Each week, the Associated Press ranks the best college football teams in the country. At the end of the year, its number one ranked team is given at least a share of the Division I-A national championship (the winner of the coaches poll is given the other share). The poll is determined by 70 sportswriters. Each voter lists his or her top 25. The first team on the ballot gets 25 points, the second 24, on down to 1 point for the 25th ranked team. Points are added up across all 70 ballots to determine the aggregate rankings.

I thought it would be cool to make an all-decade AP poll in a similar fashion. I took the 10 year-end polls for the decade and assigned 25 points to the first place team and so on as if each year-end poll were a separate ballot. The end result is a fairly faithful reflection of how the teams performed during the decade. When combined with analyses of team's winning percentages, bowl performances, and championships, the all-decade poll provides some insights to those wishing to declare a "team of the decade", or who would rank the conferences to determine the conference of the 90s.

Some interesting things fall out of the poll below. Here's some of the most interesting:

• Five teams appeared in the final poll every time: Florida State, Florida, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Michigan. They are also the top five teams in the poll.
• One team was in the top 5 every year: Florida State.
• Wisconsin was an all-or-none story, finding the final poll just 3 times, but ranked 4th, 6th, and 6th those years.
• Texas A&M was somewhat slighted in the polls (probably due to membership in the weak Southwest Conference), finishing just 11th while having the 6th most wins in the 90s.
• Auburn, in contrast, was favored in the polls, ranking 15th despite being just 23rd overall in wins.
• Colorado, ranked 10th, is the lowest ranked team with at least one number one finish, though Georgia Tech, at #22, was coaches' poll national champion in 1990.
• Arizona State, at 26th, is the lowest ranked team with at least one top 5 finish.
• Three teams tied for 50th - Houston, Marshall, and Utah - all had one top ten finish.
• Illinois is ranked 61, the lowest ranking for any team that made more than one year-end poll.
• The 250 slots (25 per year) were filled by 67 of Division I-A's 114 schools; exactly half.

All-90s AP Poll

Rank	School	Points	#1	Top 5	Top 10	Top 25	Wins (Rank)
1	Florida State	231	2	10	10	10	1
2	Florida	194	1	5	8	10	3
3	Nebraska	172	2	5	6	10	2
4	Tennessee	163	1	2	6	10	4
5	Michigan	154	1	3	5	10	7
6	Penn State	146	0	2	4	9	5
7	Miami	137	1	3	4	9	8
8	Alabama	117	1	3	4	7	13
	Ohio State	117	0	2	3	7	9
10	Colorado	116	1	3	4	7	14
11	Texas A&M	114	0	0	3	9	6
12	Notre Dame	105	0	2	3	7	12
13	Kansas State	95	0	0	4	7	10
14	Washington	78	0	2	2	5	14
15	Auburn	67	0	1	2	6	23
16	Georgia	65	0	0	2	5	23
17	Wisconsin	62	0	1	3	3	29
18	Virginia Tech	60	0	1	2	5	20
19	UCLA	54	0	1	2	4	31
20	Syracuse	53	0	0	1	6	14
21	North Carolina	50	0	0	2	4	18
22	Georgia Tech	48	0	1	2	4	38
23	Texas	46	0	0	0	6	20
24	Arizona	44	0	1	2	3	27
25	Brigham Young	36	0	1	1	4	11
Rank	School	Points	#1	Top 5	Top 10	Top 25	Wins (Rank)
26	Arizona State	34	0	1	2	3	44
27	Iowa	33	0	0	1	4	44
	Southern Cal	33	0	0	0	3	33
	Washington State	33	0	0	1	3	61
30	Virginia	31	0	0	0	4	18
31	Oregon	30	0	0	0	3	29
32	Michigan State	29	0	0	1	2	53
	Northwestern	29	0	0	1	2	72
34	Clemson	28	0	0	1	3	31
	Oklahoma	28	0	0	0	3	44
36	Louisiana State	27	0	0	0	2	60
37	Mississippi	23	0	0	0	4	35
38	Boston College	21	0	0	0	3	55
	Kansas	21	0	0	1	2	52
	Stanford	21	0	0	1	2	50
41	North Carolina State	65	0	0	0	3	38
42	Arkansas	19	0	0	0	2	53
	California	19	0	0	1	2	56
	Colorado State	19	0	0	0	2	22
	Southern Mississippi	19	0	0	0	2	35
	Tulane	19	0	0	1	1	83
	West Virginia	19	0	0	1	1	41
48	Mississippi State	18	0	0	0	3	43
49	East Carolina	17	0	0	1	1	35
50	Houston	16	0	0	1	1	70
	Marshall	16	0	0	1	1	89
	Utah	16	0	0	1	1	27