With college football’s version of Selection Sunday rapidly approaching — and the debate roaring over who belongs in the playoff field versus who should be left out — has anyone stopped to wonder what the rankings would be if the old BCS computer formula were still in charge?
Well, I did (sort of).
I dug into the six computer rankings used during the BCS era — Anderson & Hester, Richard Billingsley, Colley Matrix, Kenneth Massey, Jeff Sagarin, and Peter Wolfe — and evenly weighted them to get a clearer picture of how the College Football Playoff committee’s top 15 might look if determined solely by the machines. Which teams are being undervalued? Who’s benefitting? And who’s slotted exactly where they should be?
Here’s the re-ranked CFP Top 15, according to the computers:
1. Ohio State — 1.167
2. Indiana — 2
3. Oregon — 4.67
4. Georgia — 5.33
5. Ole Miss — 6.33
6. Texas A&M — 6.67
7. Texas Tech — 8.33
8. Alabama — 8.5
9. BYU — 8.67
10. Notre Dame — 9
11. Oklahoma — 9.167
12. Vanderbilt — 13
13. Miami (FL) — 13.5
14. Utah — 13.833
15. Texas — 14