The College Football Blog: 2012 Season Résumé Rankings (After Week 3)

Season Résumé Rankings After Week 3

1. Alabama 3-0 (1^st)

2. Notre Dame 3-0 (NR)

3. Florida 3-0 (NR)

4. UCLA 3-0 (6^th)

5. Georgia 3-0 (8^th)

6. Texas 3-0 (NR)

7. Stanford 3-0 (NR)

8. South Carolina 3-0 (5^th)

9. Ohio 3-0 (NR)

10. LSU 3-0 (10^th)

Out: Iowa State (2^nd); Michigan State (3^rd); Arizona (4^th); Northwestern (7^th); Clemson (9^th).

Comments: My approach to these rankings was similar to last week but slightly more scientific. It’s still very early for these rankings. In part for convenience, I again limited the pool of teams to those with the maximum number of wins (3), no games against FCS teams, and no losses. Later on in the year this will not be a requirement, but for now it serves a purpose (namely, immediately narrowing the field to just 12 teams). 

Once I got the list of those 12 qualified teams all I had to do was rank them. This week I had to consider 3 games for each team so I decided to try and make things a bit more technical by assigning point values for certain things. I considered 3 major aspects of each win: location, margin of victory, and strength of opponent. As far as strength of opponent is concerned, it wasn’t so scientific, as I still relied on my own opinion to determine whether an opponent was poor, decent, average, good, or great. Eventually I had to step in at certain points and overrule my “mathematical system,” but in general I stuck to the formula. The result is this week’s top 10. 

8 of the 10 spots in these rankings changed this week, with Alabama and LSU again serving as bookends. Bama is the #1 team for third straight week. 2 teams moved up in the rankings, with UGA taking the biggest climb, moving up 3 spots from #8 to #5. South Carolina was the only team that fell while still remaining in the top 10, falling 3 spots from #5 to #8. I switched out 5 teams this week. Notre Dame made the biggest splash, jumping into the rankings at #2. Iowa State took the biggest tumble, falling out of the rankings from #2. 

Of the 5 teams who fell out of the rankings this week, only Michigan State did so coming off of a loss. Northwestern won to move to 3-0 against FBS teams last week but they were bumped from the top 10 this week due to the rise of other teams. Iowa State, Arizona, and Clemson were all knocked out due to having played FCS teams last weekend. 

Again, that will certainly not be an automatic disqualification later in the year. Having the maximum number of wins and zero losses will also not be requirements later in the year. These rankings will become more relevant as the year progresses.