Here are my SRS-based ratings after Week 3:
1. USC
2. Penn State
3. Indiana
4. Tennessee
5. Florida State
6. Wake Forest
7. Syracuse
8. Illinois
9. Ohio State
10. North Carolina State
11. Alabama
12. Oregon State
13. Washington
14. Iowa State
15. Kentucky
16. Georgia
17. Tulane
18. Arkansas
19. Pittsburgh
20. Liberty
21. Kansas
22. UCLA
23. James Madison
24. Michigan State
25. Rice

"What is this, the 'give the Pac-12 bonus points to make it look good system?" No (in fact, Colorado and Arizona State are both in the bottom 25), but it is based mainly on road/neutral/home results, with a slight modification for MOV up to 8 points, as well as who you have played so far. There are five 2-1 teams in the top 25, but in each case, the loss is to a higher-ranked team, and except for Pitt's loss to Tennessee, they were all road losses, which don't affect the ratings as much as home losses do.

Keep in mind that "strength of schedule" changes not only with teams they haven't played yet, but teams they have played that start out good but then nosedive.

On Sunday, September 18, 2022 at 10:37:26 AM UTC-5, The NOTBCS Guy wrote:
> Here are my SRS-based ratings after Week 3:
> 1. USC
> 2. Penn State
> 3. Indiana
> 4. Tennessee
> 5. Florida State
> 6. Wake Forest
> 7. Syracuse
> 8. Illinois
> 9. Ohio State
> 10. North Carolina State
> 11. Alabama
> 12. Oregon State
> 13. Washington
> 14. Iowa State
> 15. Kentucky
> 16. Georgia
> 17. Tulane
> 18. Arkansas
> 19. Pittsburgh
> 20. Liberty
> 21. Kansas
> 22. UCLA
> 23. James Madison
> 24. Michigan State
> 25. Rice
>
> "What is this, the 'give the Pac-12 bonus points to make it look good system?" No (in fact, Colorado and Arizona State are both in the bottom 25), but it is based mainly on road/neutral/home results, with a slight modification for MOV up to 8 points, as well as who you have played so far. There are five 2-1 teams in the top 25, but in each case, the loss is to a higher-ranked team, and except for Pitt's loss to Tennessee, they were all road losses, which don't affect the ratings as much as home losses do.
>
> Keep in mind that "strength of schedule" changes not only with teams they haven't played yet, but teams they have played that start out good but then nosedive.

Fight On!

On 9/18/2022 10:37 AM, The NOTBCS Guy wrote:
> Here are my SRS-based ratings after Week 3:
> 1. USC
> 2. Penn State
> 3. Indiana
> 4. Tennessee
> 5. Florida State
> 6. Wake Forest
> 7. Syracuse
> 8. Illinois
> 9. Ohio State
> 10. North Carolina State
> 11. Alabama
> 12. Oregon State
> 13. Washington
> 14. Iowa State
> 15. Kentucky
> 16. Georgia
> 17. Tulane
> 18. Arkansas
> 19. Pittsburgh
> 20. Liberty
> 21. Kansas
> 22. UCLA
> 23. James Madison
> 24. Michigan State
> 25. Rice
>

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is the parody needed in college football.

> "What is this, the 'give the Pac-12 bonus points to make it look good system?" No (in fact, Colorado and Arizona State are both in the bottom 25), but it is based mainly on road/neutral/home results, with a slight modification for MOV up to 8 points, as well as who you have played so far. There are five 2-1 teams in the top 25, but in each case, the loss is to a higher-ranked team, and except for Pitt's loss to Tennessee, they were all road losses, which don't affect the ratings as much as home losses do.
>
> Keep in mind that "strength of schedule" changes not only with teams they haven't played yet, but teams they have played that start out good but then nosedive.

And speaking of grain of salt, here are the Week 3 Still Way Too Early Bowl Projections, based on the Coaches & AP Polls consensus (weighted so each poll counts 50% towards the total):

Peach - Georgia-Michigan
Fiesta - Alabama-Ohio State
Rose - USC-Penn State
Sugar - Kentucky-Oklahoma
Orange - Clemson-Arkansas
Cotton - Oklahoma State-Appalachian State (never mind that (a) Appy State isn't in the top 25, and (b) BYU is; CFP rules require that at least one conference champion from the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, and Sun Belt be in one of the "big six" bowls)

And here are two versions of the Colley system (sort of), that BCS used:

If only games between two FBS teams are counted:
1. Indiana
2. Wake Forest
3. Alabama
4. Penn State
5. USC
6. Florida State
7. North Carolina State
8. UCLA
9. Iowa State
10. Ohio State
11. Georgia
12. Maryland
13. Tennessee
14. Arkansas
15. Washington
16. Oregon State
17. Syracuse
18. Kentucky
19. Tulane
20. Duke
21. North Carolina
22. Illinois
23. Kansas
24. Washington State
25. Oklahoma

If all FCS teams are treated the same (i.e. there is a single "FCS" team in FBS), and FBS-vs-FCS teams are counted:
1. USC
2. Penn State
3. Ohio State
4. Tennessee
5. Alabama
6. Indiana
7. Wake Forest
8. Syracuse
9. North Carolina State
10. Florida State
11. Iowa State
12. Washington
13. Georgia
14. Kentucky
15. Oregon State
16. Arkansas
17. Tulane
18. UCLA
19. Oklahoma
20. Maryland
21. Illinois
22. Michigan
23. Kansas
24. North Carolina
25. Mississippi

The "quick version" of Colley:
Each team's rating is its average margin of victory + the average of its opponents' ratings, if you assume that (a) each team began the season with a 3/2-point win over Little Sisters of the Poor and a 1/2-point loss to NFL All-Stars, and (b) all "actual" games played had a 1/2-point margin of victory (remember, BCS rules required that none of the computer rankings could take actual margins of victory into account).
Originally, only games between two FBS teams counted, but the current version does some finagling to include FCS - I think it goes something like this:
1. Perform a Colley ranking on just FCS teams, counting only games played between two FCS teams
2. Remove all FCS teams that have not played any FBS teams
3. Going from the top down, put the remaining teams into groups such that the total number of games played against FBS teams = the average number of games against FBS teams each FBS team has played
4. Count the number of groups, then move teams down so that each group has the same number of teams
5. Perform a Colley ranking on FBS, treating each FCS group as a single team; an FBS team that played an FCS team is treated as if it played that group.

> And here are two versions of the Colley system (sort of), that BCS used:

Meanwhile, here's how Colley actually ranked them:
1. Indiana
2. Penn State
3. USC
4. Wake Forest
5. North Carolina State
6. Alabama
7. Kentucky
8. Arkansas
9. Ohio State
10. Tennessee
11. Florida State
12. Tulane
13. Washington State
14. Washington
15. UCLA
16. Syracuse
17. Iowa State
18. Oregon State
19. Georgia
20. Clemson
21. Duke
22. Kansas
23. Illinois
24. Rutgers
25. Maryland

After week 5, and a slight tweak, things look a little better - this time, after ranking the teams, they were re-ranked in order of their "worst loss" (i.e. the lowest-ranked team they lost to - why, yes, that does mean all undefeated teams are ranked above all teams with at least one loss, doesn't it? That's the problem with numbers; they don't have any sort of "eye test"), followed by their "best win" (which is how the undefeated teams were ranked):

1. Clemson
2. Georgia
3. UCLA
4. Alabama
5. Mississippi
6. Michigan
7. Penn State
8. Kansas
9. Ohio State
10. James Madison
11. TCU
12. Oklahoma State
13. Syracuse
14. Tennessee
15. USC
16. Coastal Carolina
17. Wake Forest
18. North Carolina State
19. Duke
20. Oregon
21. Florida State
22. Liberty
23. Vanderbilt
24. Kentucky
25. Memphis