Associated Press ranks all-time top programs

To determine the all-time Top 25, the AP formula counted poll appearances (one point each) to mark consistency and No. 1 rankings (two points each) to acknowledge elite programs.

To determine the alltime Top 25, 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 list focuses more on those programs that consistently appear in the poll and/or at the top during the regular seasons.

The poll started with 20 teams ranked each week until it was reduced to just the Top 10 midway through the 1960-1961 season. It then returned to a Top 20 format for the 1968-69 season. The poll expanded to 25 teams starting with the 1989-1990 and it has remained that size since then. The first preseason poll was introduced at the start of the 1961-1962 season. 1. KENTUCKY (1,111 Points) Total appearances: 75.37% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 18, 1949 (first-ever poll) No.1 rankings: 124 Best full decade: 1950s, appeared in 89.63% of polls, but 1990s were close with 89.33%. Worst full decade: 1960s, appeared in 59.59% of polls. Poll point: 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, 19881989, and 1989-1990. 2. NORTH CAROLINA (1,098 Points) Total appearances: 76.68% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 25, 1953 No.1 rankings: 110 Best full decade: 1980s, appeared in 98.19% of polls. Worst full decade: 1960s, appeared in 42.96% of polls. Poll point: 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 Points) Total appearances: 67.6% of all polls First appearance: Dec. 10, 1951 No.1 rankings: 129 Best full decade: 2000s, appeared in 98.95% of polls, but on pace to top that in the 2010s. Worst full decade: 1970s, appeared in 17.86% of polls. Poll point: 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 Points) Total appearances: 60.17% of all polls First appearance: March 8, 1949 No.1 rankings: 134, most of any program. Best full decade: 1970s, appeared in 100% of polls, only program with a perfect percentage over an entire decade. Worst full decade: 1980s, appeared in 39.76% of polls. Poll point: The Bruins didn’t miss

a single poll for 221 weeks, starting with the preseason 19661967 poll and ending with the fifth poll of the 1979-1980 season, the longest consecutive streak of any program. 5. KANSAS (857 Points) Total appearances: 63.49% of all polls First appearance: March 7, 1950 No.1 rankings: 65 Best full decade: 1990s, appeared in 91.57% of polls, but also hasn’t missed a poll yet in the 2010s. Worst full decade: 1960s, appeared in 30.14% of polls. Poll point: 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 Points) Total appearances: 48.38% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 5, 1950 No.1 rankings: 54 Best full decade: 1990s, appeared in 71.35% of polls. Worst full decade: 1960s, appeared in 15.75% of polls. Poll point: The Hoosiers’ longest stretch of consecutive weeks in the poll was 73, running from the 1990-1991 to 1994-1995 seasons.

7. LOUISVILLE (627 Points) Total appearances: 54.41% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 17, 1950 No.1 rankings: 2 Best full decade: 1970s, appeared in 75.60% of polls, but so far on pace to top that in the 2010s. Worst full decade: 1960s, appeared in 26.03% of polls. Poll point: 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 Points) Total appearances: 45.41% of all polls First appearance: Feb. 7, 1950 No.1 rankings: 37 Best full decade: 1990s, appeared in 99.44% of polls, missing only one weekly poll during the decade. Worst full decade: 1960s, didn’t appear in a single poll. Poll point: 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 Points) Total appearances: 47.77% of all polls First appearance: Dec. 25, 1951 No.1 rankings: 17 Best full decade: 1990s, appeared in 76.97% of polls. Worst full decade: 1960s, appeared in only 2.05% of polls.. Poll point: 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 Points) Total appearances: 35.81% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 18, 1949 (first-ever poll) No.1 rankings: 45 Best full decade: 1990s, appeared in 61.25% of polls. Worst full decade: 1980s, didn’t appear in a single poll during the decade. Poll point: The Bearcats are the top “mid-major” appearing more times than any other program not currently in a Power 5 conference.

11. ILLINOIS (479 Points) Total appearances: 38.86% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 18, 1949 (first-ever poll) No.1 rankings: 17 Best full decade: 1950s, appeared in 65.93% of polls, but 2000s was a close second, making 65.79% of polls Worst full decade: 1970s, appeared in 10.12% of polls. Poll point: 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 Points) Total appearances: 33.1% of all polls First appearance: Feb. 8, 1949 No.1 rankings: 37 Best full decade: 1960s, appeared in 45.21% of polls, but so far on pace to top that in the 2010s. Worst full decade: 1950s, appeared in 17.04% of polls. Poll point: Nearly 40 percent of the Buckeyes’ poll appearances have come since Thad Matta’s arrival as head coach in 2004. 13. MICHIGAN STATE (434 Points) Total appearances: 35.98% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 1, 1952 No.1 rankings: 11

Best full decade: 2000s, appeared in 71.58% of polls, but so far on pace to top that in the 2010s. Worst full decade: 1960s, appeared in 2.74% of polls. Poll point: 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 Points) Total appearances: 33.1% of all polls First appearance: Preseason 1963-1964 poll No.1 rankings: 22 Best full decade: 1990s, appeared in 65.73% of polls. Worst full decade: 1950s, didn’t appear in a single poll during the decade. Poll point: Since its first poll appearance, Michigan each decade gradually grew its percentage of poll appearances before a sevenyear 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 Points) Total appearances: 34.67% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 13, 1953 No.1 rankings: 12 Best full decade: 1980s, appeared in 83.13% of polls. Worst full decade: 1960s, didn’t appear in a single poll during the decade. Poll point: 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 Points) Total appearances: 30.04% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 26, 1954 No.1 rankings: 29 Best full decade: 2000s, appeared in 75.79% of polls. Worst full decade: 1960s and 1970s, didn’t appear in a single poll during those two decades. Poll point: 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 19881989, coach Jim Calhoun’s third season, they’ve been ranked at least once every season except one. 17. MARYLAND (400 Points)

Total appearances: 34.93% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 29, 1954 No.1rankings: 0 Best full decade: 2000s, appeared in 75.79% of polls. Worst full decade: 1960s, appeared in only one poll. Poll point: 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 Points) Total appearances: 32.49% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 31, 1950 No.1rankings: 5 Best full decade: 1970s, appeared in 72.62% of polls. Worst full decade: 1990s, appeared in only two polls. 19. VILLANOVA (372 Points) Total appearances: 30.57% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 18, 1949 (first-ever poll) No.1 rankings: 11 Best full decade: 1960s, appeared in 29.45% of polls, but will top this in the 2010s as it already has appeared in more than two-thirds of the polls so far this decade.

Worst full decade: 1970s, appeared in 13.69% of polls. Poll point: 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 (371 Points) Total appearances: 31% of all polls First appearance: Feb. 15, 1949 No.1rankings: 8 Best full decade: 2000s, appeared in 66.84% of polls. Worst full decade: 1960s, didn’t appear in a single poll during the decade. 21. MARQUETTE (366 Points) Total appearances: 31.44% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 18, 1955 No.1 rankings: 3, twice during 1970-1971 and once in 1977-1978. Best full decade: 1970s, appeared in every poll except one or 99.4% of polls. Worst full decade: 1980s, appeared in 3.01% of polls. 21. NORTH CAROLINA STATE (366 Points) Total appearances: 29.69% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 25, 1949 No.1 rankings: 13 Best full decade: 1950s, appeared in 80% of polls. Worst full decade: 1960s, appeared in 2.05% of polls. 23. IOWA (343 Points) Total appearances: 29.78% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 1, 1952 No.1rankings: 1 Best full decade: 1980s, appeared in 68.67% of polls. Worst full decade: 1970s, appeared in 8.33% of polls. 24. PURDUE (339 Points) Total appearances: 29.61% of all polls First appearance: Jan. 11, 1955 No.1rankings: 0 Best full decade: 1980s, appeared in 53.37% of polls. Worst full decade: 1950s, appeared in 3.7% of polls. 25. UNLV (321 Points) Total appearances: 22.45% of all polls First appearance: Preseason 1973-1974 poll No.1 rankings: 32 Best full decade: 1980s, appeared in 65.06% of polls. Worst full decade: 1950s and 1960s, didn’t appear in any polls