| Rank | +/- | Team | WinPct | SoS | Adjusted | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Off. | Def. | Pace | |||||||||
| 1 | -- | Alabama | 0.981 | 0.599 | 24 | 41.4 | 1 | 8.6 | 1 | 147.8 | 124 |
| 2 | -- | LSU | 0.900 | 0.634 | 16 | 27.0 | 14 | 11.2 | 2 | 158.9 | 97 |
| 3 | +3 | Notre Dame | 0.885 | 0.652 | 11 | 26.6 | 18 | 11.8 | 3 | 158.5 | 98 |
| 4 | +3 | Florida St. | 0.880 | 0.505 | 59 | 30.6 | 5 | 13.8 | 8 | 157.4 | 104 |
| 5 | -2 | Oklahoma | 0.874 | 0.647 | 13 | 26.0 | 23 | 12.0 | 4 | 174.1 | 17 |
| 6 | -2 | Florida | 0.867 | 0.664 | 9 | 26.3 | 22 | 12.4 | 5 | 157.5 | 102 |
| 7 | -2 | Oregon | 0.863 | 0.495 | 65 | 31.6 | 3 | 15.1 | 13 | 179.2 | 8 |
| 8 | +1 | Boise St. | 0.837 | 0.398 | 91 | 27.7 | 11 | 14.4 | 12 | 157.3 | 105 |
| 9 | +1 | Texas A&M | 0.833 | 0.642 | 15 | 25.9 | 25 | 13.6 | 7 | 186.5 | 4 |
| 10 | -2 | Stanford | 0.819 | 0.562 | 38 | 28.3 | 7 | 15.5 | 15 | 161.7 | 79 |
| 11 | +4 | Kansas St. | 0.808 | 0.582 | 31 | 34.4 | 2 | 19.4 | 46 | 153.7 | 118 |
| 12 | +2 | Oklahoma St. | 0.808 | 0.610 | 22 | 26.9 | 17 | 15.1 | 14 | 182.1 | 6 |
| 13 | -2 | South Carolina | 0.799 | 0.585 | 28 | 27.8 | 10 | 16.0 | 18 | 157.9 | 100 |
| 14 | -1 | Wisconsin | 0.797 | 0.530 | 48 | 31.2 | 4 | 18.1 | 30 | 153.7 | 119 |
| 15 | -3 | Michigan | 0.788 | 0.585 | 29 | 28.1 | 9 | 16.6 | 19 | 153.4 | 120 |
| 16 | -- | USC | 0.768 | 0.494 | 66 | 27.5 | 12 | 17.1 | 25 | 162.2 | 77 |
| 17 | +2 | Ohio St. | 0.758 | 0.499 | 61 | 29.6 | 6 | 18.7 | 38 | 160.9 | 84 |
| 18 | -1 | TCU | 0.751 | 0.504 | 60 | 26.5 | 19 | 17.0 | 22 | 161.2 | 83 |
| 19 | +1 | Michigan St. | 0.751 | 0.614 | 21 | 20.0 | 69 | 12.8 | 6 | 162.6 | 72 |
| 20 | +5 | Nebraska | 0.734 | 0.627 | 18 | 25.9 | 26 | 17.2 | 27 | 167.8 | 44 |
| 21 | -3 | Texas | 0.722 | 0.571 | 34 | 28.3 | 8 | 19.3 | 44 | 161.7 | 80 |
| 22 | NA | BYU | 0.720 | 0.509 | 56 | 20.8 | 60 | 14.3 | 11 | 160.4 | 87 |
| 23 | NA | Georgia | 0.715 | 0.542 | 42 | 27.4 | 13 | 19.0 | 41 | 165.3 | 57 |
| 24 | NA | Clemson | 0.701 | 0.530 | 49 | 26.4 | 20 | 18.8 | 39 | 173.6 | 19 |
| 25 | NA | Cincinnati | 0.694 | 0.508 | 57 | 23.6 | 36 | 17.0 | 23 | 168.7 | 39 |
Rankings through games of 2012-10-28
New entries: BYU, Georgia, Clemson, Cincinnati.
Dropped out: Mississippi St., Texas Tech, Penn State, Rutgers.
Alabama continues to steamroll their opposition, putting up 25.7 PPH against what was at the time the 14th-ranked defense in FBS. This follows performances of 29.5 PPH against the 71st-ranked defense (UT), and 27.8 PPH against the 17th-ranked defense (Missouri). The Crimson Tide are brutally efficient; at 41.1 PPH, they are a full 6.7 PPH better than Kansas State, the second-best offense in FBS.
Oregon is a bit of an anomaly, though. They rack up an amazing number of points, but often take their foot off the gas in the second or third quarter. We don't have a play-by-play breakdown, otherwise we'd have much better data for Oregon. Needless to say, the Ducks are definitely better than their TFG ranking indicates, but their actual ceiling is hard to find.
LSU continues to drift downwards (falling from a ranking of 0.932 takes time, especially when their defense continues to do a halfway decent job), while Notre Dame continues its climb up the rankings. The Fighting Irish are legitimately good this year, and it's all thanks to defense. Their offense continues to struggle; if they want to be a serious threat to Alabama in a title game, they absolutely positively have to jump at least 4.0 PPH to crack the top five.
Generally speaking, everything is pretty muddled. Alabama is dominating a difficult schedule, but everyone else is either dominating a middling schedule (e.g., Oregon), squeaking by a difficult schedule (e.g., Notre Dame), or some combination of the two (e.g., Kansas State, Ohio State, and Louisville).
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