Bowl season is complete, and only the national championship game remains in the 2022 college football season. After a number of tight, gripping contests and a few huge surprises, we saw a decent amount of movement in the SP+ rankings. But Georgia remains at the top of the list and is a projected favorite of 10.9 points in the title game against upstart TCU.
Below are the updated, nearly year-end SP+ ratings. What is SP+? In a single sentence, it's a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. I created the system at Football Outsiders in 2008, and as my experience with both college football and its stats has grown, I have made quite a few tweaks to the system.
SP+ is indeed intended to be predictive and forward facing. It is not a résumé ranking that gives credit for big wins or particularly brave scheduling -- no good predictive system is. It is simply a measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football. If you're lucky or unimpressive in a win, your rating will probably fall. If you're strong and unlucky in a loss, it will probably rise.