We've reached the halfway mark in the season, and with a few exceptions we're starting to see this year's data take hold in our computer polls.
| Rank | +/- | Team | WinPct | SoS | Adjusted | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Off. | Def. | Pace | |||||||||
| 1 | -- | Alabama | 0.967 | 0.567 | 34 | 35.2 | 1 | 9.1 | 1 | 153.7 | 120 |
| 2 | +1 | LSU | 0.934 | 0.682 | 2 | 33.3 | 2 | 11.6 | 4 | 157.9 | 112 |
| 3 | -1 | Boise St. | 0.930 | 0.463 | 76 | 31.4 | 4 | 11.2 | 3 | 164.0 | 76 |
| 4 | -- | Stanford | 0.908 | 0.473 | 71 | 30.3 | 5 | 12.1 | 6 | 160.3 | 102 |
| 5 | -- | Oklahoma | 0.903 | 0.573 | 32 | 26.5 | 8 | 10.8 | 2 | 179.5 | 7 |
| 6 | -- | Wisconsin | 0.892 | 0.476 | 70 | 32.1 | 3 | 13.8 | 11 | 158.2 | 111 |
| 7 | -- | Oregon | 0.882 | 0.652 | 9 | 28.4 | 7 | 12.7 | 8 | 186.8 | 1 |
| 8 | +1 | Ohio St. | 0.834 | 0.547 | 42 | 22.5 | 37 | 11.8 | 5 | 158.7 | 110 |
| 9 | +1 | TCU | 0.815 | 0.441 | 79 | 26.4 | 9 | 14.6 | 18 | 164.2 | 75 |
| 10 | -2 | Florida | 0.809 | 0.648 | 12 | 25.3 | 19 | 14.2 | 16 | 158.8 | 109 |
| 11 | -- | Arkansas | 0.801 | 0.654 | 8 | 28.5 | 6 | 16.3 | 28 | 170.5 | 30 |
| 12 | +1 | Virginia Tech | 0.797 | 0.525 | 55 | 24.3 | 23 | 14.0 | 13 | 157.4 | 113 |
| 13 | +3 | Texas A&M | 0.793 | 0.627 | 15 | 24.2 | 24 | 14.1 | 14 | 178.0 | 8 |
| 14 | +7 | Michigan St. | 0.791 | 0.575 | 31 | 22.9 | 30 | 13.5 | 9 | 161.0 | 98 |
| 15 | -- | Oklahoma St. | 0.785 | 0.550 | 41 | 25.9 | 14 | 15.4 | 22 | 181.9 | 3 |
| 16 | +4 | West Virginia | 0.785 | 0.541 | 46 | 25.1 | 20 | 14.9 | 20 | 165.7 | 67 |
| 17 | -5 | Notre Dame | 0.785 | 0.615 | 19 | 23.1 | 28 | 13.8 | 12 | 171.3 | 24 |
| 18 | +4 | Nebraska | 0.774 | 0.585 | 29 | 25.4 | 16 | 15.6 | 24 | 166.0 | 65 |
| 19 | -1 | South Carolina | 0.766 | 0.583 | 30 | 25.3 | 18 | 15.7 | 25 | 160.4 | 101 |
| 20 | -6 | Michigan | 0.761 | 0.505 | 60 | 26.3 | 12 | 16.6 | 33 | 161.8 | 92 |
| 21 | +2 | Florida St. | 0.760 | 0.592 | 25 | 25.4 | 17 | 16.0 | 26 | 159.2 | 106 |
| 22 | NA | Missouri | 0.754 | 0.591 | 26 | 21.5 | 42 | 13.7 | 10 | 171.5 | 23 |
| 23 | -4 | Clemson | 0.744 | 0.596 | 23 | 23.3 | 26 | 15.2 | 21 | 168.2 | 48 |
| 24 | +1 | Arizona St. | 0.743 | 0.680 | 3 | 22.3 | 40 | 14.6 | 19 | 175.4 | 14 |
| 25 | NA | Auburn | 0.743 | 0.652 | 10 | 26.4 | 10 | 17.3 | 39 | 166.6 | 58 |
Rankings through games of 2011-10-16
New entries: Missouri, Auburn.
Dropped out: Georgia, Penn State.
The Crimson Tide continue to dominate their opposition and march towards another SEC -- and possible National -- championship. They hung 52 points on Ole Miss in a mere 141 plays, for an obscene raw offensive efficiency of 36.9 PPH; the Mississippi defense wasn't bad, per se, they were just horribly overmatched. LSU flip-flopped with Boise to take the #2 spot, while Stanford, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Oregon are all pretty much treading water right now.
Ohio State, TCU, and Florida are currently in a no-man's land where they're riding last year's data but still doing well enough to not plummet in this year's ratings. Obviously Florida is at more risk than the others, but thanks to playing good teams in the SEC, the Gators aren't punished as much as they could be because, well ... they're expected to lose those games.
Virginia Tech -- despite flubbing a home game against Clemson -- are still on track to win the ACC Coastal and earn a rematch against the Tigers. Meanwhile Clemson won but dropped significantly in the rankings because good teams don't surrender 45 points to Maryland. Texas A&M stomped overrated Baylor, and Michigan State defeated overrated Michigan to each pick up a few spots. Oklahoma State is still only ranked 15th because good teams beat Texas by more than just 12 points. West Virginia and Notre Dame are two other teams looking for that special something to break through to the next level, but are unlikely to find it this year.
Beyond that we enter a no-man's land from (18) Nebraska to (25) Auburn, all separated by 0.031 in expected winning percentage (also know as "less than the gap separating (1) Alabama and (2) LSU"). A defensive lapse here, an extra FG there ... each can add up for a swing of several places in this lower portion of the top 25. With half the season left to play, there's still a lot of room for motion here. Let Act II begin.
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