College Football HQ

Updated ESPN college football rankings leave fans in disbelief

Joe Cox|
Alabama fans may be happen with the new FPI rankings, but many college football fans are not.
Alabama fans may be happen with the new FPI rankings, but many college football fans are not. | David Leong-Imagn Images

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Alabama Crimson TideUSC Trojans

ESPN's FPI rankings have been updated after Week 2 and college football fans are unimpressed to say the least. Bounce-back on social media mostly centered around a perceived SEC bias (9 of the current FPI top 15 hail from the league) and some utterly chaotic team movements. Suffice it to say that college football fans would substitute their judgment for the computerized data that produces FPI.

SEC (or SEC + B1G) Bias?

Again, nine of the top 15 teams in the FPI happen to be from the SEC. Some of the top picks are pretty obvious-- nobody has much to say against Texas and Georgia. But some of those slots-- Alabama at No. 4, Missouri at No. 12-- certainly give way to fans who perceive a conference bias in the FPI's statistics.

Other commenters noted that it's not only the SEC that is stacked high in the FPI, with the Big Ten claiming four of the top seven spots, making the top 15 consist of SEC teams, Big Ten teams, Notre Dame, and Utah.

Some random team moves

But more than conference bias, many fan voices had major issues with some big jumps that seemed unwarranted. Alabama at No. 4? USC at No. 5? College football fans were left wondering where the logic could be. Of particular ire is Alabama at No. 4 and Florida State outside the top 25 a week after a 31-17 FSU win over the Tide. Given FSU's 77-3 Week 2 win, it is certainly a bit awkward.

The Southern Cal Trojans at No. 5 is also more or less inexplicable as the Trojans have been unranked in the major polls and have delievered epic beatdowns to an FCS team and a lower-tier Sun Belt squad in two weeks of action.

Still other college football fans were reduced to something between mockery and laughter on the apparent gaps between performance and ranking in the FPI.

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Joe Cox
JOE COX

Joe is a journalist and writer who covers college and professional sports. He has written or co-written over a dozen sports books, including several regional best sellers. His last book, A Fine Team Man, is about Jackie Robinson and the lives he changed. Joe has been a guest on MLB Network, the Paul Finebaum show and numerous other television and radio shows. He has been inside MLB dugouts, covered bowl games and conference tournaments with Saturday Down South and still loves telling the stories of sports past and present.

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