Ballot Type: Computer
Submitted: Sept. 25, 2023, 9:39 p.m.
Overall Rationale: Each game, the winning team "steals" a portion of their opponents points. This starts with a base 40% of opponent's points, plus up to 1% bonus based on margin of victory and home/away status. This 40% base decreases as the weeks go on (down to 17.5% by postseason), this is done to limit large swings as the season progresses. The season is ran both forwards and backwards (For example on week 10, the poll calculates weeks 1->10 and then weeks 10->1) and then averages those. This limits being destroyed by a week 1 loss, etc. Starting points are assigned as follows: P5: 500, G5: 400, FCS: 200. Previous year season is ran using these starting points. Current year starts with these points, but up to an additional 500 starting points based on last year's rankings. (i.e. #1 2022 starts season with 1000 points (if P5), and downwards from there). The goal of this poll is to (mostly) treat P5 and G5 the same, and rank deserving teams. G5 is punished slightly in the pre-season calculations (20% less points), and even less in current season (~10% less than P5). This is ranking the most "deserving" teams and not an attempt to rank the "best" teams or to be predictive. For example, being ranked above another team does not imply you are the better team or should beat a lower team, just that you had better performance in your season. While this is not a particularly statistical method, as the season develops the top 10 especially usually shake out pretty decently. In the 4 years I have ran this poll (with some revisions), I have had the same top 4 as CFP three times (2020 being it's own problem), albeit slightly different seeds. So I think it works out. I'll try to comment on any teams that are outliers, or otherwise interesting, and explain why my poll loves/hates them. Since this is a computer poll, the first few weeks are rough and it will be a few more weeks before it really starts to settle. Especially 1 loss teams are completely wrecked this early in season, expect them to quickly claw their way back into poll in coming weeks.
Teams Ranked:
Rank | Team | Unusualness |
---|---|---|
1 | Penn State Nittany Lions | 1.15 |
2 | Texas Longhorns | 0.01 |
3 | Florida State Seminoles | 0.10 |
4 | Ohio State Buckeyes | 0.00 |
5 | Georgia Bulldogs | 0.00 |
6 | Michigan Wolverines | 0.00 |
7 | Utah Utes | 0.21 |
8 | North Carolina Tar Heels | 1.06 |
9 | Washington Huskies | -0.45 |
10 | Washington State Cougars | 0.23 |
11 | Oregon Ducks | -0.39 |
12 | Louisville Cardinals | 2.84 |
13 | Missouri Tigers | 0.85 |
14 | Miami Hurricanes | 0.00 |
15 | Oklahoma Sooners | 0.00 |
16 | Kansas Jayhawks | 0.58 |
17 | Duke Blue Devils | 0.00 |
18 | USC Trojans | -1.10 |
19 | Liberty Flames | 5.86 |
20 | Syracuse Orange | 1.50 |
21 | Colorado Buffaloes | 3.93 |
22 | Maryland Terrapins | 0.00 |
23 | James Madison Dukes | 1.89 |
24 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | -1.30 |
25 | Fresno State Bulldogs | 0.00 |
Omissions:
Team | Unusualness |
---|---|
Alabama Crimson Tide | 1.76 |
LSU Tigers | 1.11 |
Oregon State Beavers | 0.67 |
Ole Miss Rebels | 0.33 |
Total Score: 27.33