| Rank |
+/- |
Team |
WinPct |
SoS |
Off Pts |
Def Pts |
Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | -- |
Florida |
0.9523 | 0.6273 | 28.4 | 9.4 | 77.8 |
| 002 | -- |
TCU |
0.9488 | 0.4181 | 25.7 | 8.7 | 84.6 |
| 003 | +1 |
Alabama |
0.9480 | 0.6526 | 25.3 | 8.6 | 80.6 |
| 004 | -1 |
Texas |
0.9348 | 0.5556 | 28.4 | 10.6 | 86.6 |
| 005 | -- |
Ohio St. |
0.9262 | 0.5327 | 21.1 | 8.3 | 83.5 |
| 006 | -- |
Oklahoma |
0.9074 | 0.6867 | 21.4 | 9.2 | 90.5 |
| 007 | -- |
Penn State |
0.8961 | 0.5225 | 20.9 | 9.4 | 82.4 |
| 008 | -- |
Virginia Tech |
0.8927 | 0.5848 | 24.2 | 11.0 | 81.4 |
| 009 | -- |
Boise St. |
0.8884 | 0.3414 | 25.9 | 12.0 | 85.3 |
| 010 | +1 |
Texas Tech |
0.8418 | 0.5846 | 25.8 | 13.9 | 90.3 |
| 011 | -1 |
USC |
0.8404 | 0.5798 | 19.6 | 10.6 | 86.1 |
| 012 | -- |
Oregon |
0.8383 | 0.6123 | 23.1 | 12.5 | 92.9 |
| 013 | -- |
Iowa |
0.8329 | 0.5624 | 19.7 | 10.9 | 82.5 |
| 014 | -- |
Nebraska |
0.8306 | 0.5589 | 18.7 | 10.4 | 82.4 |
| 015 | -- |
LSU |
0.8252 | 0.5931 | 19.4 | 10.9 | 82.8 |
| 016 | -- |
Utah |
0.7805 | 0.4412 | 20.1 | 12.6 | 87.1 |
| 017 | -- |
Cincinnati |
0.7736 | 0.5012 | 22.4 | 14.2 | 87.3 |
| 018 | -- |
Pittsburgh |
0.7708 | 0.5418 | 22.3 | 14.2 | 83.7 |
| 019 | -- |
BYU |
0.7683 | 0.4341 | 22.5 | 14.4 | 85.3 |
| 020 | -- |
Miami-FL |
0.7539 | 0.6303 | 21.5 | 14.2 | 84.3 |
| 021 | +3 |
Georgia Tech |
0.7400 | 0.6213 | 26.5 | 18.0 | 79.9 |
| 022 | -1 |
Clemson |
0.7394 | 0.6110 | 20.2 | 13.7 | 85.1 |
| 023 | -- |
Mississippi |
0.7325 | 0.6230 | 21.2 | 14.6 | 83.0 |
| 024 | +1 |
Oregon St. |
0.7317 | 0.5673 | 21.2 | 14.6 | 86.9 |
| 025 | -3 |
Arkansas |
0.7311 | 0.6504 | 25.2 | 17.4 | 85.1 |
No new entries, no teams dropping out.
The big issue with these rankings obviously has to be that even after taking a solid beating from Alabama, Florida is still at the top. How can that be? The simple answer is that the rankings don't explicitly rank one team above another because the first team defeated the second team. Otherwise I'd have to rank Washington ahead of California this week (UC is still ahead of UW, but only by three spots instead of 28). So what does it take for one team to leapfrog another? Let's look at last week's rankings.
| Rank |
+/- |
Team |
WinPct |
SoS |
Off Pts |
Def Pts |
Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | -- |
Florida |
0.9666 | 0.5884 | 29.2 | 8.4 | 77.7 |
| 004 | -- |
Alabama |
0.9333 | 0.6076 | 23.5 | 8.9 | 80.5 |
And this week
| Rank |
+/- |
Team |
WinPct |
SoS |
Off Pts |
Def Pts |
Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | -- |
Florida |
0.9523 | 0.6273 | 28.4 | 9.4 | 77.8 |
| 003 | +1 |
Alabama |
0.9480 | 0.6526 | 25.3 | 8.6 | 80.6 |
Notice the change in expected winning percentage. Florida dropped 0.0143 points and Alabama rose 0.0147 points, for an overall delta of 0.0290 points. The only reason Alabama didn't jump to the top was because Florida had such a big head start going into the game. For example, if Arkansas had posted that kind of gain they could have leapfrogged from 25th to 20th. After running the numbers a bit more, here's what would have happened if Alabama had kicked the extra point instead of going for the failed two-point conversion and had kicked a field goal as time ran out instead of letting the clock expire:
| Rank |
+/- |
Team |
WinPct |
SoS |
Off Pts |
Def Pts |
Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | +3 |
Alabama |
0.9500 | 0.6519 | 25.7 | 8.6 | 80.6 |
| 002 | -1 |
Florida |
0.9499 | 0.6281 | 28.4 | 9.6 | 77.8 |
| 003 | -1 |
TCU |
0.9488 | 0.4181 | 25.7 | 8.7 | 84.6 |
The Tide would have jumped ahead of the Gators but not defeated the Gators soundly enough to have them fall behind TCU.
In the Big XII title game, the Longhorns got lucky on several grounds and snuck past Nebraska. TFG was unimpressed with their performance, though, and combined with Alabama's victory over Florida they dropped one spot into fourth. On some level it's difficult to argue with people who say that the Alabama-Florida game was the actual title game and the upcoming Texas-Alabama game won't be as interesting. At the same time, though, even (7) Penn State would have a 1-in-3 shot of upsetting the Tide. For the record, those are the same odds of victory that Alabama had going into the game against Florida and we all see how that turned out.
The only other big movement in the top 25 was Georgia Tech jumping in front of Clemson after the Ramblin' Wreck defeated the Tigers in the ACC Championship.
