CFB: Week 3 Napkin Rankings and Questioning My Madness

As I keep track of this, I’m really starting to question this more and more. Again, here’s the methodology. If a team beats a FBS team it gets a point. A win against a Big 5 Conference team (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) gets another point. A “dominant” win gets another point. Playing on the road gets a point. A loss gets a negative point. A loss against a FCS team gets a negative point. Neutral site win only gets a 1/2 point. Neutral site loss gets -1/2 point.

I’m doing this because I’m tired of the subjectivity of the polls and as an experiment to see how close a mostly unbiased poll would match up against these polls. It’s still early, and some of the results have been strange. The top four teams this week are BYU, UCLA, Notre Dame and Penn State. Really? I hardly think these four teams will be the ones in the playoffs.

I know these numbers will play out as these teams start conference play. I’m hoping they start to look more like what I perceive reality to be. I mean, how crazy is it that the only SEC teams represented in the top “five” are Mississippi State and Texas A&M?

And speaking of UCLA, just what do we make of this team? They barely got through Virginia (who actually turns out to be halfway decent) and Memphis with Brett Hundley at quarterback. They lose him in the first quarter with an elbow injury, and somehow that galvanized the entire team to realize the couldn’t rely on Hundley and play like they should have all along. UCLA beat a very unimpressive Texas team 20-17, but somehow this win impressed me the most. Also I thought it was pretty sweet to see Jerry Neuheisel be lifted on his teammates shoulders after the victory. This was pretty cool, too:

I know UCLA probably won’t National Championship this season, but I don’t know if this is a really good team or a tediously mediocre team. I guess we’ll find out as they start playing conference opponents. Meanwhile, here’s the rankings:

1. BYU (7 points)
2. UCLA (6.5 points)
3. NOTRE DAME (6 points)
4. PENN STATE (5.5 points)
5. ARIZONA STATE (5 points)
MISSISSIPPI STATE
NC STATE
NORTHERN ILLINOIS – really?!!!!
OKLAHOMA
PITT
TEXAS A&M
USC