College football rankings: ESPN updates top 25 poll ahead of CFP national title game
The two College Football Playoff semifinal games are in the books and now it's time to get an updated look at the latest top 25 rankings.
This week, the ESPN computer went to work ranking the 25 best teams and, as is often the case, there were some questionable decisions made.
Like the Crimson Tide being ranked at No. 2, ahead of both Ohio State and Michigan, a pair of College Football Playoff teams.
And then there's the continued insistence by the computer to keep Texas in the top 10, as it had all season, despite it going 8-5 and losing to Washington in the Alamo Bowl game.
But it was the position of TCU that garnered the most negative attention, as the computer slotted the Horned Frogs at the No. 11 position even after they beat No. 2 Michigan and earned a spot in the national championship game.
Here's your look at the most recent top 25 rankings, according to the Football Power Index computer model.
College football rankings: ESPN updates top 25 ahead of the national championship game
ESPN revealed its top 25 college football rankings
USA Today Images
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Ohio State
- Michigan
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Penn State
- Utah
- Clemson
- LSU
- TCU
- Florida State
- Kansas State
- Oregon
- USC
- Mississippi State
- Notre Dame
- Ole Miss
- Oregon State
- Washington
- Minnesota
- Louisville
- Oklahoma
- Illinois
- Tulane
College Football Power Index
Football Power Index (FPI) college football rankings and computer prediction model are a measure of team strength that predicts a team’s future performance.
Rankings and scores predictions are based on 20,000 simulations of a team’s season, using a combination of analytics, including scores to date, quality of opponents, and a team’s schedule.
Not a conventional power ranking in the mode of the AP top 25 or the College Football Playoff rankings, the FPI instead slots teams on a projected per-game scoring margin, judging how teams would perform against an average opponent on a neutral field.
More college football from SI: Top 25 Rankings | Schedule | All Teams