Three games in and my poll is starting to make a little sense. It’s based on a new computer poll I made up. If you beat a team, you “earn” their wins. Lose and you get their losses. Sprinkle on some math and repeat until it stabilizes. Here’s my ballot.

1. Texas
2. Duke
3. Ole Miss
4. Miami
5. Michigan
6. Indiana
7. Notre Dame
8. Alabama
9. Florida
10. USC
11. UTSA
12. Boise State
13. Mississippi State
14. Kansas State
15. Penn State
16. UCLA
17. Pittsburgh
18. Tulsa
19. Virginia Tech
20. James Madison
21. Memphis
22. App State
23. South Florida
24. Cincinnati
25. Oregon

I’m not super confident in my week 4 picks.

My ballot. Pure computer poll. Now that we are fully in the transfer portal era, I don’t do preseason calculations anymore. Which means it is simply additive, so USC in the top spot is a bit misleading. But I’ve always stubbornly felt that averaging results by number of games played isn’t really fair. (What if the season were to end all of a sudden? The 2020 season kind of put that to the test.)

Algorithm says:

   1    Virginia Tech - 3-0 - 160.3
   2    Alabama - 3-0 - 160.3
   3    Florida - 3-0 - 159.88
   4    Western Michigan - 3-0 - 159.03
   5    UCLA - 3-0 - 155.45
   6    Miami (FL) - 3-0 - 155.45
   7    Duke - 3-0 - 154.82
   8    BYU - 3-0 - 154.82
   9    Mississippi State - 3-0 - 154.82
  10    West Virginia - 3-0 - 152.43
  11    Notre Dame - 3-0 - 151.33
  12    Ole Miss - 3-0 - 151.33
  13    Tulsa - 3-0 - 151.33
  14    Penn State - 3-0 - 151.33
  15    Pittsburgh - 3-0 - 151.33
  16    USC - 4-0 - 150.39
  17    Northwestern - 2-0 - 148.22
  18    Texas - 3-0 - 148.22
  19    Missouri - 3-0 - 147.67
  20    Vanderbilt - 3-0 - 147.67
  21    James Madison - 3-0 - 147.67
  22    Texas Tech - 3-0 - 147.67
  23    Cincinnati - 3-0 - 144
  24    Iowa - 3-0 - 144
  25    North Dakota State - 4-0 - 139.5

As last year, combines W-L % with “best win” - helps neutralize against cases where teams have played a different number of games. Does not take previous season into account.

Had to update from last year to include Sac state, and ND state. I hope those are the only 2?

Apparently, my algorithm is not impressed by #68 Ohio State. #33 Kentucky is the highest rated team that has a loss. ND State making the rankings in their first season. Also, I believe that they hold the best winning percentage since changing sub-divisions, at 100%

1 Ole Miss

2 Texas

3 Georgia

4 Indiana

5 Notre Dame

6 Miami

7 BYU

8 Ohio State

9 Utah

10 Alabama

11 Texas Tech

12 Tennessee

13 Iowa

14 USC

15 Penn State

16 Missouri

17 Louisville

18 LSU

19 Western Michigan

20 Pittsburg

21 UCLA

22 North Dakota State

23 Kansas State

24 West Virginia

25 SMU

26 Texas A&M

27 Florida

28 Michigan

29 Oklahoma

30 Oregon

This is the correct rankings.