FanPost

CFB Week 5 Polls and Adjusted Polls

I normally don't start officially ranking teams in college football until around week five of the season. I find it is very difficult to judge teams without really seeing how they play together on the field, normally be week five most teams have played some decent teams and faced some adversity. This makes it easier to start ranking teams as Conference play starts coming into full swing.

First my own Top 25 will be listed with a few reasons left below (*disclaimer* I made this before Stanford lost tonight and I have no interest in re-adjusting all these rankings and re-doing my calculations).

Then it will be followed by a Combined Top 25 which averages out rankings between my poll, the AP Poll, and the USA Today Poll (those two were chosen because of how often they are referred to by people, the BCS will be added when that poll is released later in the season).

Following that you will see a ranking of every team in each poll by Strength of Schedule (SoS). The SoS will then be promptly used to create the Adjusted Combined Top 25 which takes into account the Sos (obviously) to get a final ranking of the top 25 teams in the nation.

Please enjoy and leave your comments below.

PHXhero's Top 25

Rank

Team

Record

Points

1

Alabama

4-0

1500

2

Oregon

4-0

1440

3

Florida State

4-0

1310

4

LSU

4-0

1285

5

Georgia

4-0

1210

6

Stanford

3-0

1190

7

Kansas State

4-0

1155

8

South Carolina

4-0

1050

9

West Virginia

3-0

1005

10

Notre Dame

4-0

1000

11

Florida

4-0

865

12

Texas

3-0

840

13

USC

3-1

780

14

Clemson

3-1

735

15

Oklahoma

2-1

510

16

Ohio State

4-0

495

17

TCU

3-0

460

18

Oregon State

2-0

450

19

Louisville

4-0

370

20

Mississippi State

4-0

325

21

Michigan State

3-1

280

22

Rutgers

4-0

200

23

Baylor

4-0

145

24

UCLA

3-1

105

25

Nebraska

3-1

80

The top 25 here is pretty much self-explanatory. Alabama is my consensus number one, both Oregon and FSU leapfrogged LSU in the polls thanks to their showing against Auburn.

Stanford is a well-coached team that deserves its spot at number six despite how good Kansas State is looking.

Notre Dame is looking more legitimate after every game (although don't expect them to win the National Championship).

Clemson lost to a top 10 team in FSU, and they competed for a full 4 quarters (except for that big comeback by the Seminoles), so dropping them far in the rankings is a bit uncalled for which is why I left them at 14.

And finally we have UCLA still in the top 25. Why? Because Oregon State has beat two top 25 teams now and losing to them just doesn't look as bad anymore which is why UCLA, with how good they are, should still be in the top 25.

Combined Top 25

Rank

Team

Record

Points

1

Alabama

4-0

0.994

2

Oregon

4-0

0.939

3

LSU

4-0

0.887

4

Florida State

4-0

0.879

5

Georgia

4-0

0.818

6

South Carolina

4-0

0.744

7

Kansas State

4-0

0.716

8

Stanford

3-0

O.710

9

West Virginia

3-0

0.708

10

Notre Dame

4-0

0.631

11

Texas

3-0

0.582

12

Florida

4-0

0.566

13

USC

3-1

0.532

14

Clemson

3-1

0.418

15

Oklahoma

2-1

0.404

16

TCU

3-0

0.396

17

Louisville

4-0

0.284

18

Ohio State

4-0

0.251

19

Oregon State

2-0

0.249

20

Michigan State

3-1

0.229

21

Mississippi State

4-0

0.204

22

Nebraska

3-1

O.130

23

Rutgers

4-0

0.095

24

Baylor

4-0

0.075

25

UCLA

3-1

0.048

26

Boise State

2-1

0.041

27

Oklahoma State

2-1

0.037

28

Virginia Tech

3-1

0.028

29

Wisconsin

3-1

0.026

Here we have a combination of the AP Poll, USA Today Poll, and my own personal poll that averages out the rankings. Each poll is weighted evenly and the highest point total a team can receive is 4500 (each poll has their own point value for each team which is added together then divided by 4500).

Alabama retains the top spot in this poll by just .055 points. Meanwhile, LSU manages to hold onto the third spot, barely.

The biggest surprise here is that UCLA remains in the top 25 despite only being ranked in my poll. I guess the "Others Receiving Votes" list is a little more important than I thought.

Strength of Schedule Top 25

Rank

Team

Record

Points

1

Clemson

3-1

1500

2

Oklahoma State

2-1

1450

3

Oklahoma

2-1

1400

4

Oregon State

2-0

1350

5

Kansas State

4-0

1300

6

Oregon

4-0

1250

7

Florida State

4-0

1200

8

Florida

4-0

1150

9

Stanford

3-0

1100

10

Notre Dame

4-0

1050

11

Virginia Tech

3-1

900

12

Wisconsin

3-1

850

13

Baylor

4-0

800

14

Texas

3-0

700

15

USC

3-1

650

16

Georgia

4-0

550

17

LSU

4-0

500

18

Alabama

4-0

450

19

UCLA

3-1

400

20

Rutgers

4-0

350

21

Michigan State

3-1

300

22

South Carolina

4-0

250

23

Boise State

2-1

200

24

Mississippi State

4-0

150

25

Nebraska

3-1

100

26

Louisville

4-0

50

27

West Virginia

3-0

40

28

Ohio State

4-0

30

29

TCU

3-0

10

The most interesting part of this ranking to me (which was retrieved from teamrankings.com, the points total was added by me for statistical purposes) was Oregon State and Kansas State's high ranking which means that those teams may just be for real. Other than that it isn't much of a shock for the rest of the schedule considering most high level teams are currently still playing through the weak parts of their schedule, the rankings should start shuffling fast now that Conference play is starting up.

Adjusted Combined Top 25

Rank

Team

Record

Points

1

Oregon

4-0

0.913

2

Florida State

4-0

0.859

3

Alabama

4-0

O.820

4

Kansas State

4-0

0.754

5

LSU

4-0

0.749

6

Stanford

3-0

0.716

7

Georgia

4-0

0.705

8

Notre Dame

4-0

0.648

9

Florida

4-0

0.616

10

South Carolina

4-0

0.599

11

Clemson

3-1

0.564

12

Texas

3-0

0.553

13

West Virginia

3-0

0.538

14

Oklahoma

2-1

0.537

15

USC

3-1

0.507

16

Oregon State

2-0

0.412

17

TCU

3-0

0.299

18

Oklahoma State

2-1

0.269

19

Michigan State

3-1

0.222

20

Louisville

4-0

0.221

21

Ohio State

4-0

0.193

22

Baylor

4-0

O.190

23

Mississippi State

4-0

0.178

24

Virginia Tech

3-1

0.171

25

Wisconsin

3-1

0.161

26

Rutgers

4-0

0.129

27

Nebraska

3-1

0.114

28

UCLA

3-1

0.103

29

Boise State

2-1

0.064

First thing first, this is a new ranking like the Combined Top 25 except that this poll is also weighted by strength of schedule. This is most apparent in Alabama who drops from one to three, FSU manages to move comfortably in the second slot while Oregon becomes the clear cut number one.

Other moves include Kansas State moving up to four, LSU falling to five, Notre Dame advancing to eight, South Carolina and West Virginia falling out of the top 10, and Clemson getting to stay at 11. USC also manages to move backwards, meanwhile Oklahoma State stays ranked at 18 with both Virginia Tech and Wisconsin keeping Rutgers and Nebraska out of the top 25.

This post was brought to you by a member of the House of Sparky community.