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Pre-Bowl Top 25 and LSU 2024 Schedule

In College Football, General LSU, History, Rankings, Rankings Commentary, Rivalry on December 15, 2023 at 4:04 PM

LSU’s 2024 Schedule : Historical and Competitive Ramifications

I’ve sat down to this blog a few times, and each time some other news item comes out.  The most recent event was the release of LSU’s schedule with the actual dates. 

I decided to just cover that and the top 25 for now.  Interesting bowl games (to me anyway) are still about two weeks away, so the rest can wait.

We’ve known all the teams on LSU’s 2024 schedule for a while but not who LSU was playing on what date.  The one constant going back as long as I remember is Alabama after a bye week and between about November 3 and 12, this time on the 9th. Alabama seems to keep roughly the same order from year to year, but no one else does that I’ve noticed. 

Given the addition of the second bye, I like that it was added before Ole Miss.  That’s been a tough contest lately.  LSU has a three-game losing streak in College Station, but I’m still less worried about that game than about Ole Miss.

Texas A&M was scheduled on the traditional late October date for Ole Miss though. LSU will play the Rebels two weeks earlier, with Arkansas sandwiched in between. 

LSU WR Chris Hilton and the Tigers came up short in the final seconds in Oxford in September. LSU won four “Magnolia Bowls” in a row from 2016 to 2019, but since then the winner has always been the home team.

Florida was traditionally around the date the Ole Miss game is scheduled, but this might be the last year of what has been an annual series since 1971 anyway.  It was also after Alabama this year, so it was easy to leave it where it was.  At least they weren’t both road games in either year.

LSU doesn’t have a long ongoing annual tradition with anyone else on the 2024 schedule. 

They had only played Texas A&M once (in a bowl) between 1995 and 2012, the year the Aggies joined the SEC. LSU had previously played the Aggies in early September, but it’s different when it’s not a conference game.  

I wouldn’t be opposed to making it an early game in the future though, especially since LSU won’t play Auburn annually anymore. Mississippi St. was a typical September fixture for a while also, although on the traditional schedule they were after Alabama. I’m still annoyed LSU plays neither Auburn nor Mississippi St. next year.

Since the annual series with Tulane ended in 1994, LSU has played whatever somewhat proximate SEC is left without a good end-of-year rival. Arkansas was not particularly close to and had no longstanding recent rivalry with anyone in the SEC when it entered, so that was fine for about 20 years. Then after Missouri and Texas A&M joined (and two “transitional” years elapsed), it made sense to split that up when it became clear that the Aggies weren’t playing Texas anytime soon.

Now that the Thanksgiving/rivalry-week Longhorns-Aggies series is rekindled and Bedlam is on hiatus, it wasn’t a huge shock that LSU finishes with Oklahoma in Baton Rouge. We are used to playing a team with a reddish color from a neighboring conference to the west.

The SEC could have mixed things up in some other ways in 2024, but it was easier not to, especially since next year is just a one-off and not part of any dedicated rotation. Just as a neutral fan of college football and historical rivalries, my hope is that Oklahoma either can manage to schedule Oklahoma St. again or that they play Missouri on rivalry week. I would be OK with LSU going back to Arkansas or having some type of rotation (perhaps switching between Oklahoma and Arkansas or between Vanderbilt and Kentucky). There was some history with Kentucky. LSU played the Wildcats 51 years in a row at one point (ending with the 2002 season).

Ollie Gordon II rushes for one of two touchdowns in the 27-24 win in Stillwater, OK, on November 4. Although Bedlam has typically been a close game in recent years, Oklahoma had beaten Oklahoma St. eight of nine seasons going into 2021.  The Cowboys ended on a high note though, winning two of the last three.

As far as I’m concerned, LSU could even go back to playing Tulane if the two sides could come anywhere close to a mutually agreeable deal; but since that hasn’t happened in nearly 30 years, I’m not optimistic. There was a home-and-home in 2006 and 2007, but LSU felt like they gave up revenue from a potential home game to enrich Tulane. Since then, LSU has played every other Louisiana Division I program, all of whom seem content with being paid money to travel to Tiger Stadium occasionally rather than expecting a home-and-home exchange.

Anyway, putting tradition aside, I like that there aren’t brutal back-to-back weeks. Going to Florida after hosting Alabama isn’t ideal, but there is only one instance of LSU playing 2023 bowl teams two weeks in a row, and that’s UCLA and South Alabama (both were barely eligible and both will be home games).

USC and UCLA are separated by Nicholls St. and South Carolina. The Bruins or Gamecocks could have a good year, but I doubt both will. I don’t see much risk of looking past an SEC road game or coming down from an emotional high for the first home game that is against a Power 5 opponent.

There were years when I’ve been glad LSU got an apparently tough opponent from what we used to call the SEC East, but we didn’t need one given the out-of-conference slate. Also, I’m not even sure if you need a good non-annual schedule, especially if the SEC eventually adds a ninth game, in the playoff system. I guess we will see how lines get drawn between 4 and 5, 8 and 9, and 12 and 13 in playoff selection

Top 25

Other than their effects upon the Playoff resumes as mentioned in the previous blog, I didn’t have much to say about the conference championship games because they weren’t very surprising.  I don’t know why Oregon was favored by so much; but as I kept telling everyone, they didn’t deserve it.  I wasn’t a big believer in Georgia since the only SEC West teams they faced were Auburn and Ole Miss and they didn’t do anything out of conference until beating an average Georgia Tech team a couple of weeks ago.  Very good Alabama teams have struggled with Auburn before, so I didn’t attach much importance to that.  In lieu of Georgia, I admittedly picked the “wrong” Big Ten team as #1, but it wasn’t my fault Ohio St. had a better schedule than Michigan.  As expected, the Wolverines had no problem with Iowa. 

I’m listing my top 25 teams below, but I think they all fairly logically proceed from the results of those games and what I had written about the Playoff teams last week.

RankTeamLast
1 Washington 1
2 Michigan 2
3 Alabama 5
4 Texas 4
5 Florida St. 6
6 Georgia 3
7 Ohio St. 7
8 Oklahoma 11
9 Oregon 8
10 Penn St. 9
11 Ole Miss 10
12 Missouri 13
13 Liberty 17
14 LSU 15
15 Iowa 12
16 James Madison 14
17 Troy 22
18 Louisville 16
19 Notre Dame 21
20 N Carolina St. 18
21 So. Methodist
22 Tulane 19
23 Toledo 20
24 Arizona 24
25 Miami U.
Out of Top 25: (23) Oklahoma St., (25) Oregon St.

Honorable mention: Kansas St., Oklahoma St., Oregon St., Clemson, Memphis

Reaction to CFP and LSU’s Bowl Selection

In College Football, College Football Playoff, General LSU, Post-game, Rankings, Rankings Commentary on December 3, 2023 at 4:47 PM

My top 4 agrees with the committee’s, and I would even have the same matchups. I would have had Washington and Texas in the Rose Bowl though, which makes more sense geographically; and I wouldn’t have made the Longhorns (who are supposedly the worse seed) close being at home.

My top 4 is based on the best teams.  I’m not saying that I don’t think a team like Florida St., which went undefeated and even played two programs with multiple championships in the last 20 years out of conference, should be included in the top 4; but I think Alabama and Texas both have strengths of schedule that cancel out the additional loss and then some.

Florida St.’s Exclusion

The committee’s instructions do not include something that says, “an undefeated conference champion should be given priority over a conference champion who is not undefeated.” 

I would be OK with adding such a stipulation, especially if it also added language that said an exception could be made if the non-conference schedule is particularly weak, which would certainly not be the case here. 

My point is the committee did its job.  If I were a one-man committee with the same instructions, I would have put aside my preference for including Florida St. and given the same list of best 4 teams.

There is also language that the committee can consider injuries to major players.  I don’t consider anything like that in my formula, and I can’t think of any consistent way you could apply that to any formula.  There are no strict standards for injury reporting in college football like there is in the NFL.  Even if there were, it would be difficult to enforce that and provide consistent oversight for injury reports of all 133 teams and then add those reports to a formula.  I don’t like the idea of using that as an argument because every team has a mix of players who are hurt or otherwise unavailable from game to game that can affect any outcome.  Others are playing hurt or playing with some other type of stress or distraction.

In the only touchdown drive of the game by either team, Lawrance Toafili (#9) rushed for 75 yards in two plays. Florida St. won the ACC championship, 16-6, over Louisville in Charlotte last night. It was the Seminoles’ first conference championship (and first 13-0 start) since Jimbo Fisher and Jameis Winston led the team in 2014.

What I do think is fair, and what I think the committee did, is to look at how they played at the end of the year.  They did not look like a top-4 team against Florida or Louisville.  I don’t think they looked like a top-20 team in either game.  I have Louisville in the top 20; but if I considered the trajectory of their season, I wouldn’t have them anywhere close.  I have Kentucky #47 right now, and the Wildcats won at Louisville 8 days ago.

I don’t include that in my formula, but I’ve never had a problem with the basketball or baseball committee’s giving more weight to recent results, and I don’t fault the football committee for doing so.  If there were no SEC championship and Alabama beat Georgia earlier in the year, I wouldn’t want them to be given less credit for that, but obviously the committee isn’t being unfair about when you any played a given game.  If anything, I think they’re being charitable to Texas for not considering how long ago the Alabama game was (or any game against a top-20 opponent was) in ranking Texas #3.  But the point is that’s why I don’t include it in my formula.  It could yield unfair results that way, but a person can avoid such outcomes.

So I have Florida St. fifth without considering margin of victory, how the Seminoles looked in those games, or the Jordan Travis injury.  I also didn’t consider how Florida and Louisville were playing, just their respective seasons as a whole.  So I think there are more than enough factors not to consider Florida St. to be a top-4 team.  It’s not just one thing.  But as I said, I’m very sympathetic if you ask me who should get to play for the championship instead of who the four best teams are.

Some people are coping by saying, “at least it’s an expanded playoff next year”; but that doesn’t give me any consolation personally.  None of the major-conference championship games would have been for a spot in the top 12 this year.  I might not even watch next year if LSU isn’t in it.  There is a good chance the committee will already know exactly who the top 12 is by championship weekend, and the games will solely be for seeding.  I’ll have my opinions again, but it will lose a lot of the excitement.

Alabama vs. Texas

To go back to the Alabama-Texas discussion I began in previous blogs (especially the last rankings blog) and touched on a couple of paragraphs ago, I think too much attention is being paid to a head-to-head game in September and not enough attention is being paid to all the games since then.  I have Alabama #2 in strength of schedule vs. FBS teams and Texas 21st.  Texas does get a little more credit for playing all FBS teams though.  If I ignore Chattanooga from Alabama’s schedule and drop Baylor from Texas’s schedule, Alabama still ends up stronger.  The average of the best 12 teams Alabama faced is about equal to that of #39 Iowa St.  The average of the best 12 teams Texas faced is about equal to that of #51 Northwestern.

So now I’m going to get to arguments from outside of looking at the computers.  Alabama has a better loss from longer ago.  The #1 wins by each team are roughly even (Alabama vs. Georgia), but I would give Alabama more credit for getting the win in December versus September.  Even if you still give Texas a point from there to make the two teams even, I don’t know how you argue LSU and Ole Miss aren’t better wins than Oklahoma St. and Kansas St. 

I think Texas would have to have a far superior list of the more middle-of-the-road wins to overcome that, and I don’t think they do.  Texas beat Wyoming, Iowa St., and Texas Tech.  Alabama beat Kentucky, Texas A&M, and Auburn.  Those are pretty similar lists of three.  Although it did fall a little short, I do think the Longhorns made a very good attempt at playing the necessary type of schedule to prepare them for an SEC season.  If you’re one of those people who says, “sorry, that win over Auburn was ugly and if they’re that close, I’m going with head to head,” that’s a reasonable point of view.  It’s just not how I see it.  I would have been perfectly happy to have joined you in laughing at Alabama if Texas and Florida St. had made it ahead of the Tide though.

Alabama WR Isaiah Bond (who may have pushed off first) catches the go-ahead touchdown pass on fourth and 31 in Auburn 8 days ago. The need for a miracle finish in this situation is one argument against Alabama’s inclusion in the top 4.

As I mentioned, what I don’t like is when someone says, “I don’t care what else they did, they each have a loss and Alabama’s is to Texas. End of story.”  That’s just wanting to rush to a conclusion and not consider the season as a whole.  Word keeps telling me not to use the phrase “season as a whole,” but I don’t know a better way to distinguish my more holistic approach from the approach of just cherry-picking a couple of factoids and stopping there.

Washington vs. Michigan

I don’t have strong feelings about Washington ahead of Michigan, but I’ll lay out the arguments.  I have Michigan about 99% as good as Washington, so there isn’t a huge separation.  I like that Washington had a much tougher game this weekend, but obviously Michigan had a much tougher rivalry-week opponent.  Maybe some of the narrow margins of victory (both Oregon games, Arizona, Arizona St., Utah, Oregon St., and Washington St. were all within one possession) hurt the Huskies.  Michigan had a robust list of top-three wins: Ohio St., Penn St., and Iowa.  I think Oregon would beat Ohio St. and Penn St. but it was just unfortunate for the Ducks that they had to play a top-2 team twice instead of Ohio St.’s once.  Iowa is a better third win than Washington’s third, which might be Arizona.  But then Michigan’s fourth- and fifth-best wins are UNLV and Bowling Green (they didn’t play Northwestern or Wisconsin, which are my two highest Big Ten teams after Iowa).  I strongly believe both would lose to both Oregon St. and Utah and probably USC as well.

LSU Bowl Selection Reaction

D’Cota Dixon celebrates the game-clinching interception of LSU QB Brandon Harris in 2016 in Green Bay, Wisc., as LSU was driving with just under a minute left in the game. This was one of the final nails in the coffin for LSU head coach Les Miles, who was fired three weeks later.

I’m sure I’ll go more into bowl match-ups later, but I’m disappointed that LSU will be playing Wisconsin.  I was hoping for either Notre Dame, which would give the Tigers a chance to get revenge for some foolishness in bowl losses over the last 10 years (as well as being the Brian Kelly bowl), or Iowa.  The contrast in styles for Iowa/LSU would have been worth getting up early for.  Wisconsin isn’t an offensive juggernaut – they haven’t scored more than 30 points in a game since September – but they’re not Iowa.  Wisconsin isn’t even in my top 50.  I think either LSU won’t get up for the game and it will be ugly regardless of the winner or we could get another blowout like last season.  Neither would be a very satisfying end to the year. It’s one of six bowl games between the SEC and the Big Ten.

Top 25 Later This Week

I have my top 25 ready.  Of course it’s mostly based on my ratings with a few adjustments, but I don’t want to overshadow it with all of the discussion of the top 4, so look for that later in the week.

Rivalry Week Top 25 & Look Ahead

In College Football, College Football Playoff, General LSU, Post-game, Rankings, Rankings Commentary on November 29, 2023 at 8:13 PM

I started writing this at a reasonable time, but I had some distractions and decided to add an extra section. I settled on just one picture to get it published faster. Even my cat is wondering what’s taking so long.

CFP Reaction and Playoff Considerations

The committee has had last-second changes of heart before, but I think they’re still telegraphing pretty clearly that the Pac-12 championship game is for a playoff spot. They don’t care if Oregon only has the 52nd toughest schedule, compared to Alabama having the #5 schedule (vs. FBS), Ohio St. having the #25 schedule, and Texas having the #31 schedule. (Texas did not play an FCS opponent, so I’d argue for the Longhorns ahead of the Buckeyes assuming a win this weekend.) They just love Bo Nix and his passes that travel all of five yards in the air regardless of the competition. I’m usually for undefeated teams that keep getting lucky (like Washington) to lose but not in this case. I don’t dislike Oregon or Bo Nix, I’ve talked about him and his family positively on this blog. I just hate these hype campaigns and biased “eye tests” that ignore facts.

Anyway, a secondary issue is that Ohio St. is too high as the #2 one-loss team according to the committee, but I highly doubt Alabama stays behind the idle Buckeyes if the Tide beat Georgia. I’d be more worried if I were Texas. I’ve talked about how if it came down to Texas and Alabama, Texas would go ahead due to head-to-head; but there is no such issue if the last spot were to come down to Ohio St. and Alabama. Just keep that in mind if you’re counting on Saban not being in the Playoff.

I did notice something that I believe helps a potential argument for an SEC team to either be in the playoff with one loss or be #1 even if there are multiple undefeated teams. It’s that the top 5 teams in the SEC (Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss, Missouri, and LSU) have only lost to each other or to a team in the CFP top 7 (or in my top 7).

The only two home losses by the top 5 of the SEC were Alabama to Texas and Missouri to LSU. I mention that because it generally took a hostile environment combined with a very good team to bring these teams down. I think given that Ole Miss had to play both championship contenders (both on the road) and beat LSU, they belong ahead of Missouri, but that’s another mystery of the committee. Maybe they just don’t like Lane Kiffin’s tweets.

So if Alabama wins, they will have beaten three of the four other teams in the top 5 (all but Missouri). If Georgia wins, they will also have beaten three of the four other teams (all but LSU).

Anyway, you obviously don’t get that kind of quality anywhere else. I have been an advocate for Oregon St., but they have four losses now and even this committee who loves the Pac-12 only has them 20th. That’s a big drop off. They lost to a Washington St. team who finished with a losing record. Arizona, who’s become the darling Pac-12 team lately, lost to a mediocre USC team and lost to Mississippi St., who like Wazzu finishes with a losing record.

You can go three teams deep in the Big Ten, but Big Ten #4 Iowa has that ugly loss to Minnesota, who also finished with a losing record. It wasn’t necessarily a fair loss, but maybe if the Golden Gophers had needed another score to win, it would have changed the way the game ended. The point is the top of the SEC isn’t nearly as threatened with mediocrity as the top of these other conferences has been.

I shouldn’t even have to mention the Big XII. The team that made the title game (they don’t have divisions, so they’re not #4 and lucked into the title game like Iowa did, they actually finished second overall in the conference {winning a tie-breaker over Oklahoma}) lost to South Alabama by 26, to Iowa St. by 7, and to Central Florida by 42! Those three teams each barely qualified for a bowl, and South Alabama is 6-6 despite playing in the Sun Belt. Losing to Oklahoma, a team who lost to Oklahoma St., should count against Texas even if the Longhorns will have beaten the Cowboys. And it shouldn’t be brushed off as, “Texas only lost a team who tied for second in their conference, no big deal.”

I took some criticism this week in one of the discussion groups I’m in for not thinking head-to-head tie-breakers are always fair. The Big XII is a perfect example. Texas was the #1 team. I think if two teams are tied for second, the first question should be “did you play the #1 team?” If the answer for one is yes and the other is no, the team who answered yes should win the tie-breaker. You don’t reward the team who answered no and lost to worst teams (Oklahoma St. and Kansas went a combined 12-6 in the Big XII; Iowa St. and Central Florida went a combined 9-9).

So let’s say undefeated Florida St., undefeated Michigan, 1-loss Oregon, 1-loss Georgia, 1-loss Washington, 1-loss Ohio St., 1-loss Texas, and 1-loss Alabama. We can put the undefeated teams aside, but I think when you rank the one-loss teams by resume, the first thing you should ask is “was the one loss to one of the teams in this pool of playoff candidates”. If it was, those teams should get a leg up. In this case, that would be all the 1-loss teams except Texas. Then we’d talk about wins. Texas and Alabama will have had the two best wins in my opinion, but then who’s #2 and #3? Texas’s would be borderline top-25 teams Kansas St. and Oklahoma St. Alabama’s would be solid top-15 teams Ole Miss and LSU. I don’t think you ignore that because Texas was the better team on a given Saturday in September.

I’m not saying how you sort out the rest of that mess if it happens, but I am saying I think in that scenario I’d like to see Alabama with a higher ranking than Texas. I like a fair national championship system more than I like to see Nick Saban upset, but it’s a close call, so I won’t be all that angry if Texas goes ahead. This isn’t SEC homerism either. I mentioned Georgia. I’d have to see how the numbers shake out, but right now I have Georgia 81st in schedule strength vs. FBS and Texas 31st. They’ll get closer this weekend but not that much closer; and as mentioned, I’d give Texas an edge for not having played an FCS opponent also. In addition, I’m also in favor of resolving doubts in favor of conference champions, at least while we still have a 4-team playoff. So I’d want a 1-loss Texas ahead of a 1-loss Georgia.

LSU’s Defense Going Forward

The drumbeats about LSU needing a new defensive coordinator continue despite the results over the weekend seemingly casting down on that necessity.

Texas A&M recently scored 51 points against Mississippi St., a team against which Ole Miss only managed 17 points on Thanksgiving. The Aggies managed less than 60% of that total against LSU on Saturday.

Are they really sure LSU’s defense hasn’t improved from giving up 55 to Ole Miss?

Also, they keep repeating the idea that the LSU coaching staff was not able to make defensive adjustments. That’s interesting given that Texas A&M scored 24 points in the first 39 minutes (0.62 points per minute) and only 6 in the remaining 21 minutes (0.29 points per minute).

Jayden Daniels breaks free of the Texas A&M front seven in the first half in Baton Rouge on Saturday. Although two of the touchdowns were 1-yard runs by running backs, Daniels led the Tigers to six touchdown drives versus just three punts against the best defense the Tigers have faced all season. Daniels accounted for 235 yards passing and 120 yards rushing. LSU runs its record to 9-3 against the Aggies since the latter joined the SEC in 2012. Texas A&M has not won in Baton Rouge since 1994.

Texas A&M is the second-beat team LSU beat. Against the best team, the Tigers were also improved in the second half. Missouri had scored 25 in the first half against LSU and only 14 in the second half. Then the anti-House activists say weird things like, “if LSU doesn’t get a pick-6, they might have lost that game.” Is that not a good defensive play? It’s just bizarre. They also say that about Greg Penn’s interception against Texas A&M, by the way, even though if you add 7 points to A&M’s total, LSU still wins comfortably. Remember, LSU went into victory formation on first and goal.

Alabama did score 21 in each half; but in the second half, the Tide was aided by an interception of their own deep in LSU territory. Alabama was scoreless over the last 13 minutes. Obviously, they had no urgency to score with Jayden Daniels sidelined and a 14-point lead, but Alabama does not fail to score points at the end of games just to be nice. And that’s a close enough margin not to put all the bench warmers in to see what happens.

Speaking of Alabama, they gave up 6 more points to Auburn last weekend than LSU did. Maybe Saban doesn’t know what he’s doing, right? I know he’s not the coordinator, but I think every knows the buck stops with him on defense at least.

The game before Texas A&M was against Georgia St., a Sun Belt team roughly equivalent to the South Alabama team I mentioned in the previous section (so not the type of team completely incapable of an upset of a top 25 opponent). They scored 14 points in the first 17:15 of the game, but they didn’t score again after that. Are we sure no adjustment was made to ensure that?

I’m not saying Matt House is the best defensive coordinator LSU can get or that he’s worth the salary he’s being paid. But like I was saying about the playoff committee, I really don’t like when facts and a fair evaluation of those facts is pushed aside to push a narrative. It’s the worst defense ever. There were never any improvements at any point during a given game or during the season. Every time they held someone below 20, it’s because the opposing offense was trash and really should have been shut out. This is what the LSU radio shows and podcasts say almost every day.

Before the Alabama game, some of these same commentators admitted that since halftime of the Missouri game, the LSU defense had gotten better. This is when they were pushing the narrative that LSU had a good chance in that game.

Now that they’re pushing the narrative that Jayden Daniels was perfect even in the losses (to be fair, he was pretty close to perfect in the loss to Ole Miss), it’s back to pretending there was functionally no defense at all at any point in any SEC game. I’d like to see Jayden Daniels win the Heisman as much as anyone, but you can just say (accurately) there were a lot of defensive struggles without which he would have had more possessions and a better record. You don’t have to ignore every modicum of success the defense had.

It seems that LSU is not doing all that great in getting defense recruits even though they need them. The media hosts I’m talking about think that’s proof of what they’re saying. I think it’s more proof that the things they’re saying are being believed, not that they’re all true. So the lies and exaggerations that might be made with the idea of helping Jayden Daniels (and that’s my attempt to be charitable about the motivations) might be doing some harm in other areas.

Comments About My Top 25

Michigan had 99.92% as many points (if we set #133 Kent St. at 0 points) as Washington, so it was an extremely close call for #1. I think this is the first time I’ve ever personally ranked Washington #1. I did think they were better than U. Miami in 1991 though. Georgia, who was only playing Georgia Tech, was not surprisingly passed up by Michigan. That does not mean the Bulldogs won’t be in the running for #1 with a win over Alabama though.

I think most of the other teams moved up in a logical and predictable way. You still get a fair amount of credit for beating teams that aren’t in the top 25, and there are a few that are that don’t cause too much damage. That’s why you see a big jump by North Carolina St. Similarly, Louisville only fell a few spots for losing to Kentucky. Oregon St. has lost three out of five games, but they were all to teams ranked higher, so I don’t mind them being #25. The alternative was Kansas St., who just lost to #39 Iowa St.

The Wildcats lead my honorable mentions list though, trading places with Oklahoma St. North Carolina and UNLV lost and were replaced by Kansas and Utah, who were still hanging around after recently falling out of the top 25. Clemson and Memphis remained on the list from last week.

My Top 25

RankTeamLast
1 Washington 2
2 Michigan 4
3 Georgia 3
4 Texas 5
5 Alabama 6
6 Florida St. 7
7 Ohio St. 1
8 Oregon 9
9 Penn St. 8
10 Ole Miss 10
11 Oklahoma 11
12 Iowa 15
13 Missouri 12
14 James Madison 18
15 LSU 17
16 Louisville 13
17 Liberty 14
18 N Carolina St. 24
19 Tulane 22
20 Toledo 20
21 Notre Dame 19
22 Troy 21
23 Oklahoma St.
24 Arizona 25
25 Oregon St. 23
Out of Top 25: (16) Kansas St.

Honorable mention: Kansas St., Clemson, Memphis, Kansas, Utah

Week 12 Top 25 and CFP Notes 2023

In Bowls, College Football, College Football Playoff, General LSU, History, Rankings, Rankings Commentary on November 22, 2023 at 5:04 PM

Ratings and College Football Playoff Response/Prediction

The first four teams are all undefeated now, just in time to lose at least one undefeated team this weekend.  It happens to be the same top four as the CFP top 25.  I can argue until I’m blue in the face about Oregon, but I guess people like flashy offenses and uniforms (not to mention years of a hype and a nationwide ad campaign for the quarterback) more than they like a good strength of schedule.  It seems like they’re setting up the possibility of Oregon going to the Playoff in the event of revenge wins over Oregon St. (for last year) and Washington (for both last year and earlier this season).

Putting aside the CFP ramifications, I think Oregon might have some motivation to win this next game.

I don’t think Washington, Georgia, or Florida St. (another undefeated not in the top four) have much chance of a loss this coming weekend, but losses by none of them (except maybe Georgia) would be much stranger than the time 4-7 Pitt beat 10-1 West Virginia in 2007 to help LSU make the championship game. 

Florida and Washington St. have five wins apiece and are playing for bowl eligibility as well as in-state bragging rights, while Georgia Tech is already bowl-eligible.  A late pick-six is likely the only reason Washington beat Arizona St., who is only 3-8.  Despite one fewer win, Florida is a better team than Boston College, whom Florida St. only beat by 2.  Georgia hasn’t really come close to a loss though.

Alabama and Florida St. both lost ground compared to higher teams as a result of playing FCS opponents.  Alabama probably lost a bit less since the SEC gained strength with out-of-conference wins and because Chattanooga is an FCS playoff team.

I suspect that unless Washington and Georgia remain undefeated, removing Oregon and Alabama from the running in the process, the plan is that Florida St. will be excluded from the Playoff.  I don’t know if this was the plan before their QB Jordan Travis was hurt or not.

I don’t think the CFP standings after Alabama matter too much for the national championship, but LSU fans (ironically) should cheer for Missouri and Ole Miss to lose for a better chance at a selection committee (or NY6) bowl or at the CapitalOne Bowl.  It’s ironic because normally it would be a good thing if no one outside of the top 12 beat you and you had a top-10 win, but that’s not how the logic of bowl placement works.

It would be more logical for LSU fans to cheer for Alabama to beat Georgia (whom LSU did not play, if you haven’t noticed) in the SEC Championship game because that would retain the possibility of there being two SEC playoff teams.  This might not be the year for that to happen though given the possibility of four undefeated teams going into championship weekend.  There are also a couple of other teams (I mentioned Oregon; there is also Texas) who could be good one-loss candidates as conference champions.  I think one-loss Texas will go ahead of one-loss Alabama even if they shouldn’t.

Anyway, the rest of this is just about my ratings, not the CFP rankings or what I think they will do.

The Big Ten is now much closer to the Pac-12, which is now #3, as they can look forward to taking the Pac-12’s two best teams (as well as UCLA and USC, which are more in the middle).  They would still be behind the SEC, which will add the Big XII’s two best teams.

I mentioned Arizona St. earlier.  Oregon’s win over the Sun Devils allowed them to get past Ole Miss, who beat an inferior UL-Monroe squad.  Other relatively small differences in quality of opponents accounted for the movement in the rest of the top 20, apart from James Madison, who lost to Appalachian St.  Oregon St. fell a smaller number of spots for losing to Washington, which was a close game as expected.

I had a little bit of trouble figuring out the last two.  I strongly considered Oklahoma St. and Clemson, but they each had three losses that were all big negatives.  Arizona had only one bad loss and one that was mediocre.  Oregon St. and North Carolina St. only had one mediocre-to-bad loss apiece.  Oklahoma St. had the best list of wins, but the others had comparable good wins.  I didn’t hold the fourth loss (to Florida St.) against Clemson, but there weren’t really strong wins to counterbalance the other losses.

It might seem a little weird that North Carolina still has honorable mention status, but the four teams directly below them (Kansas, Utah, Tennessee, and USC) all lost also. Another interesting one is UNLV, whom I have never ranked in the top 25.

My Top 25

RankTeamLast
1 Ohio St. 1
2 Washington 2
3 Georgia 5
4 Michigan 4
5 Texas 6
6 Alabama 7
7 Florida St. 3
8 Penn St. 8
9 Oregon 10
10 Ole Miss 9
11 Oklahoma 13
12 Missouri 12
13 Louisville 15
14 Liberty 16
15 Iowa 14
16 Kansas St. 17
17 LSU 18
18 James Madison 11
19 Notre Dame 23
20 Toledo 21
21 Troy 20
22 Tulane 22
23 Oregon St. 19
24 N Carolina St.
25 Arizona
Out of Top 25: (24) Utah, (25) Memphis

Honorable mention: Oklahoma St., UNLV, Clemson, Memphis, North Carolina

Week 11 Top 25 2023

In College Football, College Football Playoff, General LSU, History, Post-game, Preview, Rankings, Rankings Commentary on November 17, 2023 at 9:00 AM

I was supposed to have time to do this on Wednesday but ended up having an unusually long (and rainy) work day instead, so I’m writing this on Thursday night (Friday morning for many of you).

Best-laid plans of mice and A&M boosters, I suppose.

Recap of LSU/Florida and Rivalry

It wasn’t because there was nothing to write about. I’m happy to make fun of Texas A&M and Florida, who lost a fifth straight to LSU. No one else has a losing streak to LSU that goes back to the national championship season (unless Vanderbilt’s streak of two counts). Although the LSU/Florida series dates back to 1937 and has been played annually since 1971, this was the first time LSU won five straight. Florida had once won nine straight from 1988 to 1996, but LSU now has its first lead in the series since then. If LSU doesn’t win another game this season, I’ll still feel some measure of success from that fact.

While it is unlikely that the LSU/Florida series will continue annually beyond that, the Tigers will at least make the return trip to Gainesville next year. I will endeavor to update the key Rivalry Series in the next week or so.

Not to be bitter about it, but the damage is done anyway. Having to play Florida every year, which included going to the Swamp every even year (apart from 2016), at least more often than not placed the Tigers at a disadvantage in the SEC West as far back as 1996. I guess it did in years before that too, but LSU was so bad it didn’t really matter. LSU had also played Auburn, which was strong for roughly the same time period, on the road in even years. The combined influence of those two games prevented LSU from winning the West in an even year until last season. The other SEC Championship appearances had been 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011, and 2019. I acknowledge a certain crimson opponent played a role as well, but LSU’s unique struggles with them really only started in the 2012 calendar year.

LSU had to play Auburn every year by virtue of being in the West (that series will not be played next year), but had the Florida series not been made permanent, playing a different SEC East opponent could have made the difference in 1996 (when LSU would been one game better rather than losing a tie-breaker with Alabama) and 2006 (when LSU would have won a tie-breaker with Arkansas, but the additional loss made that irrelevant).

Given that the game was typically in early October though, it put the Tigers behind in 8-ball in several additional seasons. For example, LSU would have known going into the Arkansas game in 2000 that a win would have sent them to Atlanta (ironically, they went to Atlanta anyway to play in the Peach Bowl). Florida dealt LSU its first loss in 2008, and QB Jarrett Lee was never the same again. If it weren’t for his late-season penchant for throwing “pick sixes”, LSU could have easily won all but one other SEC game. LSU also nearly lost to Troy later in that season (seems like that would have taught the AD a lesson, but I digress). I doubt it affected the SEC championship games, but Florida also dealt LSU its first losses in 2012 and 2018, respectively.

Anyway, this was the largest win by either team since LSU’s 41-11 win in 2011. I’ll give the Gators credit for keeping it close for a while though. It didn’t help LSU that, as a result of a poorly-fielded kickoff, the Gators were able to score twice in just a couple of minutes to take a 28-24 lead in the third quarter. Jayden Daniels is a little bit more reliable for generating points than hoping for points off of turnovers and other miscues though, so the Tigers outscored the Gators 28-7 the rest of the way.

Jayden Daniels rushes against Florida on Saturday in Baton Rouge. He ran so well, I can’t even be certain which play this was; but I believe it was the 85-yard touchdown that was along the left side of the field. Daniels became the first person to pass for 200 yards and run for 200 yards in an SEC game at some point in the third quarter, but he finished with over 350 passing yards, which had never been done along with that many rushing yards. Johnny Manziel had thrown for 200 and rushed for 200 once; but that was in a bowl game, so we really hadn’t seen anything like this before.

The LSU defense and coordinator Matt House continue to get a lot of flak, but keeping Alabama within one possession at least until the fourth quarter (if not the entire rest of the game) and keeping Florida from getting a lead the whole game would have been something to be proud of. It’s just not helpful if you put them on the field with their backs close to the end zone seconds after the previous drive ends.

Response to College Football Playoff Top 25

I’ll start by saying there is nothing really new in terms of grievances with the College Football Playoff’s top 25. Oregon’s being ahead of Alabama and Texas continues to make no sense if you care about schedule strength.

At least Oregon St. is no longer the top 2-loss team, having been passed by Missouri. I don’t expect the Beavers will stay the one of the top 2-loss teams indefinitely anyway given games against Washington and Oregon coming up. If they win both, I’ll be happy for them to be the top 2-loss team though. More on them below.

I’d also like them to care more about the schedules of teams like Arizona and North Carolina, but those are far enough down that I’m not sure they really matter. The Arizona/Arizona St. game might actually be game though. It looked like it was going to be a pillow fight earlier in the year.

Comments about My Ratings

I had a bit of time to smooth out the rough edges this weekend and I still liked the results to add the original ratings back in as I described last week.  It also makes sense for some of the teams lower in the ratings because there is a number I have to adjust to factor in the bad teams so one bad loss doesn’t swallow multiple wins.  I can re-add the original ratings without that adjustment though, which I think is the fairer approach.

I was also able to do conference ratings and strength of schedule.  I will wait another week to see if the strength of schedule is giving teams enough credit in the ratings.  That might also be a further adjustment to the formula.  The same basic numbers and computations are being used regardless, it’s just been a continuing balancing act over years between giving credit for wins and giving credit for quality of competition.

It’s amazing that LSU, Ole Miss, and Penn St. have only seven combined losses and are still in the top 7 of the strength of schedule.  Duke is the only other team in the top 12 with a winning record.  Others in the top 20 with winning records are Utah, Kansas St., Kansas, Notre Dame, Missouri, and USC.  I did opt not to put Kansas in the top 25 below due to some of the losses they have though.

I think it’s fair that even though Michigan and Georgia still don’t have great schedules that this recognizes their schedules are now comparable enough that they should be ranked ahead of teams with losses like Texas and Alabama. I think barring any major upsets (based on rank, not necessarily based on betting line), most people would agree that the Top 4 should be Big Ten champion, SEC champion, undefeated Florida St., and undefeated Washington. If Alabama were to lose the SEC championship, the next beneficiary (for now) of a potential upset should be Texas if they win out. This recognizes that.

The conference ratings weren’t very surprising.  The SEC and Big Ten are neck and neck, but I think the SEC will pull away slightly next week given the out-of-conference games.  There are non-conference games the week after that, but I don’t like Kentucky’s, Florida’s, or South Carolina’s chances against ACC opponents (I’m not too worried about Georgia), so that might bring the SEC closer to the Big Ten again.

The SEC would still be ahead after adding the new programs to the Big Ten and the SEC.  That’s not really proof of too much about next season anyway given that Washington, Oklahoma, etc., can’t get as many good wins without hurting someone else in their respective future conferences next season.  It might mean that the Big Ten will be harder to beat in future seasons; but on the other hand, maybe Oregon and Washington fall back to the more mediocre status they occupied not too long ago.

Washington is very close to getting the top spot in the computer ratings.  I definitely think the Huskies will have that spot with a win, but they might lose it the week after (Washington St. wouldn’t count for nearly as much as Michigan would) and reclaim it the week after that (Oregon would count for a lot more than Iowa would). I expect to keep Ohio St. #1 here however for the next couple of weeks absent a loss or something really concerning. I’ll be very interested in how the ratings shape up after the conference championships though.

The initial line I saw had Washington barely favored over Oregon St., and then I saw one in which the Beavers were favored.  I definitely think that’s the big game this weekend. As I’ve mentioned, the Huskies have a couple of very narrow wins at home, so playing a team that’s been playing well on the road might be a challenge.  They might gain more support in the polls and the CFP with the win also, but those are much more stubborn than my ratings are.

Another Heisman candidate now, Michael Penix, Jr., throws under pressure against Oregon St. in Seattle last November. The Huskies won at the last second, 24-21, so it makes sense that the Beavers are given a very good chance to win at home this time despite the Huskies’ undefeated record.

I feel bad for Oregon St. that they lost a close game in Pullman when Wazzu was playing well, but the Cougars have gone down like the Hindenburg since then.

Three of the Honorable Mentions got promoted last week, so keep an eye on those. This week, all but one is in a Power Five conference, so that’s a noticeable change. That one other team is Coastal Carolina, the only one that hasn’t been ranked at some point this season.

My Top 25

RankTeamLast
1 Ohio St. 1
2 Washington 3
3 Florida St. 2
4 Michigan 6
5 Georgia 7
6 Texas 4
7 Alabama 5
8 Penn St. 9
9 Ole Miss 8
10 Oregon 11
11 James Madison 10
12 Missouri 16
13 Oklahoma 13
14 Iowa 19
15 Louisville 14
16 Liberty 17
17 Kansas St. 24
18 LSU 25
19 Oregon St. 21
20 Troy 20
21 Toledo
22 Tulane
23 Notre Dame 23
24 Utah 18
25 Memphis
Out of Top 25: (12) Kansas, (15) Oklahoma St., (22) Tennessee

Honorable mention: Kansas, Oklahoma St., Coastal Carolina, North Carolina, Southern CA

Week 10 Top 25 2023

In College Football, General LSU, Rankings, Rankings Commentary on November 8, 2023 at 4:51 PM

I mentioned in the last blog that my ratings were delayed this week.  I realized while I was compiling them that not enough credit was being given for playing a series of good opponents.  I’m ok with giving undefeated teams or teams with very good records against mediocre to bad opponents the benefit of the doubt, but I’m not OK with James Madison being #6, Liberty being #11, and Troy being #17.  I think if any of those teams played a random selection of top 25 opponents every week, their record would be about 1-9 or 2-8 right now.  

Adjusted Approach to Top 25 and Possibly to Ratings

In recent years I added what I called weights to “good” games. 

To explain how this came about, my original formula from about 18 years ago was sort of based on a 10-point scale.  If you beat every team you played and those teams beat every team they played apart from you, you’d be between 9 and 10 depending on how good the opponents of the teams you beat were.  This was the entire rating at first, but it later became sort of the first round where I used that number to decide how much credit you got for a win or how much you got subtracted for a loss. 

Realistically the best teams can hope to be around 7 (Ohio St. right now is 6.676).  So what I did with the “weights” was if you played teams better than 5 points (which right now is 14 teams), you’d have a certain number added to your overall rating.  Another 16 teams are between 4.25 and 5, so I would add a smaller number for playing those teams. 

This was regardless of whether you won or lost because you already lost points, so getting some of them back because it’s a good team isn’t a bad thing.  I don’t just want to reward beating them.  I wouldn’t want to reward Texas for beating Alabama and losing to Kansas St. (if the Longhorns had lost over the weekend) where I would not reward another team (like LSU) for beating Missouri and losing to Alabama. I actually think it’s better if you consistently beat teams lower than you and only fall short if you have a very good opponent.

Anyway, I’m starting to question if that’s the best approach.  Wherever I draw the line is ultimately going to be kind of arbitrary. I mentioned the 5-point thing.  Kansas is 4.98.  How much less credit should you get for beating them than you do for beating Louisville at 5.01?

I also didn’t want to go backwards and introduce more subjectivity on my part.  What I decided to do was just to add that initial number to what I have been publishing as the computer ratings.  I could only use a fraction of that number because the other ratings right now tops out at 0.93.  For most top 25 teams, the largest number is about 10x the smallest number, so I though the fairest thing to do was divide the largest number by 10 and then add the two together.

I’m still giving myself the leeway to move teams up to three spots for the top 25.  I might go down to two next week, and I will let you know if I made a change to the published ratings.  I want to see how it plays out.  Sometimes when I make changes, they’re great for one week but I quickly see problems going from one week to the next.  That’s fine for my top 25, but I don’t think it’s good for the computer rating.  It’s good to be able to compare numbers over longer periods of time. 

Big Picture for LSU after Bama Loss

I had a couple other quick thoughts about Saturday’s game. I’ve mentioned LSU’s personnel issues on defense. I also mentioned that the LSU defense was put in a really difficult spot in the fourth quarter when Alabama received the ball at the LSU 25 after an interception only a few seconds on the clock after the previous Alabama offensive drive (3 minutes and 65 yards).

I don’t blame Jayden Daniels for trying to make a play, the ball getting tipped, etc., but giving up a touchdown after the quick turnaround is not proof of a bad defense in that moment. No LSU fan goes on about how bad the 2019 defense was, and no one wanted Dave Aranda to be fired; but LSU gave up 41 points in that game. The Tigers gave up three touchdowns in the fourth quarter and the SHORTEST touchdown drive was 75 yards. I highly doubt that if Joe Burrow threw an interception two plays after one of those drives that the defense would have stopped the Tide from scoring.

“Hot seat” isn’t nearly dramatic enough for Baton Rouge media personalities when they get worked up about something.

So I’m not on the “Fire Matt House” bandwagon that others are on. I know that in hindsight we should have tried to spy more because knowing what we know now, the offense didn’t get close to enough points for the defense that we played. Maybe LSU would have gotten lucky and there would have been a bunch of drops and bad passes. However, we don’t know if more open receivers would have backfired. I don’t hear anyone saying Nick Saban and his defensive coach are incompetent for sacrificing QB rushing yards for more pass coverage. Jayden Daniels ran for more yards than Jalen Milroe, and the former left the game with 13 minutes left.

If both teams had scored in the 40s in an LSU win like four years ago, everyone would be happy. But LSU commentators are going on the radio or on YouTube and saying giving up 40+ to Alabama is never OK regardless.

Even though he’s one of those who I think has been too much of an alarmist about the defense, Matt Moscona pointed out an interesting thing Kelly has been dealing with. You’d think no matter how badly things went off the rails, if you take over a team less than two years after a national championship, you’d have a pretty good recruiting class coming of age. But no, there are only three players left who were recruited in the wake of that championship. The rest of the team is either players Kelly brought in or players that came to play for a team that was going .500. The older players in the subsequent classes who stayed with the team are great. I always have a soft spot for overachiever types, but to think there isn’t a significant talent gap just because we escaped with a win over Alabama last year is silly. Having a better personality and recruiting in a better location than Saban was only getting Coach O so far.

Speaking of which, I want to compare with Saban for a moment. Saban went 26-12 (68.4%) in his first three years at LSU. Kelly is at 69.5% right now. Pretty good for having almost no junior class last year and almost no senior class this year. LSU has a chance to go 4-0, but let’s say they go 3-1 the rest of the way. That would give Kelly a 70.4% mark going into next season. In his last three Division I stops, there was a significant improvement in year three; but even if there isn’t, far too many fans are overreacting.

Granted, LSU had a worse record the two years before they hired Saban than they did the two years before they hired Kelly, but there wasn’t a transfer portal back then. There were good players who had come in after respective 9- and 10-win seasons in 1996 and 1997 who didn’t have a good option other than to stick it out. (By the way, there was only an 11-game regular season back then.). Gerry DiNardo, Saban’s predecessor, won 69.7% over his first three years, so it’s not like Saban blew away anything anyone had seen in recent years right away.

To make some less big-picture comments and get back to the rankings, I think it still makes sense to put Texas ahead of Alabama.  That may change if Oklahoma loses again and LSU wins out.  I’ve mentioned that LSU can get some meaningful positive points in each of the next few weeks.  They’ll definitely be favored in the next two and they haven’t lost to Texas A&M in Baton Rouge since 1994 (the year before DiNardo started), so chances are pretty high they’ll be favored in that one too.  Unfortunately, Georgia St. (who is in between Florida and Texas A&M) has lost two in a row though.  They still may be the second-best team in Georgia.

College Football Playoff Rankings

I think it’s ridiculous that the committee thinks Oregon is the top one-loss team. The Ducks have the 82nd-best schedule. I know they played undefeated Washington, but the Huskies have played the #99 schedule. I don’t even factor in opponents’ opponents’ records as much as many similar blogs do. Some count that equally to opponents’ record because it’s a much narrower range from team to team. Utah, the Ducks’ best win, has a top-50 schedule but two losses.

The big difference comes after Oregon’s marquee win. The highest-rated opponent after that is Colorado, which is #69 overall. Alabama and Penn St. have each beaten four teams who are better than Colorado. Ole Miss, Texas, and Louisville have each beaten five teams who are better than Colorado. I can understand giving some credit for having one close loss to an undefeated team, but it shouldn’t compensate for about every other game being against a team in the top half of the FBS versus about 20% of games being against such teams. Any other team that’s a candidate for the college football playoff would be all but guaranteed to be 8-2 against the Ducks’ schedule, and most would probably beat Utah, my number 20 and the CFP’s #18.

I also don’t think Oregon St., who played no one of note out of conference, is close to the best 2-loss team. I don’t know where they get the idea the Pac-12 is so great. Arizona lost to Mississippi St. and is now half a game out of third place. Notre Dame has suffered a third loss now, but they beat USC (who actually is third place) easily. Wins over Wisconsin and TCU (albeit by lesser teams) have lost their luster.

There isn’t reason to get too annoyed yet, but the committee’s disregard of quality of opponents is something to watch out for going forward.

Comments about My Top 25

I think Purdue is better than their record, but Michigan hasn’t added as many points per week as other major-conference teams do on average.  Even with USC’s struggles, they’re worth a lot more than Purdue.  Alabama and Texas both added high-quality wins as well.  Texas was a lot closer to losing at the end, but I don’t factor that in.  

Georgia and Michigan can each get a good number of points next week though.  Penn St. (who is playing Michigan) and Ole Miss (who is playing Georgia) are right behind them, but neither the Nittany Lions (Rutgers and Michigan St.) nor the Rebels (UL-Monroe and Mississippi St.) have nearly as many potential points to gain in the last two weeks of the season as the Bulldogs (Tennessee and Georgia Tech) and Wolverines (Maryland and Ohio St.) do.

The last time Ole Miss played Georgia, Rebel QB Chad Kelly led the team to a 45-0 lead in Oxford in 2016. Bulldog QB Jacob Eason (right) was only able to complete 44% of his passing attempts and failed to throw a touchdown. Somehow the Bulldogs’ long-awaited chance at revenge is not the SEC game of the week. I wish Ole Miss would go back to those uniforms. by the way.

So if you want to see an SEC team in the playoff, you need to be for Georgia (even if you’d rather see Alabama).  If you want to see a Big Ten team, you need to cheer for Michigan (even if you’d rather see Ohio St.).  I’m not saying the CFP committee always agrees with me, but high-quality wins are usually important to them in the end.  Even if two or three one-loss teams make it, I doubt either one will be Penn St. or Ole Miss.

The order of Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St. is mostly explained by what I said earlier about bad losses.

I liked not having to drop Missouri, Kansas St., and LSU too far.  Part of that is due to Tulane and Toledo playing fairly weak opponents (even though Tulane barely won again). Losses by USC and UCLA helped too. 

USC almost stayed in the top 25 given that the Washington loss didn’t hurt much, but there is only so much room for 3-loss teams.  The rest of the honorable mentions are from outside of the major conferences.

They didn’t make the honorable mentions, but Duke, Arizona, North Carolina St., and U. Miami are the other major-conference three-loss teams in the top 40.  North Carolina still only has two losses but has a relatively low schedule strength.  It’s interesting how many ACC teams are in the 30s.  Clemson (despite four losses) has a good chance of joining that group in the next few weeks.

Top 25

RankTeamLast
1 Ohio St. 1
2 Florida St. 2
3 Washington 6
4 Texas 4
5 Alabama 5
6 Michigan 3
7 Georgia 10
8 Ole Miss 7
9 Penn St. 8
10 James Madison 9
11 Oregon 13
12 Kansas 19
13 Oklahoma 11
14 Louisville 20
15 Oklahoma St. 24
16 Missouri 15
17 Liberty 12
18 Utah 16
19 Iowa 17
20 Troy
21 Oregon St. 25
22 Tennessee
23 Notre Dame 14
24 Kansas St. 23
25 LSU 22
Out of Top 25: (18) Southern CA, (21) Air Force

Honorable mention: Tulane, Southern CA, Toledo, Memphis, Fresno St.

Week 9 Top 25 2023

In College Football, College Football Playoff, History, Me, Rankings, Rankings Commentary on November 1, 2023 at 6:45 PM

Welcome New Readers

Since I’ve been on WordPress, I’ve always gotten a big boost in readers for the LSU-Alabama weekend, but the last couple of weeks have been the best non-Alabama weeks over the past two seasons. I wasn’t able to look at weekly stats from before that, but given that I wasn’t really committed to this in 2020 and 2021 and LSU was pretty irrelevant anyway (I didn’t even bother to say much about the respective Alabama games, although 2021 was close), I doubt any weeks in those years were better.

It’s quite possible 2019 had better weeks, but I’m sure that was more Joe Burrow’s doing than mine. I’ve also done a lot less to garner views than I did in prior years. I guess I’ve gotten more serious about work and health and things like that, and I also spend more time just relaxing.

At any rate, I wanted to welcome anyone who is new to my page. I’ve been a pretty avid LSU football blogger (during the season anyway) since the 2005 season, which happened to be when Les Miles came to Baton Rouge. My ranking system was developed from 2003 to 2005 and improved in a couple of ways since then, but I only have an online archive going back to my 2008 rankings. I don’t mind that because they became a little more sophisticated that year (qualifying for Massey’s comparison site) anyway. I’ve done a personal ranking since 1995, but to my knowledge I haven’t published anything I wrote before 2006.

Although I am an LSU fan, I’m very strict about not letting my personal views affect my computer ratings. In fact, at this moment, on my list LSU is as lower as or lower than they are on any other ratings list that Massey indices. This is not to be confused with top 25 rankings blogs like the one below that deviate less and less from the computer ratings as the season progresses.

Comments about CFP Rankings

I made an unexpected trip to the dentist on Tuesday, so I didn’t have the time to post this that I originally thought I would have. The delay does give me the occasion to comment on the first College Football Playoff rankings. Obviously, I agree with #1; but if you’re disregarding last year and basing the order of the top four solely based on quality of this year’s wins, there is no logical way to place Florida St. below Michigan and Georgia. If you are basing it on prior years and think Georgia is close to #1, why not keep them #1 until they lose, especially since that could be any week as the Bulldogs get into the difficult portion of their schedule (following the win over Florida with games against Missouri, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Georgia Tech in consecutive weeks).

What if I told you there is an SEC game this weekend that will likely decide the division wherein the one-loss team is trying to avenge last season’s close loss (which took place after giving up two late touchdowns) and that I’m not talking about the SEC West?

I don’t see the argument for Michigan to be ahead of the Seminoles at all. The last time we saw them before this season they were losing to TCU in the semifinal. I don’t think that gives you the right to rest on your semifinal-loser laurels for the next 10 months. Is it purely a prediction of where they think the teams will end up? When did we ask this committee to prognosticate like that? I thought they were supposed to evaluate how good the respective teams are currently this year.

Comments about My Top 25

I was not surprised by too much that happened over the weekend, although I wouldn’t have bet on both Arizona teams winning.  They had both been on the wrong side of some close games before, so it’s not like I thought either team was incapable.  Perhaps Oregon St. and Washington St. just don’t have the depth and talent (and possibly not the coaching either) to keep their early-season success going.  I would have laughed if USC had lost again, but one win and one loss in the last two weeks is probably the deserved outcome.

I feel somewhat vindicated that Ohio St. nearly became the computer #1 after I had to assist them the past few weeks.  Ohio St. has a much better remaining schedule.  Florida St. still plays Pittsburgh, who only has one FBS win, and North Alabama, a subpar FCS team.  Of course, Ohio St. still plays Michigan, who is much better than anyone the Seminoles will play.

I didn’t predict Kansas to beat Oklahoma per se, but I didn’t think the Sooners would finish undefeated, and a road game against a team that I had ranked a couple of weeks ago isn’t the most surprising one for the Sooners to have lost.  Oklahoma may also struggle to beat Kansas St. and/or Oklahoma St., both of whom have re-entered the top 25.

I know some people think if Texas and Oklahoma each have exactly one loss, Oklahoma should automatically be higher; but I strongly disagree.  Texas has a much better strength of schedule given the game against Alabama (Rice and Wyoming aren’t terrible either), and the Longhorns also beat Kansas

Another interesting side effect of the upset is that now there are five former Big 8 teams (Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Kansas St., and Oklahoma St.) in the top 25.  One of the others, Colorado, was ranked earlier in the year and is still in the top 60.  The other two, Nebraska and Iowa St., are both in the top 45.  When Oklahoma plays Missouri next year, it will be the first SEC game between two former Big 8 teams.  Colorado will rejoin the Big XII, where four other former Big 8 teams will play next season.  Nebraska will remain in the Big Ten.

Kansas RB Devin Neal dives for a touchdown against old Big 8 (and Big 6 and Big 7) rivals Oklahoma on Saturday in Lawrence, Kan. The Big 8 conference broke up in 1996, and it had almost been that long since Kansas had beaten Oklahoma. Neal ran for 112 yards in the Jayhawks’ 38-33 upset win.

As I anticipated last week, I didn’t do any subjective ranking to factor in.  I did move teams up to three spots.  I was a little bit liberal about what that means though.  For instance, Troy, Oregon St., LSU, and UCLA were all between 0.350 and 0.360, so I considered that a tie for 25th.  (0.01 is a typical gap between consecutive teams after the top 10, where many gaps are even larger.)  That’s how I got LSU as high as they are.  I’m going to elaborate just for illustrative purposes, but if you’re not interested in a detailed breakdown, skip the next three paragraphs.

I am more lenient toward teams who play in more difficult conferences and who have more understandable losses anyway.  Part of the reason is I’m less concerned about such teams getting away with anything.  LSU will either lose to Alabama and likely fall out (continuing the current trajectory anyway), or they’ll beat Alabama and this will avoid the volatility of being 16th one week, unranked the next, and being back in the top 20 (or maybe even in the top 15) the week after that.

One of LSU’s losses was two months ago to a team that is still undefeated in relatively hostile territory (not a true road game but close), and the other was on the road and was just a matter of which team was able to score last in the last two minutes. 

I think it was right to have the gap between Oregon St. and LSU since the two teams who beat the Beavers have seven combined losses to the one combined loss by the two teams who beat LSU.  LSU’s best win Missouri and Oregon St.’s best win Utah are similar, but I give the edge to Missouri (who still only has one loss…for now). 

Falling 11 spots for a loss to a team with a winning record seems harsh enough though, so I was not inclined to let Oregon St. fall out of the top 25 completely.  Also, teams like Troy and Tulane (the other candidates for top 25 other than UCLA, whom the Beavers beat and who is lacking in quality wins) aren’t going to be seriously tested in the future like Oregon St. will be.  Three of the four remaining opponents for the Beavers (Colorado, Washington and Oregon) are more highly rated than any team that remains on Tulane’s schedule, for instance.  Only one of Troy’s upcoming opponents (Louisiana-Lafayette) is higher-rated than Colorado, and it’s not by much.  (All of LSU’s remaining opponents are better than all of the remaining opponents for either Troy {who already played Georgia St.} or Tulane.)

I mentioned UCLA in the last paragraph.  It was a little weird to take them out after getting their second-best win, but every previous Pac-12 opponent (Utah, Washington St., Oregon St., and Stanford) lost.  Also, they were 28th, so the only way to rank them would have been to remove Oregon St., which did not make sense.

Wisconsin and Minnesota were in a virtual tie in the computer, so I included them both in the “honorable mention” list.  That list is usually only five teams, but I made an exception.  I believe Toledo is the first MAC team on the list this season.

Top 25

RankTeamLast
1 Ohio St. 1
2 Florida St. 2
3 Michigan 4
4 Texas 5
5 Alabama 6
6 Washington 8
7 Ole Miss 7
8 Penn St. 10
9 James Madison 13
10 Georgia 12
11 Oklahoma 3
12 Liberty 20
13 Oregon 17
14 Notre Dame 15
15 Missouri 11
16 Utah 9
17 Iowa 18
18 Southern CA 23
19 Kansas
20 Louisville 22
21 Air Force 24
22 LSU 16
23 Kansas St.
24 Oklahoma St.
25 Oregon St. 14
Out of Top 25: (19), North Carolina, (21) Wisconsin, (25) UCLA

Honorable mention: Troy, Tulane, UCLA, Toledo, Wisconsin, Minnesota

Week 8 Top 25 + LSU Update

In College Football, General LSU, Post-game, Rankings, Rankings Commentary on October 25, 2023 at 6:51 PM

I think this is the last week that I’ll add a subjective component. I might still move some teams a few spots, but it will be starting with the list the computer ratings give me instead of making some sort of ranking average first.

As for this week, after adding three parts computer rankings to one part subjective rankings, I then moved teams up to three spots.

Ohio St. was one of the few teams that I moved the full three spots. The Buckeyes play computer #17 Wisconsin next week while the Seminoles play Wake Forest (#74) and the Sooners play Kansas (#46). If the Badgers win, there will be a new #1 regardless. The other team Ohio St. skipped over was Michigan, who’s off next week. So there was really no other good option to select as #1 when considering the next opponent.

The Ohio St. defense forces a quick pass from Penn St. quarterback Drew Allar, who only completed 18 of 42 passes for 191 yards. The Nittany Lions arguably fared even worse in rushing, with an average of less than 2 yards per rush.

For future reference, Michigan does not play Wisconsin or Iowa this season (and also didn’t have an opponent like Notre Dame out of conference), so I would be strongly disinclined to move them ahead of Ohio St. without a loss by the Buckeyes. Ohio St. already beat the other three teams remaining on the Wolverines’ schedule (Purdue, Penn St., and Maryland).

The computer so happened to follow the following win chain. Oklahoma beat Texas, who beat Alabama, who beat Ole Miss, who beat LSU. I’m not promising to keep the teams in that order in the future; but for now it still fits the parameters I set out above, so I don’t see why not.

If you’re wondering why I didn’t similarly put Oregon St. ahead of Utah for beating the Utes, consider that Utah’s only loss is to a 1-loss top-10 team and Oregon St.’s loss is to a 3-loss team who is no longer in my top 30. Also consider that Utah beat a top-40 team out of conference and none of Oregon St.’s non-conference opponents are in the top 90.

Missouri’s going back ahead of LSU is simpler to boil down. Mizzou has one fewer loss and a couple of decent non-conference wins (Kansas St. and Memphis). LSU may end up with one decent non-conference win in Georgia St., but that’s not for a few weeks.

Despite having lost to Washington in the same stadium where Arizona St. should have beaten the Huskies, I actually was kinder to Oregon than the computer was. My kindness just doesn’t go as far as it did last week. The Ducks are still in need of some quality wins though. Colorado isn’t as good of a win as it appeared to be a month ago; and Oregon was the third team to beat Washington St., so that’s hardly a noteworthy achievement either. The Ducks still play Utah, USC, Oregon St., and a potential Pac-12 title game, which would probably be a rematch with either one of those or with Washington.

Speaking of which, the computer doesn’t factor in how ugly a win is, but ugly wins over bad opponents don’t get rewarded much by me. The computer put the Huskies #8, and I just let that be their final spot. UW had zero offensive touchdowns and took the lead when Arizona St. threw a “pick 6” on fourth down from the Washington 12. Had the Sun Devils kicked the field goal to take a 10-6 lead, I have little doubt that they would have won since the Huskies only managed a field goal the rest of the way and were still very much motivated to put the game away with a touchdown. Arizona St. still has no wins over FBS opponents.

I had no choice under the rules at the beginning but to rank Liberty and Air Force. The Flames have a weak remaining schedule though. They may get passed up by Air Force eventually even if they don’t lose.

Watch the “honorable mention” list. All three of the newly-ranked teams were on that list last week, which indicates the ratings are becoming a little less volatile.

LSU-specific Updates

You can expect LSU to fall further next week given the bye, similarly to how Georgia fell this week. Alabama is actually the computer #4 right now, so their bye will help the computers to make more sense. Obviously if LSU were to win, they could expect a pretty good move upward, but a loss following Army and a bye could see the Tigers fall out of the top 25 altogether.

This has no bearing on the rankings, but to give a couple of thoughts about the game… Given some of the mistakes Army made, LSU got some extra possessions, so the high point total by the LSU offense doesn’t mean much to me.

The defense is graded more on a curb, so I do give them some credit for the shutout. I’m still not sure they would have shut out a better-run option attack, particularly under the old rules that allowed such schemes to utilize more effective blocking downfield blocking, but I’ll take it.

This is after having a good second half against Missouri and a good game against Auburn. LSU only held Auburn to a few points less than Georgia and Ole Miss did, but 8 of the 18 points were given up after LSU led 34-10 going into the fourth quarter. Neither the Georgia nor the Ole Miss defenses had time to relax against Auburn since both finished as one-score games.

To elaborate on the Missouri game, LSU’s best win so far, the average Power-5 opponent who’s played Missouri gives up 17.5 points per half and LSU gave up only 14 in the second half. The first half (25 points) was bad, but Kelly sort of indicated it may have been related to play calls more than preparation. You can’t implement and practice an entire new game plan at halftime, so that makes some sense. It seemed like before that point the defense was scared to death a receiver might get behind them (even though it happened sometimes anyway); but now that fear is reduced, and the aim is more to hassle and distract the quarterback enough that he might not be able to get the ball to such a receiver anyway.

While I’m more excited by the recent progress by the defense, I wanted to give Brian Thomas, Jr., credit for making his three receptions count. He accounted for 122 yards and two touchdowns against Army, all in the first half. LSU had its 7th consecutive game with over 500 yards of total offense (a first in school history; second-best was the 2019 team with 5 in a row), while the Black Knights were held to fewer than 200 total yards. LSU also won the turnover battle, 4-0.

If the defense continues to hold teams below their average and the offense keeps scoring like this (not against Army per se, but it’s been consistent across a variety of defenses), LSU will be hard to beat. As Kelly referenced in one of the press conferences, no one is confusing them with the 1985 Bears; but that’s not remotely necessary. It’s not like 2012 when we scored 24 points or fewer in 40% of our wins. (It would have been 50% if it weren’t for an Alabama screen pass and a Clemson field goal in the final moments of those respective games.)

Top 25

RankTeamLast
1 Ohio St. 1
2 Florida St. 4
3 Oklahoma 2
4 Michigan 3
5 Texas 8
6 Alabama 9
7 Ole Miss 12
8 Washington 5
9 Utah 17
10 Penn St. 6
11 Missouri 16
12 Georgia 7
13 James Madison 21
14 Oregon St. 20
15 Notre Dame 14
16 LSU 13
17 Oregon 15
18 Iowa 11
19 N Carolina 10
20 Liberty
21 Wisconsin
22 Louisville 23
23 Southern CA 19
24 Air Force
25 UCLA 24
Out of Top 25: (18), Duke, (22) Tennessee, (25) Washington St.

Honorable mention: Georgia St., Kansas St., Tulane, Duke, and Oklahoma St.

Week 7 Top 25 2023

In College Football, Post-game, Rankings, Rankings Commentary on October 18, 2023 at 5:18 PM

I’m still moving toward my completely objective top 25; but if you just want to know what the computer says, go here.  Last week, it was less than 1/3 objective.  Today, it’s roughly half.  The initial list I made was 60% objective, but I still allowed myself to move teams by up to 5 spots after that.  The only exception was Ohio St., whom I moved six spots.  There is a good chance the Buckeyes will be near #1 on their own merit next week anyway (if they beat Penn St. of course).

This might be the last week I can have Georgia ahead of all the one-loss teams though.  Texas has the #3 schedule, and Georgia has one of the worst in FBS.  Adding a bye week doesn’t help.  The Bulldogs have a gauntlet after that (three games against ranked teams, one on the road, and two other good teams away from home), so they’re not pulling the wool over anyone’s eyes to get back to the Playoff; but this is meant to be a snapshot.  They should not be in the top four or even the top eight if the season ended now.  Not only was Vanderbilt a weak opponent, but all of the Bulldogs’ best three opponents so far (Kentucky, South Carolina, and Auburn) lost to teams the Bulldogs have not yet played or will not play.

Just like last week though, most teams did not move more than a couple of spots from the improvised formula.  There may still be some volatility in the coming weeks because for many teams next week’s result will still make up 1/6 of their FBS opponents, so it counts for about twice as much as a game does at the end of the year.  Also, I’m going to continue to give myself less power to smooth out any transitions up or down the rankings.

The top 9 should make a lot of sense based on last week.

Iowa is exactly where the formula put them.  If Penn St. loses, the Hawkeyes may fall a spot or two, but I think this is fair for right now.  North Carolina is undefeated and has played a significantly better schedule than Georgia has, so I thought that spot was good for them.

Louisville followed up on the win over Notre Dame with a loss to Pitt, so this allowed LSU to move ahead of the Irish despite having a much less impressive win.  The only loss by either of the two teams who beat LSU was to Alabama, so LSU’s two losses look much more excusable right now.  Pitt already had four losses and had no FBS wins going into last week.  They had a significant drop-off from last season.  Former Pitt (and USC) quarterback Kedon Slovis going to BYU didn’t seem to do either side any good.

Michael Penix, Jr., of Washington prepares to attempt a pass against the Oregon Ducks in Seattle on Saturday. While both teams did have some success on the ground, the anticipated quarterback battle largely delivered. Although Penix threw for fewer yards and a lower completion percentage and threw the game’s only interception, he made up for it by throwing for two more touchdowns and about half a yard more per attempt than Oregon’s Bo Nix threw.

Oregon is still a good team despite the setback in Seattle.  Their loss is similarly excusable to LSU’s losses, but there just isn’t a quality win like LSU and Notre Dame have.  Missouri also only has one loss, but obviously I think hosting LSU is a step down from traveling to Washington right now.

Five of the remaining nine teams in my top 25 are in the Pac-12.  It took me a while to sort them.  I think it’s easier to explain in reverse order.  Despite two losses in a row, Washington St. deserved to stay ranked because they beat Wisconsin, the team I would otherwise have put #25.  Colorado St. isn’t bad for a second-best out-of-conference win either.   

I don’t know why Wazzu lost to Arizona so badly, but margin of victory (or loss in this case) isn’t a big concern for me going forward.  The week before, the Cougars lost to UCLA, so I put the Bruins higher.  Oregon St. beat UCLA, and I think they only ended up losing to Washington St. because the game was in Pullman.  Also, it’s a singular loss.  The Beavers also beat Utah, so I think putting them between Washington St. and Utah made sense.

USC lost, but it was out of conference to Notre Dame, so I don’t have a problem with leaving the Trojans ahead of Oregon St., UCLA, and Washington St.  You could argue about Utah, but it helps that the Utes beat Florida, whom I have #32 right now.  Baylor isn’t having the best season, but going to Waco is still a strong second-best out-of-conference game.  I don’t think USC has beaten anyone nearly as good as Florida.  The Utes are 1-1 against the rest of the top 25 (win over UCLA, loss to Oregon St… another reason the Beavers are ahead of the Bruins), which is of course better than 0-1.

I squeezed Duke ahead of USC because they played Notre Dame closer and also because Clemson is creeping their way back toward the top 25 like Florida is.

I wasn’t blown away by the fact that Tennessee beat Texas A&M at home, but I like the way that they were able to grind out a low-scoring win and never seemed panicky or particularly at risk of losing.  There were times last year when the Volunteers were out of their element when a defense was able to slow them down.  I’m seeing some maturity and consistency that I’m not seeing from teams that are lower; and I mentioned Florida vis-a-vis Utah, so I’m more forgiving of that loss than the combinations of two losses below or the singular loss to Pitt.

I moved James Madison as far down as I could, so I don’t think the Dukes would beat the Volunteers on a neutral field right now; but this is a normal consequence of the computer formula.  I could be wrong though.  I would have sworn all last year that Tulane wouldn’t have beaten USC on a neutral field, for instance.  I have Tulane #31, by the way, between the five honorable mentions and Florida.  Kansas St. is right after Florida, which explains in part why Missouri is still as high as they are.  Kentucky isn’t a bad #2 win for a one-loss team either.

Top 25

RankTeamLast
1 Ohio St. 1
2 Oklahoma 3
3 Michigan 2
4 Florida St. 5
5 Washington 8
6 Penn St. 6
7 Georgia 4
8 Texas 7
9 Alabama 9
10 N Carolina 11
11 Iowa 19
12 Ole Miss 13
13 LSU 18
14 Notre Dame 15
15 Oregon 10
16 Missouri 25
17 Utah 17
18 Duke 21
19 Southern CA 14
20 Oregon St. 23
21 James Madison
22 Tennessee
23 Louisville 12
24 UCLA 22
25 Washington St. 16
Out of Top 25: (20) Kentucky, (24) Wisconsin

Honorable mention: Liberty, Air Force, Wisconsin, Troy, Clemson

2022 Ratings Archive

In College Football, Rankings on October 15, 2023 at 2:42 PM

This is just for housekeeping purposes to make room for the weekly computer ratings that I’m in the process of beginning, so I’m sorry if any subscribers got their hopes up for an actual blog today. Every year I assemble the previous year’s computer ratings into a blog post to add to the general ratings page (where I have now included the first computer rating, though I have not adopted it at my personal top 25). The latest computer rating can be located at any time by clicking the “Knights’ Ratings” heading above. I never got around to publishing the full final ratings for last year, but I did complete the final top 25 in preparation for the first rankings for this year.

12/04/2022

Rank Team Unweighted Rank Weighted Rank Total
1 Georgia 1.467486 1 39.767486 1 100.000000
2 Michigan 1.277718 2 25.577718 8 91.189279
3 TCU 1.115859 3 24.257204 11 85.740527
4 Ohio St. 1.006056 4 20.538678 15 81.503272
5 Southern CA 0.941728 6 29.434368 2 81.142942
6 Tennessee 0.908412 7 23.192901 12 78.877484
7 Clemson 0.953643 5 14.153027 22 78.597141
8 Alabama 0.882166 8 22.743257 13 77.948838
9 Kansas St. 0.847221 9 26.131778 7 77.476409
10 Utah 0.754370 13 29.100189 3 75.064676
11 Penn St. 0.822397 10 11.107334 17 73.821521
12 Tulane 0.774662 12 19.213364 32 73.800494
13 LSU 0.798850 11 3.958283 5 71.745958
14 Troy 0.665127 15 26.730966 55 71.674719
15 Texas 0.621924 17 27.669429 4 70.538970
16 Oregon 0.617364 19 26.260009 6 70.122502
17 Oregon St. 0.621299 18 24.703196 9 69.950507
18 TX San Anton’ 0.702000 14 6.756842 44 69.102059
19 Florida St. 0.635297 16 13.335308 24 68.221470
20 Washington 0.600723 20 13.963309 23 67.232002
21 UCLA 0.544980 22 21.359746 14 66.859947
22 Boise St. 0.582930 21 9.249594 34 65.757562
23 S Carolina 0.512022 23 16.342323 18 64.840540
24 Notre Dame 0.460636 28 24.684201 10 64.789545
25 Mississippi St. 0.488595 25 15.340056 19 63.896481
26 Ole Miss 0.484908 26 14.385329 21 63.595181
27 S. Alabama 0.495104 24 11.728335 28 63.413306
28 N Carolina 0.473536 27 2.178145 61 60.890917
29 C. Florida 0.441547 29 6.816264 43 60.752857
30 N Carolina St. 0.410079 31 9.097199 36 60.179817
31 Fresno St. 0.427167 30 0.521584 46 59.109802
32 Coastal Car. 0.393508 32 6.289218 66 59.085024
33 Kentucky 0.389967 33 3.923988 25 58.584748
34 Cincinnati 0.337528 34 12.926776 56 58.542898
35 Purdue 0.336537 35 5.463950 51 57.122883
36 Louisville 0.297621 41 7.037069 42 56.175100
37 Pittsburgh 0.314902 38 3.251194 57 56.004376
38 Texas Tech 0.304358 39 4.266016 54 55.860369
39 Illinois 0.321274 37 0.638804 65 55.708308
40 Syracuse 0.278690 42 7.422968 40 55.641353
41 Jms Madison 0.333869 36 -3.345980 76 55.349034
42 Wake Forest 0.273016 43 6.718150 45 55.324181
43 Maryland 0.243528 45 11.523258 29 55.298358
44 Wash. St. 0.303536 40 -2.540688 16 54.682893
45 So. Methodist 0.240234 46 8.671840 37 54.646217
46 Air Force 0.175075 54 19.778305 72 54.529645
47 Oklahoma St. 0.212282 50 8.025078 38 53.625022
48 W. Kentucky 0.219847 49 5.498452 50 53.383695
49 Arkansas 0.267902 44 -3.508618 59 53.264739
50 Ohio 0.233552 47 2.581809 77 53.200316
51 Florida 0.134894 60 14.614171 20 52.403489
52 Houston 0.204894 51 1.183068 63 52.076777
53 Marshall 0.227199 48 -3.118626 73 51.968473
54 Minnesota 0.202890 52 0.442318 67 51.870492
55 East Carolina 0.193192 53 -0.349451 68 51.407484
56 Kansas 0.145850 57 6.119978 48 51.127478
57 Iowa 0.144702 58 6.186802 47 51.103440
58 Oklahoma 0.140814 59 4.963996 53 50.744323
59 BYU 0.171133 55 -3.964765 81 50.006580
60 Missouri 0.097018 62 7.723734 39 49.867270
61 Baylor 0.108909 61 5.001984 52 49.727434
62 Auburn 0.067364 67 11.508525 30 49.640633
63 Wisconsin 0.087505 63 5.773266 49 49.188157
64 Duke 0.151141 56 -6.679134 88 48.844708
65 Toledo 0.073962 66 -3.187964 74 47.036249
66 Michigan St. -0.022141 73 11.804918 27 46.824303
67 Vanderbilt 0.080888 64 -8.910271 33 46.279470
68 Wyoming -0.023971 74 9.268295 92 46.162015
69 San Diego St. 0.046440 69 -3.594176 78 46.074919
70 San Jose St. 0.075547 65 -9.480663 95 45.881284
71 Southern MS 0.005295 71 2.280131 60 45.879814
72 Arizona -0.054068 80 12.208778 26 45.876824
73 North Texas 0.058861 68 -11.556960 75 44.973611
74 Liberty 0.009805 70 -3.204512 99 44.947773
75 Memphis -0.015705 72 -5.543952 86 43.706451
76 La. Lafayette -0.041779 77 -3.807475 80 43.202205
77 West Virginia -0.070149 83 0.927822 64 43.198922
78 Ala. B’ham -0.051392 78 -5.463270 85 42.576349
79 Utah St. -0.040473 76 -7.759915 91 42.486732
80 Bowling Grn -0.030893 75 -9.600915 96 42.441483
81 Middle Ten. -0.064200 81 -6.569318 87 41.953263
82 Texas A&M -0.083841 85 -4.144471 82 41.787431
83 App. St. -0.068684 82 -7.457817 90 41.639066
84 Ga. Southern -0.053859 79 -14.035524 101 40.854481
85 E. Michigan -0.070581 84 -11.500855 98 40.803431
86 Iowa St. -0.127746 86 -2.156483 71 40.759007
87 Connecticut -0.139713 87 -6.687493 89 39.506608
88 U. Miami -0.167537 89 -5.258466 83 38.887301
89 Indiana -0.204367 93 -0.907259 70 38.538837
90 Buffalo -0.146024 88 -16.272201 105 37.467385
91 Kent St. -0.191411 91 -9.025616 93 37.399062
92 Georgia Tech -0.271597 97 2.612141 58 37.055141
93 Stanford -0.176437 90 -17.196964 31 36.507003
94 Navy -0.340242 100 11.250770 108 36.313905
95 Tulsa -0.233480 96 -11.015011 97 35.667433
96 Miami U. -0.212941 94 -15.801490 104 35.409512
97 Fla. Atlantic -0.201108 92 -18.324879 110 35.305809
98 Cal (Berkeley) -0.363543 102 7.112294 41 34.965986
99 Virginia -0.227852 95 -17.400180 109 34.624527
100 Rice -0.287431 98 -9.425079 94 34.240236
101 Rutgers -0.384990 104 -0.584359 69 32.802675
102 La. Monroe -0.372140 103 -3.772946 79 32.604142
103 Army -0.422970 108 -5.440811 84 30.652906
104 Arizona St. -0.476896 112 1.604488 62 30.271905
105 W. Michigan -0.338648 99 -23.885640 120 29.825185
106 Ball St. -0.357287 101 -23.149040 102 29.412283
107 Georgia St. -0.409165 106 -14.227582 119 29.368016
108 Nebraska -0.409618 107 -16.899175 107 28.885807
109 UNLV -0.398504 105 -22.177078 117 28.231185
110 UTEP -0.427403 109 -19.026198 111 27.907313
111 Boston Coll -0.474441 111 -13.286336 100 27.497281
112 C. Michigan -0.453460 110 -19.209588 112 27.035737
113 Colorado -0.654748 121 9.198656 35 26.018049
114 Colorado St. -0.511809 114 -20.105791 113 24.990978
115 Texas St. -0.506130 113 -21.293908 115 24.945593
116 Virginia Tech -0.524918 115 -20.119085 114 24.567640
117 New Mex. St. -0.533034 116 -21.638574 116 24.015938
118 La. Tech -0.595162 118 -16.686445 106 22.970570
119 Arkansas St. -0.613742 119 -15.420299 103 22.616760
120 Old Dominion -0.544987 117 -28.351779 125 22.345812
121 Florida Int’l -0.670287 122 -22.840577 118 19.379744
122 Charlotte -0.636218 120 -30.253564 128 19.052855
123 Hawaii -0.712880 123 -25.355557 122 17.530579
124 Temple -0.741064 124 -30.055685 127 15.725214
125 New Mexico -0.773969 125 -27.954284 124 15.071632
126 Northwestern -0.794561 128 -24.577430 121 15.057686
127 Akron -0.788167 127 -28.570989 126 14.497677
128 N. Illinois -0.787745 126 -32.752086 129 13.710039
129 South Florida -0.852483 129 -27.811801 123 12.578617
130 Nevada Reno -0.867991 130 -34.853801 130 10.731365
131 Massachusetts -1.175749 131 -39.301378 131 0.000000

12/04/2022 Conferences

1 SEC 62.270597
2 Big XII 57.827488
3 Pac-12 54.722675
4 Big Ten 52.030266
5 ACC 50.181369
6 AAC 45.042749
7 Sun Belt 43.241221
8 MWC 38.085806
9 CUSA 37.363757
10 Independents 36.254959
11 MAC 34.061501

11/27/2022

Rank Team Unweighted Rank Weighted Rank Total
1 Georgia 1.312403 1 30.812403 1 100.000000
2 Michigan 1.149896 2 23.549896 6 92.535665
3 TCU 1.148479 3 16.948479 16 90.276196
4 Southern CA 0.974747 5 25.744169 4 87.854277
5 Ohio St. 0.992622 4 19.431626 13 86.288515
6 Tennessee 0.913346 6 22.749100 10 84.949744
7 Alabama 0.884287 7 17.820147 15 82.396545
8 Penn St. 0.781915 9 18.340502 14 79.404523
9 Clemson 0.818713 8 12.832769 24 78.694215
10 LSU 0.702671 10 23.419597 7 78.657985
11 Oregon St. 0.619985 16 30.386364 2 78.438559
12 Texas 0.609300 17 26.186449 3 76.698408
13 Oregon 0.607584 18 24.934535 5 76.225150
14 Utah 0.583171 21 22.908063 9 74.789830
15 Kansas St. 0.654314 12 12.433192 26 73.474782
16 UCLA 0.533669 22 23.213119 8 73.360986
17 Tulane 0.678248 11 9.876109 35 73.356888
18 Florida St. 0.639667 15 12.001986 28 72.876997
19 Boise St. 0.639987 14 11.416162 30 72.690255
20 Washington 0.597787 20 14.802428 18 72.521449
21 Notre Dame 0.462478 30 21.567620 12 70.606567
22 Troy 0.652180 13 3.237916 57 70.322551
23 S Carolina 0.505432 24 12.971494 23 69.050114
24 Mississippi St. 0.489998 25 13.812945 20 68.855113
25 TX San Anton’ 0.602329 19 2.493095 61 68.530525
26 S. Alabama 0.488854 26 12.662107 25 68.433485
27 Ole Miss 0.477522 28 13.349629 22 68.313682
28 C. Florida 0.479742 27 5.183245 48 65.641463
29 N Carolina 0.517742 23 -0.059660 69 65.057233
30 N Carolina St. 0.411306 31 8.353730 37 64.588652
31 Kentucky 0.334550 34 12.108557 27 63.474612
32 Coastal Car. 0.470542 29 -1.068334 73 63.258637
33 Cincinnati 0.389867 32 4.631655 51 62.676229
34 Purdue 0.377916 33 3.787616 54 62.023274
35 Wash. St. 0.172414 55 21.749026 11 61.694944
36 Fresno St. 0.248585 44 11.967799 29 60.768249
37 Louisville 0.300661 40 5.882383 45 60.336638
38 Pittsburgh 0.318445 38 3.811226 52 60.191579
39 Texas Tech 0.300599 41 4.873227 49 59.995999
40 Ohio 0.331618 36 1.794124 64 59.922055
41 Syracuse 0.279187 42 6.401360 43 59.846556
42 Maryland 0.237577 46 10.185304 34 59.829477
43 Air Force 0.305364 39 3.803955 53 59.784531
44 Wake Forest 0.273555 43 5.764951 46 59.458738
45 So. Methodist 0.241234 45 8.335527 38 59.321739
46 Illinois 0.322401 37 0.805826 66 59.305268
47 Jms Madison 0.334217 35 -2.529568 79 58.551304
48 W. Kentucky 0.217279 49 7.273066 40 58.224154
49 Florida 0.126526 60 13.561467 21 57.527509
50 Arkansas 0.235193 47 2.573362 59 57.200909
51 BYU 0.183689 54 7.204787 41 57.162189
52 Oklahoma St. 0.209379 50 3.760579 55 56.800878
53 Houston 0.198588 52 2.364112 62 55.998381
54 Minnesota 0.201730 51 1.827590 63 55.915482
55 Marshall 0.229668 48 -1.364472 75 55.708342
56 Iowa 0.146294 57 6.184064 44 55.662881
57 East Carolina 0.195551 53 0.747635 68 55.361885
58 Auburn 0.066185 66 10.964300 31 54.789272
59 Missouri 0.089630 62 7.064642 42 54.205665
60 Kansas 0.143307 58 0.922901 65 53.804650
61 Wisconsin 0.086965 63 5.640805 47 53.645333
62 Oklahoma 0.138534 59 0.798681 67 53.615328
63 Arizona -0.059377 81 15.248656 17 52.343275
64 Baylor 0.105650 61 -0.673130 71 52.104158
65 Michigan St. -0.024006 72 10.943109 32 51.992318
66 Duke 0.153826 56 -5.664661 89 51.919039
67 San Diego St. 0.031179 69 2.503368 60 50.866689
68 Vanderbilt -0.027169 73 7.806811 39 50.841827
69 Wyoming 0.080916 64 -3.306929 80 50.455054
70 Southern MS -0.006585 70 3.213180 58 49.936775
71 North Texas 0.055762 68 -4.298342 86 49.344243
72 Georgia Tech -0.040300 75 3.713200 56 49.061687
73 San Jose St. 0.070102 65 -8.450895 96 48.394065
74 Liberty 0.057212 67 -9.579392 99 47.616601
75 Utah St. -0.029605 74 -1.928843 77 47.498854
76 Memphis -0.015047 71 -3.835908 84 47.309114
77 La. Lafayette -0.045873 77 -2.298231 78 46.871668
78 Ala. B’ham -0.046317 78 -3.913088 85 46.315954
79 Toledo -0.050727 79 -3.691648 83 46.253851
80 West Virginia -0.071666 83 -3.464771 81 45.682299
81 Texas A&M -0.077366 85 -3.518956 82 45.487798
82 Middle Ten. -0.066448 82 -4.586080 87 45.467366
83 Bowling Green -0.045500 76 -7.521174 93 45.130233
84 App. St. -0.076562 84 -5.468356 88 44.858373
85 Iowa St. -0.124328 87 -1.450639 76 44.729325
86 E. Michigan -0.079933 86 -9.505997 98 43.398951
87 Ga. Southern -0.053120 80 -12.012277 101 43.387156
88 Stanford -0.341861 100 14.130332 19 43.229880
89 Connecticut -0.149225 88 -6.084376 91 42.403937
90 Indiana -0.206493 94 -0.860235 72 42.385879
91 Army -0.203645 92 -1.246921 74 42.344183
92 U. Miami -0.166327 90 -5.703296 90 42.002830
93 Cal (Berkeley) -0.363602 103 9.643907 36 41.051580
94 Kent St. -0.204104 93 -7.790622 95 40.133716
95 Tulsa -0.236916 98 -8.965777 97 38.724327
96 Navy -0.163195 89 -15.780030 111 38.717649
97 Rice -0.285908 99 -6.452113 92 38.052528
98 Fla. Atlantic -0.190099 91 -15.589664 110 37.949315
99 Miami U. -0.216566 96 -13.804876 105 37.729652
100 Buffalo -0.209029 95 -15.015311 107 37.556537
101 Virginia -0.220216 97 -15.286791 108 37.119381
102 Rutgers -0.386743 105 -0.643708 70 36.882914
103 Arizona St. -0.482551 112 4.833913 50 35.757753
104 La. Monroe -0.379311 104 -7.751916 94 34.727049
105 Colorado -0.654736 121 10.745849 33 32.415850
106 UTEP -0.419150 109 -11.497957 100 32.237426
107 Ball St. -0.417110 108 -12.831844 102 31.852849
108 W. Michigan -0.346079 101 -21.171729 121 31.250889
109 Nebraska -0.409417 107 -15.568934 109 31.172160
110 Georgia St. -0.356714 102 -20.947413 120 30.997213
111 Boston College -0.476824 111 -12.929460 103 29.972943
112 UNLV -0.403032 106 -20.103198 118 29.847815
113 C. Michigan -0.471932 110 -16.804813 113 28.823585
114 Colorado St. -0.510042 113 -13.439257 104 28.774309
115 Virginia Tech -0.520545 114 -17.378231 114 27.127398
116 Texas St. -0.521057 115 -18.986946 115 26.571626
117 New Mex. St. -0.550384 117 -19.545473 116 25.477000
118 La. Tech -0.599700 118 -16.103801 112 25.106637
119 Arkansas St. -0.621238 119 -14.133090 106 25.101832
120 Old Dominion -0.540530 116 -25.841863 126 23.668524
121 Florida Int’l -0.677637 122 -19.756928 117 21.469730
122 Charlotte -0.640188 120 -27.162747 128 20.142476
123 Akron -0.713902 123 -22.429246 123 19.451010
124 Hawaii -0.725590 124 -23.728310 124 18.653488
125 New Mexico -0.777439 126 -20.244524 119 18.218923
126 Northwestern -0.792856 127 -22.178543 122 17.092894
127 Temple -0.742537 125 -27.091410 127 17.000499
128 N. Illinois -0.796412 128 -29.329668 130 14.582746
129 South Florida -0.855092 129 -25.033860 125 14.209422
130 Nevada Reno -0.879465 130 -27.344075 129 12.680115
131 Massachusetts -1.202006 131 -35.397585 131 0.000000

11/27/2022 Conferences

1 SEC 66.839341
2 Pac-12 60.806961
3 Big XII 60.718202
4 Big Ten 56.009756
5 ACC 54.160992
6 AAC 48.028872
7 Sun Belt 45.885324
8 MWC 41.552696
9 Independents 40.801497
10 CUSA 40.258214
11 MAC 36.340506

11/20/2022

Rank Team Unweighted Rank Weighted Rank Total
1 Georgia 1.207585 1 25.007585 3 100.000000
2 Ohio St. 1.095223 2 25.395223 2 96.417290
3 TCU 1.072256 3 20.872256 8 94.308727
4 Michigan 0.970057 4 19.770057 9 90.615002
5 Clemson 0.901038 5 22.613312 6 89.193314
6 LSU 0.814496 8 26.784531 1 87.591979
7 Southern Calif. 0.832168 6 22.362273 7 86.851229
8 Tennessee 0.802743 9 24.323924 4 86.469277
9 Alabama 0.817220 7 18.556082 10 85.220971
10 Penn St. 0.685801 10 17.383817 11 80.544455
11 Oregon 0.656195 11 17.018632 13 79.460708
12 Utah 0.548092 16 16.970206 14 75.887781
13 Florida St. 0.572641 14 13.860086 16 75.765778
14 Troy 0.588604 13 11.315518 18 75.530317
15 Notre Dame 0.547164 17 14.522489 15 75.125252
16 Oregon St. 0.462128 27 23.092142 5 74.888769
17 N Carolina 0.602433 12 6.055533 28 74.412562
18 Texas 0.516950 22 10.952958 19 73.063243
19 Ole Miss 0.530570 19 8.824706 22 72.875153
20 Tulane 0.531301 18 8.653592 24 72.848034
21 Kansas St. 0.553995 15 5.674820 30 72.704291
22 TX San Anton’ 0.518274 21 5.710680 29 71.539150
23 UCLA 0.471542 26 10.401765 20 71.403703
24 Washington 0.491154 24 7.075450 27 71.054558
25 Coastal Car. 0.522670 20 3.526982 37 71.030858
26 S. Alabama 0.441166 28 12.118300 17 70.917127
27 Boise St. 0.511779 23 2.590178 43 70.392211
28 Cincinnati 0.416721 29 3.071090 39 67.406963
29 C. Florida 0.476344 25 -4.533085 64 67.095624
30 Mississippi St. 0.360477 31 7.588237 25 66.906377
31 Wake Forest 0.345863 32 5.489881 33 65.797836
32 Oklahoma St. 0.322101 34 7.124507 26 65.504476
33 Wash. St. 0.225473 42 17.050227 12 65.291960
34 Louisville 0.368611 30 -1.362278 57 64.497540
35 Purdue 0.321687 35 2.606352 42 64.139734
36 N Carolina St. 0.292068 39 5.641044 31 64.072248
37 S Carolina 0.323956 33 -1.012655 56 63.132176
38 Iowa 0.282530 40 3.345137 38 63.071709
39 Houston 0.301174 37 -0.653342 55 62.489710
40 Syracuse 0.249088 41 1.487175 47 61.415271
41 Texas Tech 0.223224 43 3.800634 35 61.255723
42 Arkansas 0.293021 38 -4.175839 62 61.167966
43 Pittsburgh 0.219471 44 2.785086 41 60.828502
44 Illinois 0.310247 36 -7.691055 74 60.683784
45 Fresno St. 0.130430 60 8.665690 23 59.656055
46 Ohio 0.207880 46 -0.180531 51 59.560101
47 Florida 0.155123 55 5.507505 32 59.524461
48 Kentucky 0.199163 48 0.579572 50 59.500465
49 BYU 0.165349 53 3.604673 36 59.292023
50 Oklahoma 0.181880 50 0.607227 49 58.939828
51 Auburn 0.095952 63 10.032906 21 58.929988
52 Air Force 0.174351 51 -0.547873 54 58.346568
53 Marshall 0.149891 58 0.970530 48 57.995475
54 Jms Madison 0.201088 47 -5.021014 67 57.889014
55 Kansas 0.209338 45 -6.751448 70 57.643108
56 Wisconsin 0.125410 61 2.012854 44 57.501331
57 Maryland 0.191733 49 -6.532142 69 57.129196
58 Liberty 0.169187 52 -4.624951 65 56.957359
59 San Diego St. 0.082312 65 4.110901 34 56.710073
60 S. Methodist 0.152467 57 -4.216112 63 56.529234
61 W. Kentucky 0.139845 59 -3.406316 60 56.355946
62 Minnesota 0.091637 64 -0.212492 52 55.724130
63 East Carolina 0.154835 56 -10.301319 79 54.787476
64 Duke 0.077590 66 -3.087030 58 54.402128
65 Vanderbilt 0.020672 69 2.978307 40 54.342354
66 Baylor 0.161957 54 -13.033600 87 54.204844
67 Wyoming 0.107352 62 -7.361533 72 54.103576
68 Georgia Tech 0.015118 71 1.904101 45 53.838307
69 Toledo 0.058629 67 -3.162591 59 53.755396
70 App. St. 0.000659 72 -0.368685 53 52.682681
71 Michigan St. -0.004938 73 -4.970106 66 51.122435
72 Memphis 0.031858 68 -10.053640 76 50.813459
73 Missouri -0.012054 74 -6.081144 68 50.555925
74 San Jose St. 0.015522 70 -11.923257 83 49.716626
75 Bowling Green -0.018975 75 -10.493885 80 49.008506
76 Arizona -0.086022 80 -3.992764 61 48.745617
77 Utah St. -0.030513 76 -12.468038 86 48.038355
78 Iowa St. -0.075900 78 -7.619287 73 47.994335
79 North Texas -0.035840 77 -13.693320 89 47.496617
80 Middle Ten. -0.120330 84 -8.933262 75 46.138883
81 Southern MS -0.081917 79 -13.702875 90 45.977007
82 U. Miami -0.127326 85 -10.188765 77 45.533152
83 Stanford -0.248337 97 1.818148 46 45.140349
84 La. Lafayette -0.113044 82 -13.715125 91 44.948737
85 Ala. B’ham -0.094648 81 -15.993637 97 44.872920
86 Buffalo -0.115267 83 -14.784194 95 44.555851
87 E. Michigan -0.144352 86 -13.949781 94 43.848004
88 Indiana -0.174238 92 -11.686468 82 43.541061
89 Connecticut -0.173175 91 -13.925662 93 42.906440
90 Army -0.194184 93 -11.664387 81 42.891092
91 Texas A&M -0.196098 94 -12.047854 84 42.713401
92 West Virginia -0.170781 90 -16.613587 98 42.181417
93 Fla. Atlantic -0.151659 87 -18.781427 104 42.162593
94 Ga. Southern -0.157811 88 -18.247963 102 42.119629
95 Rice -0.220822 96 -13.308088 88 41.522699
96 Virginia -0.213941 95 -17.998185 100 40.346673
97 Cal (Berkeley) -0.319809 100 -6.773095 71 40.218550
98 Navy -0.168925 89 -27.272444 118 39.055068
99 La. Monroe -0.304487 98 -13.811206 92 38.618218
100 Rutgers -0.347717 104 -12.376707 85 37.624175
101 Arizona St. -0.385899 108 -10.202764 78 37.017416
102 Georgia St. -0.310410 99 -20.255111 108 36.496246
103 Tulsa -0.340146 103 -18.020873 101 36.185542
104 Miami U. -0.337952 102 -18.713902 103 36.050529
105 Kent St. -0.335896 101 -19.115818 107 35.998017
106 Ball St. -0.375990 106 -15.136641 96 35.868161
107 C. Michigan -0.381395 107 -18.909169 106 34.562092
108 UTEP -0.373891 105 -20.744420 109 34.260298
109 Boston College -0.386533 109 -21.028697 110 33.759155
110 Texas St. -0.426680 110 -18.891156 105 33.076835
111 UNLV -0.429996 111 -24.506442 111 31.288460
112 W. Michigan -0.436067 112 -28.149487 119 29.999205
113 La. Tech -0.525150 116 -25.895097 114 27.741003
114 Virginia Tech -0.517015 115 -27.272109 117 27.596976
115 Colorado -0.621723 121 -17.492677 99 27.074755
116 Old Dominion -0.481882 113 -33.422128 123 26.914355
117 Colorado St. -0.558976 117 -24.947731 112 26.910841
118 Nebraska -0.513421 114 -30.163596 120 26.850611
119 Arkansas St. -0.560007 118 -26.804928 115 26.321511
120 Florida Int’l -0.579913 119 -25.319372 113 26.110508
121 New Mex. St. -0.642614 122 -27.150241 116 23.499046
122 N. Illinois -0.601807 120 -35.331179 126 22.395870
123 New Mexico -0.705270 125 -30.298343 121 20.495181
124 Charlotte -0.643768 123 -38.927887 128 19.939030
125 Temple -0.697289 124 -33.964851 124 19.661422
126 Northwestern -0.741362 126 -34.929646 125 17.922173
127 Hawaii -0.767485 127 -33.366128 122 17.529820
128 Akron -0.769002 128 -35.548430 127 16.827293
129 South Florida -0.824005 129 -39.587083 129 13.809014
130 Nevada Reno -0.844224 130 -42.306105 130 12.330335
131 Massachusetts -1.155239 131 -49.303700 131 0.000000

11/20/2022 Conferences

1 SEC 67.780749
2 Big XII 62.779999
3 Pac-12 60.252950
4 ACC 57.961389
5 Big Ten 57.349078
6 AAC 49.152868
7 Sun Belt 48.608429
8 Independents 42.953030
9 MWC 42.126509
10 CUSA 41.649059
11 MAC 38.535752

11/13/2022

The numbers to the right of the teams are unweighted rating (rank), weighted rating (rank), and overall rating.

1 Georgia 1.062739 1 17.61273949 4 100.0000
2 Ohio St. 0.976957 3 18.77695669 3 96.8330
3 TCU 0.980259 2 14.78025851 6 96.0359
4 Tennessee 0.870611 4 23.36203687 1 93.6375
5 Michigan 0.859728 5 19.40972772 2 92.2822
6 Clemson 0.810137 6 9.764088849 9 88.0518
7 Alabama 0.742976 7 11.78084311 7 85.8293
8 LSU 0.723664 8 7.971761692 13 84.1696
9 Southern Calif. 0.667933 9 15.58738592 5 83.7072
10 North Carolina 0.649103 10 5.103055336 16 80.5144
11 Penn St. 0.599812 11 11.68216792 8 80.0691
12 Utah 0.596502 12 3.18865385 19 77.9612
13 UCLA 0.544537 14 6.117306389 15 76.5598
14 Oregon 0.524362 16 8.660814903 10 76.3428
15 Notre Dame 0.522819 17 8.367850461 12 76.2129
16 Ole Miss 0.528818 15 5.082001681 17 75.6891
17 C. Florida 0.571025 13 -2.073381277 33 75.7165
18 Florida St. 0.483872 21 8.508513963 11 74.6848
19 Coastal Car. 0.513098 18 2.625475231 20 74.4879
20 Troy 0.501515 19 0.623112705 26 73.5580
21 Kansas St. 0.489013 20 -2.427373505 35 72.3476
22 Washington 0.476177 22 -2.008973664 32 71.9305
23 Tulane 0.430438 23 2.194818134 23 71.0752
24 TX San Anton’ 0.428398 24 1.776648243 24 70.8961
25 Oklahoma St. 0.409803 25 1.616334931 25 70.1137
26 Oregon St. 0.402147 27 2.568721894 21 70.0283
27 S. Alabama 0.386334 28 4.462069114 18 69.8349
28 N. Carolina St. 0.356749 30 2.377376236 22 68.1645
29 Texas 0.408736 26 -7.670911745 50 67.9111
30 Liberty 0.348919 31 -1.362920643 29 66.9809
31 Cincinnati 0.347162 32 -1.539031881 31 66.8695
32 Boise St. 0.382849 29 -9.217151274 54 66.5141
33 Mississippi St. 0.310142 36 -0.438244839 27 65.6420
34 Purdue 0.320879 34 -4.146204025 37 65.2100
35 Syracuse 0.312495 35 -6.347852241 45 64.3620
36 Illinois 0.324520 33 -8.568142729 53 64.3275
37 Florida 0.221552 40 6.271482554 14 63.6521
38 Kansas 0.273276 37 -9.903575654 56 61.9634
39 Kentucky 0.206782 44 -0.918233246 28 61.3882
40 Wake Forest 0.221298 41 -6.325825677 44 60.7124
41 Louisville 0.250813 38 -11.25466336 58 60.7490
42 Maryland 0.218517 42 -8.137647967 51 60.1796
43 Minnesota 0.165584 51 -1.452598669 30 59.6129
44 Toledo 0.168674 50 -2.106454644 34 59.5847
45 Iowa 0.183035 46 -4.989520727 40 59.4897
46 S. Methodist 0.177683 48 -5.94809537 43 59.0524
47 Baylor 0.231040 39 -13.86518555 66 59.3495
48 East Carolina 0.212103 43 -14.46011136 67 58.4522
49 Ohio 0.142239 55 -4.812197781 39 57.8961
50 Washington St. 0.142694 54 -5.559210334 41 57.7406
51 Texas Tech 0.168767 49 -9.561026915 55 57.8548
52 Houston 0.184228 45 -11.95242587 60 57.9183
53 Duke 0.120200 56 -3.474557625 36 57.3240
54 Wyoming 0.143800 53 -8.170147378 52 57.1778
55 W. Kentucky 0.177999 47 -14.77745245 68 57.0117
56 Pittsburgh 0.106735 59 -4.785188422 38 56.4796
57 South Carolina 0.101184 61 -7.655756702 49 55.5895
58 Michigan St. 0.094703 63 -6.948183835 47 55.4944
59 James Madison 0.114086 57 -10.36041894 57 55.4776
60 San Diego St. 0.080954 65 -6.801688309 46 54.9774
61 Air Force 0.104981 60 -11.43631447 59 54.8625
62 Fresno St. 0.110386 58 -12.54952721 63 54.8202
63 BYU 0.158720 52 -19.79385631 79 55.0725
64 Wisconsin 0.072174 66 -7.462337824 48 54.4719
65 Arkansas 0.097185 62 -12.52935546 62 54.2959
66 Oklahoma 0.083771 64 -12.6371899 64 53.7333
67 San Jose St. 0.069205 67 -12.47720065 61 53.1867
68 Auburn -0.035436 74 -5.911984632 42 50.5201
69 Memphis 0.020065 68 -18.75735554 75 49.7570
70 Marshall -0.009154 72 -16.19797806 72 49.1812
71 Connecticut -0.015393 73 -15.68921243 69 49.0495
72 Southern MS -0.008976 71 -20.45175852 83 48.1991
73 North Texas 0.014632 69 -24.79741227 97 48.1346
74 Iowa St. -0.005771 70 -22.59634677 91 47.8288
75 Arizona -0.043527 76 -20.06614079 81 46.9042
76 App. St. -0.084795 81 -16.05598058 71 46.1830
77 Vanderbilt -0.105694 84 -13.23230409 65 46.0021
78 Alabama B’ham -0.035636 75 -23.63778744 95 46.3898
79 La. Lafayette -0.046750 77 -22.90843598 93 46.1140
80 Missouri -0.076577 80 -18.88889375 76 45.8535
81 Ga. Southern -0.063437 78 -21.6670769 86 45.7340
82 Fla. Atlantic -0.075542 79 -21.29483918 85 45.3354
83 Utah St. -0.100173 83 -20.09470037 82 44.6275
84 Buffalo -0.088095 82 -22.66350538 92 44.5141
85 Georgia Tech -0.150997 88 -17.41648011 73 43.2135
86 U. Miami -0.143556 87 -19.11993613 77 43.1156
87 West Virginia -0.129590 85 -21.9497279 88 43.0172
88 E. Michigan -0.163590 90 -19.62008511 78 42.1964
89 Bowling Green -0.151589 89 -23.84239125 96 41.6954
90 Stanford -0.136706 86 -27.24487303 101 41.5006
91 Middle Ten. -0.190997 91 -22.19139692 89 40.5001
92 C. Michigan -0.231524 93 -21.06594262 84 39.1378
93 Rice -0.232482 94 -22.35720044 90 38.7991
94 Indiana -0.243684 96 -21.75960518 87 38.4891
95 Rutgers -0.289085 100 -15.94425497 70 38.0221
96 Kent St. -0.249228 97 -23.23151536 94 37.9246
97 Virginia -0.231203 92 -28.96920547 104 37.3127
98 Texas A&M -0.238825 95 -28.93995761 103 37.0140
99 Ball St. -0.311605 102 -18.44488521 74 36.5381
100 La. Monroe -0.311939 103 -19.89113994 80 36.1883
101 Army -0.280382 99 -26.04505355 99 36.0218
102 Arizona St. -0.304484 101 -25.72059666 98 35.1314
103 UNLV -0.256703 98 -33.25474422 111 35.2941
104 Georgia St. -0.326345 105 -26.67285859 100 34.0339
105 Navy -0.316865 104 -35.25528317 114 32.4179
106 Tulsa -0.344351 106 -33.37117241 112 31.7546
107 La. Tech -0.371675 108 -29.69076385 105 31.5155
108 Cal (Berkeley) -0.356303 107 -32.64909538 109 31.4435
109 Boston College -0.378862 109 -33.47468304 113 30.3475
110 Miami U. -0.426029 111 -30.17424371 106 29.2248
111 Arkansas St. -0.428364 112 -32.12601026 108 28.6773
112 Texas St. -0.448505 114 -30.59992887 107 28.2251
113 UTEP -0.419475 110 -35.92343424 115 28.1504
114 Florida Int’l -0.452555 116 -33.0767788 110 27.4868
115 Old Dominion -0.433499 113 -38.47981919 118 26.9939
116 Nebraska -0.450399 115 -36.40593516 116 26.7990
117 New Mex. St. -0.546477 120 -28.87600814 102 24.6998
118 W. Michigan -0.479608 117 -39.50159275 120 24.9085
119 Colorado St. -0.500119 118 -37.78169613 117 24.4865
120 N. Illinois -0.504055 119 -39.91185672 121 23.8334
121 Colorado -0.555731 121 -40.21480926 122 21.6920
122 Virginia Tech -0.606821 122 -39.03964075 119 19.9179
123 New Mexico -0.643889 123 -41.90777917 124 17.7654
124 Temple -0.678887 124 -40.73234398 123 16.6362
125 Northwestern -0.696518 127 -44.43183249 125 15.0693
126 South Florida -0.690738 125 -45.60461736 126 15.0282
127 UNC-Charlotte -0.690923 126 -53.56243276 130 13.1702
128 Akron -0.766248 128 -49.56263793 127 11.0817
129 Nevada (Reno) -0.793166 129 -49.6031862 128 9.9936
130 Hawaii -0.849858 130 -50.13064408 129 7.5990
131 Massachusetts -1.006195 131 -55.86612592 131 0.0000

11/13/2022 Conferences

1 SEC 65.663067
2 Big XII 63.015525
3 Big Ten 57.596422
4 Pac-12 57.578522
5 ACC 56.067819
6 AAC 48.607095
7 Sun Belt 47.349170
8 Independents 44.005351
9 CUSA 40.671798
10 MWC 40.108746
11 MAC 37.377968

11/06/2022

1 Georgia 0.907537
2 Ohio St. 0.888818
3 TCU 0.832712
4 Michigan 0.793757
5 Tennessee 0.786494
6 Clemson 0.720248
7 UCLA 0.658060
8 So. California 0.616111
9 LSU 0.601589
10 Oregon 0.595866
11 Ole Miss 0.578316
12 Alabama 0.576445
13 N Carolina 0.549871
14 Utah 0.515358
15 N Carolina St. 0.509958
16 Notre Dame 0.480871
17 Tulane 0.480829
18 Coastal Car. 0.470591
19 Troy 0.439997
20 Penn St. 0.436338
21 Liberty 0.427705
22 C. Florida 0.419784
23 Illinois 0.417997
24 Texas 0.409548
25 Kansas St. 0.380738
26 Syracuse 0.370069
27 Florida St. 0.360041
28 Kansas 0.352311
29 Tex. San Antonio 0.347567
30 Mississippi St. 0.346238
31 Oregon St. 0.331424
32 Oklahoma St. 0.321472
33 Kentucky 0.319748
34 Washington 0.304192
35 S Alabama 0.287351
36 Maryland 0.279231
37 Baylor 0.276317
38 East Carolina 0.269464
39 Cincinnati 0.268183
40 Wake Forest 0.250806
41 Louisville 0.233815
42 S Carolina 0.204238
43 Oklahoma 0.201449
44 So. Methodist 0.191849
45 Purdue 0.180391
46 BYU 0.163842
47 Arkansas 0.154534
48 Boise St. 0.151717
49 Houston 0.145504
50 Wisconsin 0.137955
51 San Jose St. 0.136174
52 Florida 0.134283
53 Minnesota 0.132055
54 Washington St. 0.129510
55 Wyoming 0.116115
56 Iowa 0.093970
57 Duke 0.082470
58 Air Force 0.077496
59 Ohio 0.076198
60 Pittsburgh 0.075906
61 N Texas 0.073151
62 Michigan St. 0.064351
63 James Madison 0.050109
64 Texas Tech 0.039360
65 Toledo 0.038383
66 Iowa St. 0.033113
67 Georgia So. 0.019770
68 Fresno St. 0.013255
69 Appalachian St. 0.012386
70 W. Kentucky 0.004239
71 Buffalo -0.001170
72 Bowling Green -0.018712
73 Memphis -0.022196
74 So. Mississippi -0.022831
75 Missouri -0.054482
76 Georgia Tech -0.054545
77 Auburn -0.060845
78 San Diego St. -0.078736
79 Marshall -0.080582
80 Stanford -0.083404
81 Texas A&M -0.123609
82 Fla. Atlantic -0.133943
83 Utah St. -0.135823
84 Connecticut -0.136736
85 Ala. Birmingham -0.140253
86 Georgia St. -0.147498
87 Rice -0.165049
88 Virginia -0.166493
89 UNLV -0.178683
90 La. Lafayette -0.182237
91 Indiana -0.183672
92 U. Miami -0.204372
93 Arizona -0.209599
94 West Virginia -0.214166
95 Rutgers -0.219998
96 Vanderbilt -0.220510
97 Army -0.223520
98 Arizona St. -0.223810
99 Ball St. -0.230906
100 E. Michigan -0.232769
101 Navy -0.239176
102 Middle Ten. -0.247616
103 Tulsa -0.273762
104 W. Michigan -0.299744
105 Miami U. -0.308368
106 La. Tech -0.313220
107 Cal (Berkeley) -0.324045
108 Kent St. -0.336597
109 C. Michigan -0.344097
110 Old Dominion -0.344630
111 Nebraska -0.381625
112 Texas St. -0.406155
113 Florida Int’l -0.425601
114 UTEP -0.426541
115 La. Monroe -0.453222
116 Colorado St. -0.455590
117 Arkansas St. -0.456299
118 Boston Coll. -0.506176
119 Colorado -0.511677
120 New Mexico St. -0.526277
121 New Mexico -0.557598
122 Virginia Tech -0.566164
123 Northwestern -0.593769
124 Charlotte -0.599033
125 No. Illinois -0.602248
126 Temple -0.606828
127 S Florida -0.631843
128 Akron -0.703684
129 Nevada (Reno) -0.736124
130 Hawaii -0.794625
131 Massachusetts -0.831767

11/06/2022 Conferences

1 SEC 0.296427
2 Big XII 0.263285
3 Pac-12 0.149832
4 Big Ten 0.146128
5 ACC 0.118245
6 AAC 0.000164
7 Sun Belt -0.058089
8 Indpendents -0.092269
9 CUSA -0.184209
10 MWC -0.203535
11 MAC -0.246976

10/30/2022

1 Ohio St. 0.794584
2 TCU 0.787664
3 Tennessee 0.778340
4 Clemson 0.756694
5 Georgia 0.745112
6 Michigan 0.706152
7 Alabama 0.619672
8 Ole Miss 0.592286
9 So. California 0.562746
10 UCLA 0.556930
11 Oregon 0.553443
12 Illinois 0.488098
13 Tulane 0.477047
14 N Carolina 0.474083
15 Kansas St. 0.468379
16 Utah 0.454556
17 LSU 0.444233
18 Syracuse 0.436228
19 Oregon St. 0.385641
20 Coastal Car. 0.385597
21 N Carolina St. 0.382928
22 Troy 0.365012
23 Penn St. 0.363646
24 Oklahoma St. 0.361558
25 Maryland 0.350980
26 Liberty 0.339543
27 Notre Dame 0.313082
28 Wake Forest 0.306522
29 Mississippi St. 0.304005
30 Tex. San Antonio 0.294341
31 C. Florida 0.286959
32 East Carolina 0.276133
33 Texas 0.265509
34 Florida St. 0.258279
35 Oklahoma 0.255622
36 Purdue 0.254504
37 Houston 0.227531
38 Boise St. 0.225486
39 Arkansas 0.219218
40 Kentucky 0.219124
41 Kansas 0.208062
42 Washington 0.192453
43 Cincinnati 0.186540
44 S Carolina 0.163564
45 Baylor 0.154357
46 So. Mississippi 0.152877
47 James Madison 0.136961
48 S Alabama 0.136706
49 Louisville 0.134815
50 Wyoming 0.111626
51 San Jose St. 0.105826
52 So. Methodist 0.090922
53 Texas Tech 0.088699
54 Georgia So. 0.083367
55 Appalachian St. 0.081988
56 Florida 0.076897
57 Minnesota 0.076513
58 Washington St. 0.071986
59 Buffalo 0.068442
60 Air Force 0.050125
61 Memphis 0.041669
62 Duke 0.034164
63 Wisconsin 0.033090
64 BYU 0.023204
65 Toledo 0.016436
66 N Texas 0.013221
67 Auburn 0.006365
68 W. Kentucky 0.002956
69 Missouri -0.007620
70 Stanford -0.019823
71 Fresno St. -0.023702
72 Texas A&M -0.024714
73 Iowa -0.026815
74 Ohio -0.047847
75 Iowa St. -0.059712
76 Ala. Birmingham -0.066245
77 Middle Ten. -0.072914
78 Pittsburgh -0.077538
79 U. Miami -0.092239
80 Michigan St. -0.095209
81 Indiana -0.098156
82 UNLV -0.101637
83 Georgia Tech -0.104621
84 Bowling Green -0.111287
85 Virginia -0.115605
86 Marshall -0.124366
87 San Diego St. -0.140877
88 Vanderbilt -0.142189
89 Fla. Atlantic -0.143718
90 Connecticut -0.150354
91 West Virginia -0.156728
92 Utah St. -0.157814
93 Rutgers -0.158713
94 Army -0.163974
95 Navy -0.170189
96 Arizona St. -0.172156
97 Arizona -0.172874
98 Georgia St. -0.173334
99 Rice -0.199016
100 Florida Int’l -0.211882
101 Tulsa -0.222357
102 La. Lafayette -0.230863
103 E. Michigan -0.240021
104 Texas St. -0.245589
105 Ball St. -0.261292
106 Kent St. -0.276003
107 Old Dominion -0.277114
108 W. Michigan -0.279575
109 Nebraska -0.284164
110 Cal (Berkeley) -0.286634
111 Miami U. -0.306476
112 Colorado St. -0.377507
113 UTEP -0.379672
114 La. Tech -0.393693
115 C. Michigan -0.407585
116 S Florida -0.417184
117 Colorado -0.435794
118 Boston Coll. -0.440608
119 Virginia Tech -0.442336
120 Arkansas St. -0.453800
121 New Mexico -0.455141
122 No. Illinois -0.460574
123 La. Monroe -0.490141
124 UNC-Charlotte -0.494027
125 New Mexico St. -0.508675
126 Northwestern -0.566642
127 Temple -0.573426
128 Hawaii -0.691412
129 Nevada (Reno) -0.737767
130 Massachusetts -0.738830
131 Akron -0.827597

10/30/2022 Conferences

1 SEC 0.285307
2 Big XII 0.237341
3 Pac-12 0.140873
4 Big Ten 0.131276
5 ACC 0.107912
6 AAC 0.018513
7 Sun Belt -0.046622
8 Indpendents -0.126572
9 CUSA -0.150059
10 MWC -0.182733
11 MAC -0.261115

10/23/2022

1 Clemson 0.818146
2 TCU 0.708073
3 Tennessee 0.664842
4 Georgia 0.662319
5 Alabama 0.625595
6 Ohio St. 0.616511
7 Michigan 0.603979
8 Ole Miss 0.557276
9 Oregon 0.533639
10 So. California 0.494716
11 UCLA 0.489522
12 LSU 0.487966
13 Syracuse 0.480954
14 Tulane 0.443720
15 Illinois 0.428852
16 Penn St. 0.407179
17 Troy 0.401930
18 Oklahoma St. 0.395127
19 Oregon St. 0.387851
20 Wake Forest 0.375602
21 Liberty 0.371245
22 Utah 0.349682
23 N Carolina St. 0.341563
24 N Carolina 0.337149
25 Maryland 0.325554
26 Kansas St. 0.314606
27 Mississippi St. 0.313682
28 Coastal Car. 0.295927
29 Texas 0.281451
30 Kentucky 0.271659
31 Tex. San Antonio 0.262371
32 S Carolina 0.235772
33 Purdue 0.226554
34 Houston 0.218548
35 Cincinnati 0.212624
36 Kansas 0.207891
37 Florida St. 0.202903
38 Notre Dame 0.178383
39 Oklahoma 0.176385
40 Texas Tech 0.161296
41 Arkansas 0.158664
42 Washington 0.155499
43 Boise St. 0.154320
44 James Madison 0.144852
45 Washington St. 0.143329
46 C. Florida 0.135763
47 East Carolina 0.133439
48 S Alabama 0.121962
49 Florida 0.099540
50 Wyoming 0.086951
51 Georgia So. 0.080622
52 W. Kentucky 0.078115
53 Appalachian St. 0.070349
54 Baylor 0.066250
55 BYU 0.061452
56 So. Mississippi 0.058670
57 Auburn 0.046737
58 San Jose St. 0.043395
59 Wisconsin 0.042484
60 Marshall 0.036644
61 Ala. Birmingham 0.035841
62 Duke 0.035435
63 Air Force 0.023604
64 Buffalo 0.013480
65 Louisville 0.009265
66 Minnesota 0.006491
67 Memphis 0.004194
68 Texas A&M -0.003793
69 Pittsburgh -0.009893
70 Iowa St. -0.012929
71 Stanford -0.015233
72 Virginia -0.016708
73 Georgia Tech -0.027745
74 So. Methodist -0.034981
75 Ohio -0.039325
76 Iowa -0.040193
77 San Diego St. -0.048485
78 Rice -0.053332
79 Toledo -0.055221
80 Michigan St. -0.065164
81 Indiana -0.073672
82 Missouri -0.087063
83 Rutgers -0.091867
84 Arizona -0.108219
85 Bowling Green -0.113066
86 West Virginia -0.115661
87 UNLV -0.116576
88 Middle Ten. -0.125988
89 Fresno St. -0.128077
90 N Texas -0.128987
91 La. Lafayette -0.130211
92 Vanderbilt -0.151234
93 Utah St. -0.175431
94 U. Miami -0.175690
95 Old Dominion -0.177722
96 E. Michigan -0.184616
97 Tulsa -0.187296
98 Army -0.198268
99 Arizona St. -0.206919
100 Connecticut -0.217007
101 Navy -0.219959
102 Nebraska -0.236604
103 Cal (Berkeley) -0.241982
104 Texas St. -0.262824
105 Fla. Atlantic -0.269242
106 La. Tech -0.279223
107 Florida Int’l -0.284677
108 W. Michigan -0.290178
109 Ball St. -0.295605
110 Georgia St. -0.300620
111 UTEP -0.302327
112 Colorado -0.305555
113 Kent St. -0.309666
114 Colorado St. -0.324134
115 Miami U. -0.331309
116 Boston Coll. -0.339210
117 Arkansas St. -0.377362
118 S Florida -0.378787
119 Virginia Tech -0.395842
120 C. Michigan -0.404578
121 Temple -0.452837
122 No. Illinois -0.455459
123 La. Monroe -0.456217
124 Northwestern -0.477106
125 New Mexico -0.515395
126 New Mexico St. -0.558076
127 Massachusetts -0.569305
128 Hawaii -0.601601
129 UNC-Charlotte -0.655915
130 Nevada (Reno) -0.665317
131 Akron -0.683369

10/23/2022 Conferences

1 SEC 0.276984
2 Big XII 0.218249
3 Pac-12 0.139694
4 Big Ten 0.119500
5 ACC 0.116852
6 AAC -0.011416
7 Sun Belt -0.035286
8 Indpendents -0.133681
9 CUSA -0.159576
10 MWC -0.188330
11 MAC -0.262409

10/16/2022

1 Clemson 0.669204
2 Tennessee 0.633229
3 Michigan 0.623244
4 Georgia 0.621459
5 Ole Miss 0.606535
6 TCU 0.572979
7 Alabama 0.542778
8 UCLA 0.531846
9 Ohio St. 0.523750
10 Syracuse 0.496285
11 So. California 0.449313
12 Illinois 0.407252
13 Mississippi St. 0.366125
14 Utah 0.346661
15 Purdue 0.344501
16 N Carolina 0.336761
17 Penn St. 0.333917
18 Texas 0.319410
19 LSU 0.312338
20 Tulane 0.312253
21 Oregon 0.308621
22 Oregon St. 0.305081
23 Maryland 0.305081
24 N Carolina St. 0.302859
25 Kansas St. 0.300091
26 Wake Forest 0.294587
27 Kentucky 0.290534
28 Kansas 0.290416
29 Liberty 0.259394
30 Coastal Car. 0.247410
31 C. Florida 0.226126
32 Oklahoma St. 0.224483
33 James Madison 0.212116
34 Troy 0.200273
35 Oklahoma 0.191180
36 S Alabama 0.176057
37 Arkansas 0.167909
38 Florida St. 0.165154
39 S Carolina 0.157172
40 Air Force 0.133401
41 Cincinnati 0.132509
42 Houston 0.116619
43 Tex. San Antonio 0.107788
44 Washington St. 0.104491
45 Georgia Tech 0.099997
46 Texas Tech 0.094309
47 BYU 0.084869
48 So. Methodist 0.081140
49 Pittsburgh 0.078617
50 Memphis 0.073815
51 Ala. Birmingham 0.070487
52 Washington 0.070176
53 Florida 0.065093
54 Minnesota 0.060869
55 East Carolina 0.056817
56 Texas A&M 0.053394
57 Georgia So. 0.046977
58 Auburn 0.027255
59 Boise St. 0.021378
60 Appalachian St. 0.018604
61 Iowa 0.003148
62 Notre Dame 0.000333
63 Indiana -0.000007
64 Wyoming -0.002868
65 Iowa St. -0.010037
66 Toledo -0.014764
67 San Jose St. -0.017677
68 So. Mississippi -0.021526
69 Duke -0.026819
70 W. Kentucky -0.029781
71 UNLV -0.031259
72 N Texas -0.031895
73 West Virginia -0.032509
74 Baylor -0.033038
75 Vanderbilt -0.042181
76 Utah St. -0.067620
77 Wisconsin -0.082077
78 Louisville -0.084532
79 Stanford -0.084975
80 Virginia -0.088288
81 Rice -0.095894
82 Michigan St. -0.096168
83 Old Dominion -0.103386
84 U. Miami -0.110247
85 Buffalo -0.110395
86 Arizona -0.110434
87 San Diego St. -0.113215
88 Marshall -0.118253
89 Ohio -0.124620
90 Missouri -0.145768
91 Middle Ten. -0.146211
92 Rutgers -0.146411
93 Fla. Atlantic -0.147063
94 Cal (Berkeley) -0.154005
95 Navy -0.164939
96 Nebraska -0.184982
97 Texas St. -0.186352
98 Fresno St. -0.186891
99 Tulsa -0.194664
100 Arizona St. -0.196021
101 Bowling Green -0.202626
102 La. Lafayette -0.203403
103 La. Tech -0.215184
104 Connecticut -0.230539
105 Miami U. -0.233015
106 Army -0.233427
107 Colorado -0.235683
108 Ball St. -0.242322
109 E. Michigan -0.248448
110 Arkansas St. -0.271946
111 La. Monroe -0.272389
112 Georgia St. -0.278763
113 Boston Coll. -0.298019
114 Kent St. -0.310751
115 C. Michigan -0.322169
116 Temple -0.324662
117 Florida Int’l -0.326191
118 Virginia Tech -0.338757
119 UTEP -0.344917
120 Colorado St. -0.345914
121 No. Illinois -0.381096
122 Northwestern -0.386294
123 W. Michigan -0.408235
124 New Mexico -0.421840
125 S Florida -0.423737
126 UNC-Charlotte -0.459450
127 Hawaii -0.470617
128 Akron -0.573192
129 New Mexico St. -0.579226
130 Nevada (Reno) -0.628390
131 Massachusetts -0.671463

10/09/2022

1 Clemson 0.583051
2 Georgia 0.566898
3 Alabama 0.557534
4 Ohio St. 0.552117
5 Ole Miss 0.501758
6 UCLA 0.447233
7 Tennessee 0.440778
8 Southern Calif. 0.436596
9 Michigan 0.435572
10 Mississippi St. 0.422263
11 TCU 0.380894
12 N. Carolina St. 0.354225
13 Kansas 0.351827
14 Oregon 0.340345
15 Penn St. 0.336286
16 Syracuse 0.333930
17 Wake Forest 0.317381
18 James Madison 0.316852
19 Illinois 0.315340
20 Coastal Car. 0.308708
21 Kansas St. 0.302726
22 Tulane 0.270421
23 Oklahoma St. 0.247288
24 LSU 0.245369
25 Notre Dame 0.239431
26 North Carolina 0.233772
27 Purdue 0.212973
28 Washington St. 0.207135
29 San Jose St. 0.199397
30 Texas 0.198857
31 Liberty 0.196614
32 Florida St. 0.195379
33 Utah 0.183372
34 BYU 0.180587
35 Memphis 0.169555
36 Houston 0.168568
37 Maryland 0.149961
38 Cincinnati 0.143174
39 C. Florida 0.131821
40 Kentucky 0.129359
41 South Carolina 0.125012
42 Troy 0.112309
43 Auburn 0.105417
44 Oregon St. 0.102072
45 Georgia Tech 0.100776
46 Cal (Berkeley) 0.097984
47 Florida 0.092914
48 S. Alabama 0.084881
49 Texas Tech 0.075277
50 UNLV 0.072386
51 TX San Anton’ 0.070511
52 Arkansas 0.066629
53 Baylor 0.065417
54 Iowa St. 0.061866
55 Pittsburgh 0.059447
56 Minnesota 0.045162
57 Oklahoma 0.045060
58 Duke 0.044557
59 Alabama B’ham 0.042612
60 App. St. 0.039801
61 Wyoming 0.035192
62 Air Force 0.031132
63 Indiana 0.022771
64 East Carolina 0.019721
65 Iowa 0.016225
66 Texas A&M 0.012770
67 Marshall -0.008955
68 Rice -0.022927
69 S. Methodist -0.031057
70 Wisconsin -0.033798
71 Arizona -0.037166
72 Boise St. -0.038652
73 Vanderbilt -0.055178
74 Washington -0.057972
75 Virginia -0.063536
76 Middle Ten. -0.079340
77 Texas St. -0.080489
78 Utah St. -0.085188
79 Buffalo -0.087687
80 Navy -0.088053
81 Louisville -0.096469
82 Ga. Southern -0.101803
83 West Virginia -0.102467
84 Southern MS -0.105996
85 Missouri -0.114163
86 Rutgers -0.129746
87 W. Kentucky -0.130009
88 Toledo -0.132222
89 North Texas -0.134194
90 Miami U. -0.137542
91 La. Tech -0.140237
92 E. Michigan -0.147111
93 San Diego St. -0.150818
94 U. Miami -0.154688
95 Ohio -0.157409
96 Nebraska -0.164726
97 Arkansas St. -0.185711
98 Tulsa -0.201419
99 Connecticut -0.201826
100 La. Lafayette -0.201996
101 New Mexico -0.207673
102 Stanford -0.209402
103 Temple -0.210107
104 Arizona St. -0.211136
105 Michigan St. -0.216904
106 Bowling Green -0.217077
107 La. Monroe -0.220260
108 Kent St. -0.225590
109 Old Dominion -0.226742
110 Colorado St. -0.227588
111 Army -0.241138
112 Fla. Atlantic -0.247303
113 Florida Int’l -0.251173
114 Boston College -0.274606
115 Fresno St. -0.276870
116 Ball St. -0.288515
117 W. Michigan -0.288694
118 Georgia St. -0.308265
119 UTEP -0.313446
120 Virginia Tech -0.320024
121 Colorado -0.340131
122 South Florida -0.352298
123 Nevada (Reno) -0.375297
124 Northwestern -0.396350
125 Akron -0.414878
126 C. Michigan -0.436504
127 UNC-Charlotte -0.459068
128 N. Illinois -0.477944
129 Massachusetts -0.520425
130 Hawaii -0.552848
131 New Mex. St. -0.666304