Where Nebraska Stands in National College Football Rankings After Week Three

The Huskers move up in five of seven polls but still can’t crack the top 25

Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola has huge game Saturday against Michigan. A Huskers victory could propel them into Top 25. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Each Wednesday, we’ll take a look at where seven national polls place Nebraska’s football team. After Week Three, the 3-0 Huskers ranked 29th in an average of the seven polls. Last week, the Huskers averaged 29.4 in the seven polls, so a slight improvement.

Nebraska, coming off a 59-7 win over Houston Christian, moved up in five of the seven polls and went down in the other two monitored by huskermax.com.

The Huskers’ best ranking is 17th in the ESPN Football Power Index. Last week, this was the Huskers’ best ranking, Nebraska coming in at 12th.

Next week’s polls should provide a more accurate reflection of teams’ strength as most programs begin conference play. The Nebraska-Michigan game should provide a truthful barometer of where the Huskers should be ranked.

The polls we will monitor all season are:

* Associated Press
* The Athletic
* CBS Sports
* US LBM Coaches Poll
* ESPN’s Football Power Index
* ESPN’s SP+ rankings
* Massey Ratings

Associated Press

The Huskers remained in the “others receiving votes” group. Nebraska moved up one slot to 34th but received one fewer vote. Nebraska went from 10 votes to nine. The 25th-ranked team, USC, received 105 votes. That’s the gap facing Nebraska to crack the Top 25.

The Athletic

Just like in the Associated Press poll, Nebraska moved up one place to 39th from 40th. In The Athletic’s preseason rankings, Nebraska were 39th. The Huskers’ three victories haven’t moved The Athletic’s needle at all.

CBS Sports 136 Rankings

Nebraska continues to move up in the CBS Sports 136 rankings. The Huskers moved to 30th, up two spots from last week.

The previous week, the Huskers went from 34th to 32nd.

US LBM Coaches Poll

The Huskers are “others receiving votes” at 36th, a drop of one place.

ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI)

The Huskers took a big drop, going from 12th to 17th.

Of six FPI odds for the Huskers, their odds increased in one category (winning the Big Ten title), decreased in three categories, and remained the same in two categories.

Nebraska defensive back Malcolm Hartzog Jr. (7) celebrates with linebacker Vincent Shavers Jr. (9) and defensive back Marques Buford Jr. (3) after an interception. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Here are FPI’s odds for Nebraska (with last week’s odds in parentheses):

* 99.8 percent chance of winning six games (same as last week)
* 9.2 projected wins to 2.9 projected losses (same as last week)
* 4.0 percent chance of winning the Big Ten (3.5 percent chance last week)
* 25.9 percent chance of making the College Football Playoff (27.7 percent chance last week)
* 2.7 percent chance of making the national championship game (3.2 percent chance last week)
* 1.0 percent chance of winning the national championship (1.1 percent chance last week)

ESPN’s SP+ rankings

The Huskers took a big leap forward, moving up seven spots from 28th to 21st. Only two teams ranked above the Huskers had similar jumps — Michigan up seven spots from 25 to 18, and Miami up 17 spots from 27 to 10.

As ESPN writer Bill Connelly says: “It’s a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency … SP+ is intended to be predictive and forward-facing.

“It is simply a measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football. If you’re lucky or unimpressive in a win, your rating will probably fall. If you’re strong and unlucky in a loss, it will probably rise.”

Massey Ratings

Massey Ratings are a compilation of 40 different college football rankings. In the consensus of the 40 rankings, the Huskers ranked 26th, up one spot from last week.

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