The AP Poll has been ranking basketball teams for the last 68 years, and they’ve kept records of every single weekly poll they’ve ever done. And on Wednesday, they released their all-time top 100 list of basketball programs over the last 68 years.
The AP Poll compiled the formula for their all-time ranking by counting “poll appearances (one point each) to mark consistency and No. 1 rankings (two points each) to acknowledge elite programs.”
According to the AP Poll, Tennessee’s basketball program is ranked No. 38 overall over the last 68 years.
The Vols have a total of 243 points, placing them right above Utah with 239 points and behind Wisconsin with 250 points. Tennessee is also one of 59 teams to ever be ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll.
Tennessee’s 243 points places them sixth in the SEC. Arkansas (31st), Alabama (30th), Missouri (29th), Florida (tied for 27th), and Kentucky (1st) are ahead of the Vols. Missouri, of course, earned most of their rankings while they were in the Big 12 but still count as an SEC school now.
The rest of the SEC schools are as follows in the top 100: Vanderbilt (46th), LSU (47th), Mississippi State (58th), South Carolina (62nd), Texas A&M (75th), Auburn (80th), Georgia (92nd), and Ole Miss (tied for 100th).
According to the AP Poll’s data, the poll has undergone several changes over the decades. The top 25 that is currently used wasn’t put into place until the 1989-90 season. The poll ranked the top 20 teams from 1949-1960. It was briefly trimmed down to just the top 10 from 1960-1968 but returned to the top 20 poll in the 1968-69 season and remained that will till it expanded to the top 25.
