting UW’s chances was the performance of 1980’s, where the Badgers appeared in just 1.89 percent of all polls in that decade.
Wisconsin also appeared at No. 1 just one time in the entire history of the AP Poll, doing so in the 1952 season.
Overall, the Big Ten was well represented in the poll, with Ohio State claiming the No. 1 all-time ranking and seven total Big Ten teams inside the top 25. Joining Ohio State inside the top 10 were Nebraska and Michigan, although admittedly the majority of the Huskers’ history inside the top 25 were as members of either the Big 8 or the Big 12.
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