Power Rankings 1/6/22

Welcome Back!

This is my final Power Rankings for the 2021 college football season. Obviously, the team that wins the National Championship Game will finish on top, so there will be no reason to republish these after that game. As of now, Georgia and Alabama are separated by the slimmest of margins, so any margin of victory will be enough to propel the Alabama into 1st place, should they happen to win. 

As I have been saying all year, I use a points system to rank my team. Teams earn points by winning, by the margin of victory, by where they win, and by whom they beat. While the end result came out ok, I wasn't satisfied by the process, so I will be making a few tweaks for next year to hopefully show a better representation of the current status of each team at any particular moment in the season. 

The 5 biggest gaps in the final rankings, in order from largest to smallest, were between:

#129 UConn and #130 FIU

#128 La Tech and #129 UConn

#3 Baylor and #4 Michigan

#2 Alabama and #3 Baylor

#17 Louisiana and #18 Kentucky

NC State and Clemson were tied for #24, my only tie.

Have fun perusing the rankings, and feel free to leave a comment!

Here are the new rankings:

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

 

Come back Monday for my National Championship Game Preview and prediction! Follow me on Twitter (@pbanderson)

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