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A wacky computer-based college football rankings system continues to spit out some head-scratching yet entertaining results. This week’s poll certainly didn’t disappoint.
MCubed is a site with its own algorithm that posts standings for all the major sports at both the college and professional levels. For college football, they ratings have been… unique.
In past weeks of covering the rankings, we’ve seen top teams of Miami, Oklahoma, and Ohio State. This week, we didn’t see a change at the top, but the shuffling beyond that No. 1 spot is noteworthy.
The Top 10 reads as follows:
- Ohio State (8-0)
- Liberty (8-0)
- Texas (7-1)
- Florida State (8-0)
- Michigan (8-0)
- James Madison (8-0)
- Washington (8-0)
- Alabama (7-1)
- Oklahoma (7-1)
- Air Force (8-0)
The scale takes into account wins, opponent success, opponent’s opponent record, score differential, and losses. For that reason, we see a bevy both undefeated teams scattered throughout the Top 10.
Of course, it doesn’t seem to account for league status, giving us an insane group that consists of three Group of Five programs. For reference, those same G5 squads come in at No. 17 (AF) and no. 23 (JMU) in the AP Poll while those second-ranked Flames are currently in the receiving votes category.
The strength of schedule and score differential aspects have allowed Texas to jump a number of those unbeaten teams as the Longhorns own a pair wins over ranked Alabama and Kansas squads while also sporting a close loss to Oklahoma.
Those score differentials also appear to be helping out Michigan and Air Force despite having played relatively weak schedules to this point. On the flip side, they could be hurting Washington over the last few weeks given the Huskies’ four consecutive wins of less than 10 points over teams like Arizona (No. 46 in the MCubed poll), Arizona State (No. 111), and Stanford (No. 86).
What’s most interesting about the current rankings, though, is the potential College Football Playoff field of Ohio State, Florida State, Texas, and Liberty.
We’re here for the madness, though the Flames likely wouldn’t see much success against the three blue bloods in a playoff scenario. One thing is for sure, we won’t see these four “contenders” selected by the CFP committee come December.