We are only a week into the 2022 season, but several key games & performances have greatly impacted the College Football Top 25. The Pac-12 had a disastrous start to the season & has nearly ripped itself out of the playoff picture. However, several programs made themselves known. Florida is the primary culprit of an electric start with Richardson putting in a Heisman performance against #6 Utah.
In a Top 10 showdown, Ohio State prevailed against Notre Dame. Although it was a loss, Notre Dame outperformed expectations & kept an electric core at Ohio State in check most of the game. Jim Knowles is already paying dividends keeping Notre Dame to 10 points. The defense was a disaster last season for the Buckeyes, so it is promising to see early signs of light. This will likely keep Notre Dame within the top 12 throughout media polls later tomorrow.
The Gridiron Top 25 seeks to be an additional media poll in the pool of rankings throughout College Football. This is the second edition, with the first set coming in the preseason. One unique factor in Gridiron’s Top 25 is using statistical outliers. Rankings that do not align within the reasonable range of all other votes will be subtracted or added by the average of all other votes. For example, in the AP Preseason Poll, Nate Mink ranked Michigan #18 despite the average being right around #7. This is an outlier as it is significantly different than the average. Because these votes work on a points system, Michigan will lose 11 points because of a ranking beyond a reasonable decision. By using the outliers system at Gridiron, Michigan would have been ranked above Utah & would be #7 in our poll versus #8 in the AP.
Let’s go ahead & take a look at the Gridiron Top 25 heading into Week 2 of the season:
- ALABAMA – 444 (13)
- GEORGIA – 435 (5) +1
- OHIO STATE – 416 -1
- CLEMSON – 391
- MICHIGAN – 376
- TEXAS A&M – 354 +1
- BAYLOR – 331 +2
- OKLAHOMA – 330 +3
- NOTRE DAME – 279 -1
- OKLAHOMA ST. – 275
- USC – 268 +4
- MICHIGAN STATE – 233 +2
- UTAH – 212 -7
- MIAMI – 210 +5
- ARKANSAS – 186 +1
- WISCONSIN – 184 +1
- NC STATE – 152 -4
- PITT – 136
- FLORIDA – 114 +UR
- KENTUCKY – 113
- OLE MISS – 97.5 +1
- TENNESSEE – 79 +3
- BYU – 74 +1
- WAKE FOREST – 59 +UR
- HOUSTON – 33 -2
OTHER RECEIVING VOTES: Oregon (31), Texas (27), Mississippi State (14), Penn State (9), Kansas State (9), Cincy (8), Minnesota (8), Florida State (4), UCLA (1), WVU (1), Purdue (1)
DROPPED OUT: Oregon (12), Cincy (21)
