NCAA College Football Power Ratings

NCAA College Football Power Ratings

One thing that every serious sports bettor does before the start of a new football or basketball season is to try and come up with a way to guage the overall strength of each team. It's a bit more difficult in baseball, as a team's strength is also influenced by who the starting pitcher is.

The most common method of measuring a team's strength is through a power rating, which is simply a numerical ranking assigned to each team. The most famous power ratings are those published by USA Today's Jeff Sagarin. His numbers are typically some of the better ones you'll find and they're free, which is obviously another attraction.

Using just one set of numbers is a bit risky, however, as they tend to overrate certain teams or conferences, while not giving others their proper due.

I've previously discussed my method of creating initial power ratings in How to Create Your Own Power Ratings as well as the weekly updating process in Updating Power Ratings. Those who have a bit more time on your hands may also want to read through Misleading Final Scores and Variables and Power Ratings for more tips on weekly adjustments to your ratings and why they're not always etched in stone.

For these ratings, I took four sets of numbers (Sagarin, Sonny Moore, Statfox and Phil Steele's Plus/Minus) and adjusted them so they would all carry equal weight. I then threw out the highest and lowest ratings and averaged the two remaining numbers. After that I went through and made one final tweak of up to several points for these initial numbers.

2011 NCAA College Football Power Ratings

Air Force 72
Akron 43
Alabama 90
UAB 56
Arizona 71
Arizona St. 75
Arkansas 82
Arkansas St. 55
Army 58
Auburn 82

Ball State 50
Baylor 66
Boise State 86
Boston College 71
Bowling Green 50
Buffalo 41
BYU 74

California 68
Central Fla. 69
Central Mich. 60
Cincinnati 66
Clemson 72
Colorado 65
Colorado St. 49
Connecticut 72

Duke 62

East Carolina 56
Eastern Mich. 42

Florida 80
Florida Atlantic 41
Florida Intl. 57
Florida State 81
Fresno St. 60

Georgia 77
Georgia Tech 70

Hawaii 65
Houston 66

Idaho 54
Illinois 71
Indiana 57
Iowa 73
Iowa State 63

Kansas 59
Kansas State
Kent State 53
Kentucky 67

Lafayette 48
La- Monroe 51
La. Tech 59
Louisville 69
LSU 84

Marshall 54
Maryland 71
Memphis 43
Miami, Fla. 74
Miami, Ohio 59
Michigan 67
Michigan St. 72
Middle Tenn. 53
Minnesota 64
Mississippi 67
Miss. State 78
Missouri 77

Navy 66
Nebraska 79
Nevada - Reno 73
Nevada - Las Vagas 50
New Mexico 49
New Mexico St. 43
North Carolina 73
NC State 76
North Texas 49
Northern Illinois 71
Northwestern 64
Notre Dame 78

Ohio State 84
Ohio U. 56
Oklahoma 88
Oklahoma St. 83
Oregon 88
Oregon State 73

Penn St. 74
Pittsburgh 74
Purdue 62

Rice 66
Rutgers 61

San Diego St. 69
SJ State 51
SMU 60
South Carolina 78
South Florida 73
Southern Cal 75
Southern Miss 68
Stanford 89
Syracuse 63

TCU 84
Temple 59
Tennessee 72
Texas 74
Texas A&M 76
Texas El-Paso 55
Texas Tech 70
Toledo 59
Troy 59
Tulane 45
Tulsa 72

UCLA 66
Utah 75
Utah State 50

Vanderbuilt 56
Virginia 64
Virginia Tech 81

Wake Forest 64
Washington 70
Washington St. 59
West Virginia 76
Western Ky. 47
Western Mich. 62
Wisconsin 81
Wyoming 53