West Virginia Football Ranked No. 33 In Associated Press All-Time Top 25

Every year, one of the arguments that can be heard around fans tailgating is "Who is the best team of all time". Some will argue for one team while others are adamant that another school has really come on strong in the last 20 years.

The Associated Press has been ranking teams since 1936. Over the course of 1,103 polls, 165 schools have been ranked. 44 of them have been ranked #1. The AP chose the following criteria to determine who is the best program of all time: 1 point for every instance a team was ranked, an additional point if that team was ranked #1, and 10 points for an AP Championship.

Ohio State came in at #1 with 1,112 points. Ohio State can claim 5 AP National Championships, the last one coming in 2014 during the inaugural run of the College Football Playoffs. Ohio State has also appeared in 852 polls out of 1,103 polls. OSU has also been ranked #1 105 different occasions.

2015 Big 12 Champions Oklahoma are #2. The Sooners have been ranked in 71% of the AP polls conducted and have been a top-5 percentage team in every decade from the 1970s through the current decade. The Sooners also claim 7 AP National Championships.

Texas comes in second in the Big 12, ranking #8 nationally by the AP. The Longhorns claim 3 AP National Championships, the last coming in the Vince Young vs. USC Rose Bowl. However, Texas has fallen on hard times. The school has not been ranked in the top-10 since September 19, 2010.

West Virginia comes in third in the Big 12, ranking #33 overall. Outside of the top-25, the AP did not release additional information. Overall, WVU cannot claim a AP #1 ranking or AP National Championship, so WVU’s ranking is solely based upon the number of poll appearances. WVU has been ranked 271 times by the AP, the last coming last year in Week 5 when WVU entered the rankings at #23.

Penn State University comes in at #12 in the rankings with 647 points, buoyed by 2 AP National Championships and 19 #1 rankings. The University of Pittsburgh actually comes in at #23 with 294 points. Thanks to two AP National Championships and 21 individual #1 rankings. However, Pitt has not been ranked in the top-5 since 1982. Virginia Tech is ranked 2 spots higher than WVU, with 276 points, at #31. Maryland is ranked #40 with 230 points. Syracuse is behind Maryland at #41. That Huntington school, Marshall, comes in at 91 with 29 points.

Here is how the Big 12 fares: