Depending on how you look at it, either no one wants the No. 1 ranking in the SP+ rankings or everyone does. For the seventh time in eight weeks, the top spot changed hands again -- this time, back to Ohio State after the Buckeyes' road win over previously unbeaten Penn State. Texas, on bye, slipped back to No. 2, but the main story is the bunching at the top. Ohio State might be the best team, but four teams are within 0.7 points of No. 1, including two-loss Ole Miss, and six teams are within 1.8 points. I'm not sure I've ever seen that entering the second week of November. But with two of those top four teams, Georgia and Ole Miss, playing each other this weekend, a particularly impressive performance from either could give us another new No. 1 next week.
Below are this week's SP+ rankings. 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 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 (hence the lack of unbeatens near the top), so it does not automatically give credit for big wins or particularly brave scheduling -- no good predictive system does. 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.