American Conference Teams with Early Lead on CFP Opportunity
The College Football Playoff (CFP) Committee has announced that it will be utilizing Strength of Record (SOR) as a principal sorting metric this season. Strength of Record (SOR) differs from Strength of Schedule (SOS) as it adjusts for losses to higher ranked teams. So, if you have an impressive loss, you will be rewarded in 2025 more than previous seasons.
Using SOR rankings from one online source, we can see where each conference potentially stands as hit the mid-season mark, comparing the number of teams in each conference ranked in the Top-25 in SOR and the number of teams with SOR in the Top 50. Remember: the CFP committee has its own analytics, so this is an educated guess.
Teams in the Top-25 in Strength of Record
Conference | # of Teams with SOR in Top 25 |
|---|---|
SEC | 8 |
Big Ten | 6 |
Big 12 | 5 |
American | 4 |
ACC | 2 |
Teams in the Top-50 in Strength of Record
Conference | # of Teams with SOR in Top 50 |
|---|---|
SEC | 12 |
Big 12 | 11 |
Big 10 | 10 |
ACC | 6 |
American | 5 |
Mountain West | 2 |
Sun Belt | 2 |
Using this information, we can surmise that at this mid-season mark, the American Conference has the best chance of any non-Power Four conference of putting a team in the end of the year playoffs.
Information courtesy of ESPN and Reddit user u/Kruger-Dunning
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.