Power Rankings 9/22/26

Welcome Back!

As you might expect, we had quite a bit of movement after the 3rd full week of games. Texas and Indiana remain numbers 1 and 2, but Notre Dame and Oregon swap spots. Ole Miss moves back into the top 10 at #9 while LSU drops to #12. Once again, the Top 25 has the same teams but with some rearrangement. ULM takes over the last spot due to their loss to an FCS team, supplanting Charlotte. After this weekend, I will drop the preseason points and add in some stats from this season. This means there will probably be some major changes, but perhaps not as much as in the past, since the preseason points have carried less weight than before. This also means that the rankings next week will reflect what has happened this season and will be devoid of preseason expectations.

Here are the teams that moved 8 spots or more (biggest movers highlighted):

West Virginia +16 to #51

North Texas -11 to #55

Wake Forest -9 to #61

Texas State +12 to #64

Kentucky +20 to #65

Tulane -9 to #71

San Diego State -9 to #74

Maryland -8 to #78

Ohio -9 to #93

South Alabama +9 to #109

Georgia Southern -8 to #102

As a reminder, I use a points based system. Teams start out with a certain number of points based on 12 different factors, and those points range from a low of -20.887 (#138 UMass) to a high of 315.128 points (#1 Oregon), so as you can see, there are about 335 points separating 1st and last place- plenty of room to fit in 136 additional teams. In other words, teams are an average of 2.4 points apart, but of course they aren't spaced evenly; some are 10-20 points away from another while others are less than a point away. To illustrate the difference, my number one team last year had over 1300 points, while the last place team had just 54. As you can see, the teams are much closer this year, as I had an average distance of almost 10 points between teams last year. As teams play games, they earn or lose points based on who they played, where they played,  and the score of that game. Sometimes a team can lose points after a win or gain points after a loss. For example, if Oregon played UMass and won by 2 points, chances are they will lose points because the game is much closer than a game between #s 1 and 138 should be. The same goes for defeating an FCS team by very few points, and a loss to an FCS team means quite a bit of negative points. Once we reach the end of September, I will drop the preseason points, and from then on, the rankings will be based on results and stats from this year only. 

Anyway, here are my new rankings from 1 to 138:

Rank	Team	Previous
1	Texas	1
2	Indiana	2
3	Notre Dame	4
4	Oregon	3
5	Georgia	5
6	Ohio State	6
7	Miami, Fl	7
8	Texas Tech	8
9	Ole Miss	11
10	Michigan	9
11	Alabama	13
12	LSU	10
13	USC	12
14	Oklahoma	14
15	BYU	16
16	Iowa	17
17	Texas A&M	15
18	Tennessee	18
19	Clemson	19
20	Louisville	22
21	Penn State	20
22	Missouri	23
23	SMU	21
24	Utah	24
25	Washington	25
26	James Madison	29
27	Florida	32
28	Boise State	27
29	Auburn	26
30	Houston	30
31	South Carolina	28
32	Duke	34
33	Pittsburgh	35
34	FSU	33
35	Nebraska	36
36	Virginia	31
37	Vanderbilt	40
38	Kansas State	43
39	Fresno State	38
40	TCU	41
41	Memphis	37
42	Arizona	42
43	Cincinnati	47
44	Mississippi State	54
45	UTSA	39
46	UCLA	48
47	Illinois	45
48	USF	46
49	Arizona State	51
50	Minnesota	50
51	West Virginia	67
52	Virginia Tech	55
53	Northwestern	58
54	NC State	49
55	North Texas	44
56	Baylor	61
57	Iowa State	60
58	Army	53
59	New Mexico	57
60	UNLV	56
61	Wake Forest	52
62	Wisconsin	64
63	Georgia Tech	59
64	Texas State	76
65	Kentucky	85
66	Western Michigan	63
67	Oklahoma State	68
68	Liberty	72
69	Navy	66
70	Toledo	71
71	Tulane	62
72	North Carolina	69
73	North Dakota State	77
74	San Diego State	65
75	UCF	78
76	East Carolina	83
77	Michigan State	73
78	Maryland	70
79	Arkansas	75
80	Colorado	74
81	UConn	88
82	Miami, OH	81
83	Troy	82
84	Kansas	79
85	California	87
86	ODU	80
87	Appalachian State	86
88	Air Force	89
89	Marshall	91
90	Louisiana	90
91	FAU	96
92	Washington State	97
93	Ohio	84
94	Jacksonville State	100
95	Arkansas State	92
96	WKU	95
97	Tulsa	99
98	Hawai'i	98
99	La Tech	93
100	Delaware	101
101	South Alabama	110
102	Georgia Southern	94
103	Central Michigan	108
104	Colorado State	103
105	Syracuse	102
106	Boston College	105
107	Kennesaw State	107
108	Rutgers	113
109	San Jose State	106
110	FIU	104
111	Temple	111
112	Stanford	114
113	Coastal Carolina	109
114	Buffalo	115
115	Purdue	116
116	Southern Miss	112
117	Oregon State	121
118	Utah State	119
119	Georgia State	117
120	Middle Tenn	126
121	New Mexico State	127
122	Akron	124
123	Missouri State	118
124	Rice	125
125	UAB	122
126	Wyoming	120
127	Eastern Michigan	123
128	UTEP	128
129	UMass	132
130	Kent State	131
131	Ball State	129
132	Sacramento State	130
133	Northern Illinois	135
134	Sam Houston	136
135	Bowling Green	134
136	Nevada	133
137	Charlotte	138
138	ULM	137

I will update these rankings each week throughout the season.

Feel free to leave a comment. Come back tomorrow for my Odds and Ends! 

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