Through games of Saturday, September 4th.
The first week is in the books, and the rankings are slowly adjusting to teams from this year. Let's see what they have to say so far.
New entries: Miami-FL, North Carolina St..
Dropped out: Pittsburgh, USC.
What's that? Miami loses and enters the top 25? Auburn wins and drops 7 spots? Ohio State as the overall number one?? What kind of crazy talk is this?
The first thing to do is step back and take a deep breath. Last week's games only account for about one-sixth of the overall rankings; the rest rely on last year's data, and will slowly be phased out as this year continues. Second, note up at the very top that these rankings only include games through Saturday. As far as the computer knows, Miami has yet to blow it against Maryland and their technicolor uniforms, West Virginia and Marshall haven't faced the wrath of God, and a certain ESPN personality hadn't watched his alma mater get steamrolled by Texas A&M.
Auburn's drop should be less controversial, mainly because they played a dismal game against an inferior opponent. Some people have asked why Boise State gets lauded when they beat Utah State, but Auburn gets punished when they win. The short answer is: margin of victory. Since Boise started playing Utah State regularly in 2006, the Broncos have never won by fewer than 24 points, and average a five touchdown margin of victory. Auburn, on the other hand, needed an onside kick and a last-minute questionable touchdown call in order to eek out the victory. It's not like this is anything new for Auburn, but they got dinged because they did it against clearly inferior opposition instead of in a national title game.
Also moving downwards was TCU; when your rank depends on your rock-solid defense, giving up 50 points to Baylor is going to hurt you just a bit. Florida State, Florida, Alabama, and LSU all moved in the right direction thanks to either a good win against top competition (LSU) or an absolute thrashing of a mid-level patsy (everyone else).
The rankings will need another two or three weeks to really start making sense for the 2011 season, but until then keep an eye out for our Tuesday Trivia feature and game-day predictions.
| Rank | +/- | Team | WinPct | SoS | Adjusted | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Off. | Def. | Pace | |||||||||
| 1 | +3 | Ohio St. | 0.938 | 0.450 | 83 | 26.6 | 12 | 9.0 | 1 | 161.0 | 100 |
| 2 | +1 | Alabama | 0.934 | 0.587 | 30 | 29.4 | 5 | 10.2 | 2 | 158.2 | 113 |
| 3 | -1 | Boise St. | 0.925 | 0.480 | 68 | 29.3 | 7 | 10.7 | 3 | 165.9 | 58 |
| 4 | -3 | TCU | 0.888 | 0.472 | 74 | 29.7 | 3 | 13.0 | 9 | 163.2 | 80 |
| 5 | +1 | Stanford | 0.882 | 0.496 | 61 | 30.3 | 1 | 13.6 | 11 | 162.3 | 88 |
| 6 | +1 | Oklahoma | 0.881 | 0.599 | 24 | 25.0 | 18 | 11.2 | 4 | 183.4 | 2 |
| 7 | +2 | LSU | 0.864 | 0.683 | 2 | 29.1 | 8 | 13.9 | 12 | 158.3 | 112 |
| 8 | +3 | Florida | 0.860 | 0.576 | 35 | 26.5 | 13 | 12.9 | 7 | 161.1 | 99 |
| 9 | -1 | Virginia Tech | 0.853 | 0.595 | 26 | 29.4 | 6 | 14.6 | 19 | 157.2 | 117 |
| 10 | -5 | Oregon | 0.838 | 0.655 | 6 | 25.7 | 16 | 13.3 | 10 | 185.3 | 1 |
| 11 | +6 | Florida St. | 0.826 | 0.569 | 41 | 26.3 | 15 | 14.1 | 14 | 160.3 | 105 |
| 12 | +1 | Iowa | 0.819 | 0.587 | 29 | 23.1 | 24 | 12.6 | 6 | 162.3 | 89 |
| 13 | -1 | Arkansas | 0.804 | 0.663 | 3 | 28.9 | 9 | 16.4 | 31 | 168.0 | 44 |
| 14 | -- | Wisconsin | 0.781 | 0.490 | 66 | 30.1 | 2 | 18.1 | 50 | 157.6 | 115 |
| 15 | -- | Nebraska | 0.780 | 0.509 | 59 | 23.6 | 23 | 14.2 | 15 | 160.4 | 104 |
| 16 | +2 | Missouri | 0.774 | 0.519 | 55 | 19.9 | 52 | 12.2 | 5 | 171.2 | 29 |
| 17 | -7 | Auburn | 0.774 | 0.626 | 14 | 29.6 | 4 | 18.1 | 51 | 165.9 | 59 |
| 18 | +1 | West Virginia | 0.756 | 0.545 | 49 | 20.3 | 47 | 12.9 | 8 | 161.7 | 92 |
| 19 | +1 | South Carolina | 0.734 | 0.642 | 9 | 26.4 | 14 | 17.6 | 39 | 159.9 | 108 |
| 20 | +3 | Georgia | 0.732 | 0.689 | 1 | 27.1 | 10 | 18.1 | 48 | 156.1 | 120 |
| 21 | -5 | Oklahoma St. | 0.728 | 0.472 | 73 | 25.2 | 17 | 17.0 | 36 | 180.8 | 4 |
| 22 | NA | Miami-FL | 0.721 | 0.648 | 8 | 21.2 | 40 | 14.5 | 17 | 170.7 | 31 |
| 23 | -1 | Utah | 0.716 | 0.477 | 69 | 23.1 | 25 | 16.0 | 30 | 161.5 | 94 |
| 24 | NA | North Carolina St. | 0.704 | 0.613 | 20 | 22.4 | 28 | 15.8 | 29 | 172.1 | 25 |
| 25 | -4 | Notre Dame | 0.703 | 0.597 | 25 | 19.9 | 53 | 14.1 | 13 | 172.2 | 23 |
New entries: Miami-FL, North Carolina St..
Dropped out: Pittsburgh, USC.
What's that? Miami loses and enters the top 25? Auburn wins and drops 7 spots? Ohio State as the overall number one?? What kind of crazy talk is this?
The first thing to do is step back and take a deep breath. Last week's games only account for about one-sixth of the overall rankings; the rest rely on last year's data, and will slowly be phased out as this year continues. Second, note up at the very top that these rankings only include games through Saturday. As far as the computer knows, Miami has yet to blow it against Maryland and their technicolor uniforms, West Virginia and Marshall haven't faced the wrath of God, and a certain ESPN personality hadn't watched his alma mater get steamrolled by Texas A&M.
Auburn's drop should be less controversial, mainly because they played a dismal game against an inferior opponent. Some people have asked why Boise State gets lauded when they beat Utah State, but Auburn gets punished when they win. The short answer is: margin of victory. Since Boise started playing Utah State regularly in 2006, the Broncos have never won by fewer than 24 points, and average a five touchdown margin of victory. Auburn, on the other hand, needed an onside kick and a last-minute questionable touchdown call in order to eek out the victory. It's not like this is anything new for Auburn, but they got dinged because they did it against clearly inferior opposition instead of in a national title game.
Also moving downwards was TCU; when your rank depends on your rock-solid defense, giving up 50 points to Baylor is going to hurt you just a bit. Florida State, Florida, Alabama, and LSU all moved in the right direction thanks to either a good win against top competition (LSU) or an absolute thrashing of a mid-level patsy (everyone else).
The rankings will need another two or three weeks to really start making sense for the 2011 season, but until then keep an eye out for our Tuesday Trivia feature and game-day predictions.
