Well that was an absolute banger of a season. Upsets, playoff controversy, heartbreak, ecstasy and whatever the hell CU was doing. This poll will likely stay open for a week or two to let people who may not visit a cfb community as much in the postseason still have a chance to submit a ballot. It has been an absolute pleasure hanging out with this tiny community, and hopefully it continues to grow. Speaking of community, shout out to @[email protected], who very nearly predicted the final score of the NC game with a prediction of 35-17, you can almost pick my lottery numbers anytime.
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I’ve given up on CFB. Its so tilted toward the SEC and Big 10, both in perception and funding, that there’s only a little drama to wring out. Especially true where it concerns Alabama.
I don’t see any way to preserve college athletics with integrity. Better to move to a system of club teams in college towns.
Promotion/relegation included?
I would love a promotion/relegation format if it maintained regionality and allowed for cross division rivalry games to continue (though I have no clue how that would fuck up the relegation system).
This is exactly why I will always maintain that regional rivalries (or whatever ND does) is the best part of this sport and should be a serious indicator of program quality. In this case it doesn’t matter if the SEC and the 2PAC are on different levels, because what’s important is beating the foes that are on your playing level. Sure, having conference champs getting autobids in the playoff is a logical extension of that notion. But I believe the bigger the field gets, the more potential there is for lopsided games.
My final ballot. Computer poll. Who’s got it better than Michigan? Evidently absolutely nooooobody. But it’s pretty standard that my poll puts the CFP winner ahead by a wide margin (a notable exception being when it declared an OSU as the national champion in 2017).
I know it’s weird that Oregon finished ahead of Washington, although it’s really close. Keep in mind this is essentially a power rating – put those 2 teams on a neutral site tomorrow and I’m sure Vegas would still favor Oregon despite the H2H. For the record, I personally don’t but I tried to eliminate as much bias as possible from the algorithm.
Also, pretty happy with Texas at number 5. It was a good season.
Bonus musing: Since I’ve ran the last 9 CFB seasons through the same algorithm, I was curious how this Michigan team compares to other top teams. Turns out the 2023 Wolverines rank number 4 out of 1,106 FBS teams1, trailing only 2022 Georgia, 2019 LSU, and 2021 Georgia (in that order). Also, if any sickos are wondering who the worst team was, it’s likely 2020 UMass (or 2019 UMass if you want to exclude the COVID year).
1Apparently half my data for the 2018 season got wiped somehow, but fortunately it kept the top 70 teams. I’ll have to crunch that season’s numbers again at some point, but at least it won’t have any bearing on the comparison of elite teams. Also, in 2020 I only ranked 127 teams since 3 opted out, and that season in general had a slightly adjusted formula for obvious reasons.
Full ranking:
Rank Change Team Record Points 1 - Michigan 15-0 1217 2 +4 Georgia 13-1 1021 3 -1 Oregon 12-2 994 4 +1 Washington 14-1 988 5 -2 Texas 12-2 935 6 -2 Florida State 13-1 865 7 +4 Notre Dame 10-3 851 8 - Alabama 12-2 850 9 -2 Ohio State 11-2 849 10 -1 Oklahoma 10-3 824 11 -1 Penn State 10-3 806 12 +1 Arizona 10-3 794 13 +2 Kansas State 9-4 760 14 -2 Louisville 10-4 755 15 +3 Missouri 11-2 746 16 -2 SMU 11-3 745 17 - LSU 10-3 724 18 +3 Ole Miss 11-2 722 19 -3 Liberty 13-1 703 20 +10 Tennessee 9-4 698 T21 +7 USC 8-5 695 T21 +5 Virginia Tech 7-6 695 23 -1 Kansas 9-4 684 24 - Clemson 9-4 677 25 -3 Texas A&M 7-6 676 26 +3 Oklahoma State 10-4 673 27 -7 Oregon State 8-5 669 28 -9 Iowa 10-4 668 29 -3 Duke 8-5 667 30 -5 Troy 11-3 666 31 -1 Wisconsin 7-6 653 32 +9 Maryland 8-5 650 33 -1 Miami (FL) 7-6 647 34 +12 West Virginia 9-4 643 35 +5 UCLA 8-5 639 T36 -2 Miami (OH) 11-3 637 T36 +1 Utah 8-5 637 T36 -1 UCF 6-7 637 39 -7 North Carolina 8-5 634 40 +4 Kentucky 7-6 625 41 -2 Iowa State 7-6 624 42 -4 JMU 11-2 623 T43 -2 Toledo 11-3 621 T43 - NC State 9-4 621 45 -10 New Mexico State 10-5 618 46 -1 Boise State 8-6 613 47 - Appalachian State 9-5 612 48 +10 South Alabama 7-6 611 49 +3 UTSA 9-4 610 50 +5 Georgia Tech 7-6 606 51 +6 Texas Tech 7-6 603 52 -4 Auburn 6-7 598 53 -2 UNLV 9-5 594 54 +5 Memphis 10-3 584 55 +4 Northwestern 8-5 583 56 -3 Tulane 11-3 580 57 +7 Fresno State 9-4 575 58 +10 Air Force 9-4 570 59 +8 Rutgers 7-6 569 60 +6 Ohio 10-3 568 61 -13 Washington State 5-7 564 62 -12 Nebraska 5-7 559 63 +1 Jacksonville State 9-4 556 64 -11 TCU 5-7 549 65 -3 California 6-7 546 66 +5 Northern Illinois 7-6 543 T67 +5 Wyoming 9-4 534 T67 +12 Boston College 7-6 534 69 -13 Florida 5-7 533 70 +5 Minnesota 6-7 529 71 +5 Bowling Green 7-6 527 72 - San Jose State 7-6 526 73 +4 Louisiana 6-7 517 74 -13 South Carolina 5-7 516 75 -12 Illinois 5-7 513 76 +7 Texas State 8-5 510 77 -9 Colorado 4-8 507 78 -8 Purdue 4-8 504 79 +23 USF 7-6 503 80 +6 Coastal Carolina 8-5 496 81 -7 Syracuse 6-7 495 82 +3 Western Kentucky 8-5 491 83 -2 Rice 6-7 482 84 -6 Arkansas 4-8 471 85 +9 Old Dominion 6-7 467 86 +2 Georgia Southern 6-7 465 T87 +9 Arkansas State 6-7 462 T87 -7 Houston 4-8 462 89 -7 Pittsburgh 3-9 456 90 +15 Georgia State 7-6 452 91 +4 Utah State 6-7 450 92 -9 Wake Forest 4-8 449 93 +5 Marshall 6-7 444 94 -7 BYU 5-7 441 95 -6 Mississippi State 5-7 434 96 -6 Cincinnati 3-9 432 T97 -6 FAU 4-8 431 T97 -6 Indiana 3-9 431 99 -6 Virginia 3-9 429 100 -3 UNT 5-7 418 101 -3 Colorado State 5-7 416 102 -1 Eastern Michigan 6-7 413 103 -3 Middle Tennessee 4-8 412 104 -1 Baylor 3-9 404 105 -1 Sam Houston 3-9 402 T106 -1 San Diego State 4-8 392 T106 -1 Buffalo 3-9 392 108 - Hawaii 5-8 387 109 - Central Michigan 5-7 383 110 - ECU 2-10 380 T111 - Ball State 4-8 379 T111 - Arizona State 3-9 379 T113 - Army 5-6 377 T113 - Western Michigan 4-8 377 115 - Michigan State 4-8 372 116 - UAB 4-8 371 117 - UTEP 3-9 367 118 - Louisiana Tech 3-9 360 119 - Navy 5-6 355 120 - Connecticut 3-9 353 121 - Akron 2-10 352 T122 - New Mexico 4-8 348 T122 - Stanford 3-9 348 T124 - Charlotte 3-9 345 T124 - Vanderbilt 2-10 345 126 - Tulsa 4-8 342 127 - FIU 4-8 338 128 - Southern Mississippi 3-9 329 129 - Nevada 2-10 324 130 - Massachusetts 3-9 312 131 - Temple 3-9 304 132 - UL Monroe 2-10 284 133 - Kent State 1-11 259
