I devised my own scoring system for ranking the all-time programs (1939 to present). The most difficult aspect of this algorithm is the conference championships, because not all conferences are equal. It's highly subjective. Still, I feel that it's important to include. Here are teams 26-50 in my rankings.
The reason why Texas is ahead of Virginia and Maryland is because of those conference titles (5 points per conference title in a power conference). Texas has 19 conference championships, while UVA and Maryland have 10 and 6, respectively. Most people are quick to recognize that UVA and UMD might be undervalued, and they probably are. When you face off against Duke and Carolina and the rest of the ACC for all of those years, conference ships are hard to come by. Inevitably, that hurts their final ranking.
I'm considering adjusting the scoring for conference titles a little bit. I have thought of additional ways to improve it, but it's going to take a lot of hours because it's not a simple 5 points for conference title; it's way more convoluted. My ranking system isn't perfect, but I believe it's better than anything else you'll find on the web. Matt Norlander ranked the
68 greatest programs of all-time, but not a huge fan of it because NBA draft picks are included in his formula. I feel like that will unnecessarily inflate some scores, as having a talented roster doesn't automatically mean that you're even having a great season.