College Football HQ

Updated Post-Week 10 ESPN FPI rankings leave college football fans in disbelief

Joe Cox

Oklahoma fans were excited about beating Tennessee, but being ranked behind the Vols in the FPI is a little different.
Oklahoma fans were excited about beating Tennessee, but being ranked behind the Vols in the FPI is a little different. / Randy Sartin-Imagn Images
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After college football Week 10, ESPN's FPI rankings perfectly reflect the college football landscape. Uh, just kidding. The computerized FPI rankings continue to seem to have been completely in bizarro world and frankly don't correspond to any sort of reality. As in every other week, plenty of college football fans are wondering how, say, 3-5 Florida is ranked 21 spots above 8-1 Virginia. Here's the best of the weekly tradition of college football insanity via ESPN's FPI ratings.

Florida? FLORIDA???

Yes, the 3-5 Gators, presumably off the strength of a relatively close loss to Georgia, are still somehow in the FPI Top 25. To say that doesn't make sense might be offensive to the idea of sense. Here's some top reactions to the Gators' spot.

Bottom of the top 25

For that matter, the entire bottom five of the FPI alleged top 25 is pretty shaky. Even getting past 3-5 Florida at No. 25 leaves 3-5 Penn State at No. 22, 4-4 Florida State at No. 24, and LSU with a fired head coach and a 5-3 record at No. 21. College football fans had to wonder if the FPI was trolling them.

Head-to-head?

One of the biggest games of the week was a two-loss No. 18 Oklahoma team outflanking a two-loss No. 14 Tennessee team. OU won the game, 33-27, and took a big step ahead of the Vols in the CFP pecking order. Or did it? FPI has Tennessee at No. 15 and Oklahoma at No. 16.

General nonsense

But as usual, the best reactions to the FPI remain the ones that just go at the whole system at large.

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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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