Final Rankings (as of January 8):
| Rank | Team | Record | Index |
|---|
| 1 | LSU | 12-2 | 106.37 |
| 2 | West Virginia | 11-2 | 103.75 |
| 3 | USC | 11-2 | 101.62 |
| 4 | Georgia | 11-2 | 99.71 |
| 5 | Missouri | 12-2 | 94.82 |
| 6 | Oregon | 9-4 | 92.36 |
| 7 | Florida | 9-4 | 91.81 |
| 8 | Ohio St. | 11-2 | 91.64 |
| 9 | Oklahoma | 11-3 | 90.44 |
| 10 | Virginia Tech | 11-3 | 88.36 |
| 11 | Kansas | 12-1 | 87.81 |
| 12 | BYU | 11-2 | 83.05 |
| 13 | Arizona St. | 10-3 | 82.04 |
| 14 | Cincinnati | 10-3 | 81.14 |
| 15 | Tennessee | 10-4 | 81.02 |
| 16 | Boston Coll. | 11-3 | 78.14 |
| 17 | Texas | 10-3 | 77.89 |
| 18 | South Florida | 9-4 | 77.53 |
| 19 | Auburn | 9-4 | 75.39 |
| 20 | Oregon St. | 9-4 | 74.15 |
| 21 | Clemson | 9-4 | 72.40 |
| 22 | Michigan | 9-4 | 71.29 |
| 23 | Penn St. | 9-4 | 69.87 |
| 24 | Illinois | 9-4 | 69.73 |
| 25 | Kentucky | 8-5 | 67.87 |
| 26 | Utah | 9-4 | 67.65 |
| 27 | Wake Forest | 9-4 | 67.11 |
| 28 | Hawaii | 12-1 | 65.02 |
| 29 | Texas Tech | 9-4 | 62.31 |
| 30 | Virginia | 9-4 | 61.96 |
| 31 | California | 7-6 | 61.92 |
| 32 | Arkansas | 8-5 | 61.83 |
| 33 | UCF | 10-4 | 61.80 |
| 34 | UCLA | 6-7 | 61.60 |
| 35 | Connecticut | 9-4 | 61.41 |
| 36 | Wisconsin | 9-4 | 60.36 |
| 37 | Alabama | 7-6 | 59.45 |
| 38 | Michigan St. | 7-6 | 59.12 |
| 39 | Boise St. | 10-3 | 58.69 |
| 40 | Air Force | 9-4 | 57.35 |
| 41 | Mississippi St. | 8-5 | 57.06 |
| 42 | Rutgers | 8-5 | 56.48 |
| 43 | South Carolina | 6-6 | 55.32 |
| 44 | Troy | 8-4 | 54.26 |
| 45 | Florida St. | 7-6 | 53.84 |
| 46 | Oklahoma St. | 7-6 | 52.48 |
| 47 | Tulsa | 10-4 | 52.05 |
| 48 | TCU | 8-5 | 52.03 |
| 49 | New Mexico | 9-4 | 51.77 |
| 50 | Purdue | 8-5 | 51.31 |
| 51 | Louisville | 6-6 | 51.31 |
| 52 | Texas A&M | 7-6 | 50.95 |
| 53 | Fresno St. | 9-4 | 50.42 |
| 54 | Arizona | 5-7 | 50.37 |
| 55 | East Carolina | 8-5 | 47.44 |
| 56 | Maryland | 6-7 | 46.07 |
| 57 | Georgia Tech | 7-6 | 44.31 |
| 58 | Colorado | 6-7 | 42.85 |
| 59 | Indiana | 7-6 | 41.44 |
| 60 | Pittsburgh | 5-7 | 40.82 |
| 61 | Kansas St. | 5-7 | 40.04 |
| 62 | Vanderbilt | 5-7 | 39.10 |
| 63 | Washington | 4-9 | 38.18 |
| 64 | Navy | 8-5 | 38.04 |
| 65 | Nebraska | 5-7 | 37.85 |
| 66 | Florida Atlantic | 8-5 | 37.55 |
| 67 | Ball St. | 7-6 | 37.37 |
| 68 | Washington St. | 5-7 | 37.36 |
| 69 | Bowling Green | 8-5 | 36.22 |
| 70 | Houston | 8-5 | 35.71 |
| 71 | Iowa | 6-6 | 35.26 |
| 72 | Cent. Michigan | 8-6 | 35.07 |
| 73 | Southern Miss | 7-6 | 33.63 |
| 74 | Miami (FL) | 5-7 | 30.56 |
| 75 | Northwestern | 6-6 | 30.55 |
| 76 | Stanford | 4-8 | 29.60 |
| 77 | N.C. State | 5-7 | 28.92 |
| 78 | Wyoming | 5-7 | 28.42 |
| 79 | LA Monroe | 6-6 | 25.93 |
| 80 | North Carolina | 4-8 | 25.54 |
| 81 | Ohio | 6-6 | 24.89 |
| 82 | Middle Tenn. St. | 5-7 | 24.34 |
| 83 | West. Kentucky | 7-5 | 23.40 |
| 84 | Nevada | 6-7 | 22.99 |
| 85 | Miami (OH) | 6-7 | 22.16 |
| 86 | W. Michigan | 5-7 | 21.70 |
| 87 | Memphis | 7-6 | 21.30 |
| 88 | Mississippi | 3-9 | 19.60 |
| 89 | Buffalo | 5-7 | 19.23 |
| 90 | Notre Dame | 3-9 | 17.81 |
| 91 | Iowa St. | 3-9 | 14.64 |
| 92 | UTEP | 4-8 | 14.39 |
| 93 | Louisiana Tech | 5-7 | 13.93 |
| 94 | San Diego St. | 4-8 | 13.77 |
| 95 | Arkansas St. | 4-7 | 13.29 |
| 96 | San Jose St. | 5-7 | 13.29 |
| 97 | Colorado St. | 3-9 | 13.25 |
| 98 | Toledo | 5-7 | 12.14 |
| 99 | Marshall | 3-9 | 10.43 |
| 100 | East. Michigan | 4-8 | 10.43 |
| 101 | Akron | 4-8 | 9.35 |
| 102 | UNLV | 2-10 | 6.23 |
| 103 | Temple | 4-8 | 6.08 |
| 104 | Tulane | 4-8 | 5.30 |
| 105 | Kent St. | 3-9 | 4.53 |
| 106 | Syracuse | 2-10 | 3.33 |
| 107 | New Mexico St. | 4-9 | 2.96 |
| 108 | Rice | 3-9 | 1.74 |
| 109 | LA Lafayette | 3-9 | 1.50 |
| 110 | Baylor | 3-9 | 1.07 |
| 111 | Army | 3-9 | -0.13 |
| 112 | Utah St. | 2-10 | -0.38 |
| 113 | Minnesota | 1-11 | -0.52 |
| 114 | Duke | 1-11 | -2.69 |
| 115 | UAB | 2-10 | -4.69 |
| 116 | North Texas | 2-10 | -6.51 |
| 117 | Northern Illinois | 2-10 | -7.48 |
| 118 | SMU | 1-11 | -9.32 |
| 119 | Florida Intl. | 1-11 | -12.75 |
| 120 | Idaho | 1-11 | -14.58 |
|
I started playing with computer football rankings about 5 years ago.
Here's what I learned: you can make them say almost anything.
I started doing it thinking that I was going to find the ultimate correct way to rank the teams, but what I found is that there is
almost an infinite number of fair ways to grade the teams, and the way that someone ends up judging which is best is just by looking
at it and trying to see if it looks reasonable.
So here is the result of what I think is a pretty reasonable algorithm.
The rankings look only at the performance of a team; they do not look at potential.
Strength of schedule and point spread are both taken into account, although there's a cap on the point spread to prevent blowouts from skewing
the data too much.
By the way, I don't think that anyone's inability to accurately rank the teams means that there should be a college football playoff.
It's pretty much common knowledge that anything can happen in a game, meaning that the better team doesn't always win,
so why would the best team always win a playoff?
That's one of the great things about sports and games: there's always an element of chance, and the question of What if...?
Check out other college football rankings.
The following are pdf files that include the rankings
of all Division IA teams, most recent results and most impressive results as of the date
of the calculation (ie, the result that helped them the most in the rankings). Also includes a ranking of
the conferences.
Final Rankings as of January 8, 2008
Rankings as of December 3, 2007
Rankings as of November 26, 2007
Rankings as of November 19, 2007
Rankings as of November 12, 2007
Rankings as of November 5, 2007
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