Power Rankings 9/28/21

Welcome Back!

We had quite a bit of movement this week, but a lot of it was teams just swapping spots. There is still less movement than expected, I think because so much is still weighted toward my preseason rankings. However, we finally have some big jumps, just not very many of them.

Again, I use a points based system, and my preseason points ranged from a low of 69.3 points to a high of 1123.54 points, so you can see that there is a lot of room to fit 130 teams in.  As I have pointed out previously, when we get into October, I will begin to drop off my preseason factors one by one over a period of several weeks, and so we will get a truer read on how teams are doing this season, and not have so much weight on preseason expectations. This will begin after next week's games- the games of the 10/2 weekend- and will continue for 8 weeks until all of my preseason factors have been dropped, so that when we get to the rankings following the games the weekend before Thanksgiving, they will be entirely based on what the teams have done this year.

Georgia Southern dropped 18 spots, not only because of their loss, but because with the firing of Chad Lunsford, I dropped their coach bonus. New coaches don't have a record, and therefore don't get a bonus, and despite getting fired, Lunsford had a pretty decent record. Other teams may only drop 1 spot, when they lose by 21 to a team ranked 20+ spots below them because 6 of the 9 teams ranked directly below them also lost, and the ones that won either beat an FCS team, or were too far away in points to pass them. This happens to teams that win, too, where all the teams above them also win, and they are still too far away to catch them.

The teams that moved the most were:

Liberty -4 to #45

Virginia -4 to #60

Arkansas +10 to #76

Tulsa +6 to #82

UTSA +8 to #83

Troy -4 to #88

Georgia Southern -18 to #96

Bowling Green +4 to #121

The top 14 and bottom 5 remained the same. 41 teams didn't move (it was 53 last week), 57 moved 1 spot (40 last week), 17 moved 2 (same as last week), 7 moved 3 (8 last week), 4 moved 4 (8 last week), and 1 each moved 6, 8, 10, and 18.

This week, I also list the previous rank, for your convenience!

Here are the new rankings:

Rank	Team	Previous
1	Alabama	1
2	Clemson	2
3	Oklahoma	3
4	Ohio State	4
5	Georgia	5
6	Notre Dame	6
7	Texas A&M	7
8	LSU	8
9	Cincinnati	9
10	Oregon	10
11	Penn State	11
12	Iowa	12
13	Florida	13
14	Wisconsin	14
15	Washington	16
16	Iowa State	15
17	Oklahoma State	17
18	Auburn	19
19	UCF	18
20	Utah	21
21	Appalachian State	22
22	Michigan	20
23	Texas	24
24	Miami, Fl	23
25	Louisiana	26
26	TCU	25
27	Boise State	28
28	North Carolina	27
29	Arizona State	30
30	USC	29
31	NC State	33
32	BYU	31
33	Stanford	32
34	Indiana	36
35	Minnesota	34
36	West Virginia	37
37	Memphis	35
38	Nevada	38
39	Kentucky	40
40	Virginia Tech	39
41	Ole Miss	42
42	Mississippi State	44
43	UAB	45
44	Coastal Carolina	46
45	Liberty	41
46	FSU	43
47	Pittsburgh	48
48	San Diego State	47
49	Northwestern	49
50	SMU	50
51	Wake Forest	51
52	Boston College	53
53	Missouri	52
54	Toledo	55
55	Kansas State	54
56	UCLA	58
57	Baylor	60
58	Army	59
59	Washington State	57
60	Virginia	56
61	Air Force	61
62	Louisville	64
63	La Tech	63
64	Houston	65
65	Fresno State	62
66	California	67
67	Colorado	66
68	Michigan State	70
69	Tennessee	68
70	Marshall	69
71	Western Michigan	72
72	Nebraska	71
73	Wyoming	73
74	FAU	74
75	Texas Tech	75
76	Arkansas	86
77	Tulane	76
78	Hawai'i	77
79	Purdue	79
80	Buffalo	81
81	Ball State	80
82	Tulsa	88
83	UTSA	91
84	Navy	82
85	Utah State	85
86	San Jose State	83
87	Arkansas State	87
88	Troy	84
89	Ohio	89
90	Duke	92
91	WKU	90
92	Georgia Tech	95
93	Syracuse	96
94	Temple	94
95	Miami, Oh	93
96	Georgia Southern	78
97	Maryland	97
98	Rutgers	98
99	Central Michigan	100
100	South Carolina	99
101	Oregon State	104
102	Illinois	101
103	Middle Tenn	102
104	Georgia State	103
105	East Carolina	106
106	North Texas	105
107	Eastern Michigan	108
108	FIU	107
109	Southern Miss	109
110	Colorado State	110
111	Arizona	112
112	Kent State	111
113	Northern Illinois	114
114	USF	113
115	Charlotte	115
116	ULM	118
117	New Mexico	116
118	Vanderbilt	117
119	Rice	119
120	South Alabama	120
121	Bowling Green	125
122	UTEP	123
123	Kansas	121
124	Old Dominion	122
125	Texas State	124
126	UNLV	126
127	Akron	127
128	New Mexico State	128
129	UMass	129
130	UConn	130

Come back tomorrow for my Odds and Ends, and check out my TWIF Notes from yesterday. Follow me on Twitter (@pbanderson)

Until next time, may you and your loved ones be blessed!