The Associated Press, seven months after naming Ohio State the No. 1 all-time football program, christened the Buckeyes men's basketball program as the 12th all-time on Wednesday.
How did the AP conjure these rankings? Good question:
To determine the all-time Top 100, the AP formula counted poll appearances (one point each) to mark consistency and No. 1 rankings (two points each) to acknowledge elite programs. Keep in mind that AP doesn’t release a poll after the NCAA Tournament, so eventual national champions are not factored into these rankings. Instead, this lists focuses more on those programs that consistently appear in the poll and/or at the top during the regular seasons.
Kentucky, North Carolina, and Duke unsurprisingly appear as the top-three rankings. At No. 12, Ohio State only trails Indiana (No. 6) and Illinois (No. 11) in the Big Ten. Unfortunately it also trails in-state rival Cincinnati, which registers at No. 10.
The Top 25 of the AP's Top 100:
| RANK | SCHOOL | POINTS | COMMENT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | KENTUCKY | 1,111 | The Wildcats have missed appearing at least once in the poll for only three seasons during the 68-year history of the AP poll, the fewest poll-less seasons of any program. Those seasons were 1952-1953, 1988-1989, and 1989-1990. |
| 2 | NORTH CAROLINA | 1,098 | The Tar Heels have appeared in more AP polls than any other program. UNC also has made the poll at least once each season since 1966-1967, the longest streak of any program at 51 years. What’s even more impressive is the streak started back when the poll only had 10 teams. |
| 3 | DUKE | 1,032 | Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils have been ranked more times than any other team under the same coach. He has led them to nearly 80 percent of the program’s poll appearances. To top that off, Duke has been left out of only four weekly polls since the start of the 1996-1997 season, the highest percentage of any program over that span. |
| 4 | UCLA | 957 | The Bruins didn’t miss a single poll for 221 weeks, starting with the preseason 1966-1967 poll and ending with the fifth poll of the 1979-1980 season, the longest consecutive streak of any program. |
| 5 | KANSAS | 857 | The Jayhawks have appeared in every poll since Feb. 2, 2009, the nation’s longest active streak. Since taking over as KU’s head coach in 2003, Bill Self’s teams have appeared in the poll more than 90 percent of the time |
| 6 | INDIANA | 662 | The Hoosiers’ longest stretch of consecutive weeks in the poll was 73, running from the 1990-1991 to 1994-1995 seasons. |
| 7 | LOUISVILLE | 627 | While appearing in more than half of the polls to date, the Cardinals only reached No. 1 twice – on March 16, 2009, and Jan. 14, 2013. In fact, Louisville was ranked in 520 polls before landing a No. 1, the longest drought of any team that has appeared in the poll. |
| 8 | ARIZONA | 594 | The Wildcats didn’t appear in a single AP poll over a 22-season period that started with 1951-52 and ended when ranked again in the 1973-1974 season, the longest poll drought of any team in the All-Time Top 10. |
| 9 | SYRACUSE | 581 | The Orangemen appeared in the AP poll only 17 times before Jim Boeheim was promoted to head coach in 1976. Since then, Syracuse has appeared more than 500 times and at least once every season since 1982-1983. |
| 10 | CINCINNATI | 500 | The Bearcats are the top “mid-major” appearing more times than any other program not currently in a Power 5 conference. |
| 11 | ILLINOIS | 579 | The Illini’s most successful run was from 2000-2001 to 2005-2006, when the team missed only eight weekly polls and the program collected most of its No. 1 rankings. |
| 12 | OHIO STATE | 453 | Nearly 40 percent of the Buckeyes’ poll appearances have come since Thad Matta’s arrival as head coach in 2004. |
| 13 | MICHIGAN STATE | 434 | Two-thirds of the Spartans’ total poll appearances have come since Tom Izzo was promoted to head coach in 1995. Before Izzo, their appearances were spotty at best. |
| 14 | MICHIGAN | 423 | Since its first poll appearance, Michigan each decade gradually grew its percentage of poll appearances before a seven-year drought that started with the 1998-1999 season and then was followed by only eight poll appearances between 2005-2006 and 2010-2011. |
| 15 | GEORGETOWN | 421 | After making their first appearance in the Jan. 13, 1953, poll, the Hoyas didn’t appear again for 25 seasons. Not until January 1978. After that, they were ranked at least once for the next 19 seasons, all under John Thompson’s coaching tenure. |
| 16 | CONNECTICUT | 402 | After making their first two appearances during the 1953-1954 season, the Huskies only appeared two more times in the poll (both in 1980-1981) over the next 35 years. Since 1988-1989, coach Jim Calhoun’s third season, they’ve been ranked at least once every season except one. |
| 17 | MARYLAND | 400 | The Terrapins have the claim of being ranked the most without ever being No. 1. In six different seasons, including four straight in the mid-1970s, Maryland reached No. 2 at least once, but just hasn’t managed to get enough votes to take the top spot. |
| 18 | NOTRE DAME | 382 | The Irish haven’t had a season where they’ve appeared in every week’s poll since 1985-1986, the longest drought of its kind among the teams in the All-Time Top 25. |
| 19 | VILLANOVA | 372 | For every decade of the poll, Villanova consistently appeared in about 25 percent of the polls outside of its worst decade, the 1970s, and obviously it’s higher percentage of appearances in recent seasons. Eight of the program’s 11 appearances at No. 1 came in 2016-2017. |
| 20 | OKLAHOMA | 366 | The Sooners’ first season to have appeared in every week’s poll didn’t come until 1984-1985. Since then, OU repeated the feat eight times, with the most recent being the 2015-2016 season. |
| 21 | MARQUETTE | 366 |
The Golden Eagles were certainly golden in the ‘70s when they appeared in the poll for 166 consecutive weeks and recorded nearly half of their poll appearances in history as well as all three times at No. 1. Only two seasons since then have they been ranked in every week’s poll – 2002-2003 and 2011-2012. |
| 21 | NORTH CAROLINA STATE | 366 |
The Wolf Pack’s dominance came in the first 11 seasons of the poll, from 1949-1959, when they recorded one-third of the program’s poll appearances, led by coach Everett Case. Their last season to appear in each week’s poll was 1988-1989. |
| 23 | IOWA | 343 | The Hawkeyes have been ranked No. 1 only once. That came in the Jan. 20, 1987, poll during the first season with Tom Davis as head coach. He would lead the team to 51 consecutive poll appearances over his first three seasons, the longest poll streak in school history. |
| 24 | PURDUE | 339 | The Boilermakers come and go. Since 1980, they’ve appeared in all the weekly polls for at least one season per decade while also missing the poll altogether at least three other seasons per decade. They are second to only Maryland for the most poll appearances without being No. 1. They’ve reached No. 2 in 10 polls. |
| 25 | UNLV | 321 | The Runnin’ Rebels made their poll debut on the eve of Jerry Tarkanian’s first season at UNLV. The towel-biting coach would lead the program to all 32 of its No. 1 rankings and 207 poll appearances, more than 80% of the school’s total, over the next 19 seasons. |
