a preview of my commentary on the 2025 college football season

it's that time of year again

and now you can see the season from my perspective. last year i began my own ranking system for the then 134 teams of college football based solely on objective criteria, considering only record and point differential. this resulted in the following end-of-season top 25 which those around me considered strange:

1. ohio state (14-2, +365)
2. notre dame (14-2, +330)
3. oregon (13-1, +216)
4. texas (13-3, +283)
5. penn state (13-3, +266)
6. army (12-2, +218)
7. boise state (12-2, +206)
8. indiana (11-2, +334)
9. memphis (11-2, +154)
10. byu (11-2, +150)
11. smu (11-3, +202)
12. unlv (11-3, +197)
13. ohio (11-3, +156)
14. georgia (11-3, +153)
15. arizona state (11-3, +145)
16. iowa state (11-3, +114)
17. mississippi (10-3, +315)
18. tennessee (10-3, +255)
19. miami (10-3, +242)
20. navy (10-3, +119)
21. marshall (10-3, +114)
22. missouri (10-3, +111)
23. illinois (10-3, +86)
24. syracuse (10-3, +64)
25. sam houston (10-3, +43)

despite this list containing every team that went at least as good as 10-3 last year, i was accused of failing to account for "strength of schedule" and such. my detractors seem to think that being good is more important than winning. they are wrong. winning is always the goal of sport, especially here in america. despite this, i have allowed for some updates to the ranking system for this year. here is my explanation.

the tier system

this part comes from my detractors' beliefs that some teams are objectively better than others. so i requested a separation of them into tiers that points given for wins might reflect how easy it was to win or lose each game. here they are:

the s tier

alabama, clemson, georgia, lsu, notre dame, ohio state, oregon, penn state, and texas

the a tier

arizona state, auburn, boise state, byu, florida, georgia tech, illinois, indiana, iowa state, kentucky, louisville, miami, michigan, missouri, ole miss, smu, south carolina, tennessee, and texas a&m

the b tier

arizona, arkansas, baylor, california, cincinnati, colorado, duke, florida state, iowa, kansas, kansas state, minnesota, nebraska, oklahoma, syracuse, tcu, texas tech, unlv, usc, utah, vanderbilt, virginia tech, and wisconsin

the c tier

army, boston college, houston, james madison, maryland, memphis, michigan state, mississippi state, navy, nc state, north carolina, northwestern, oklahoma state, pittsburgh, rutgers, stanford, texas state, toledo, tulane, ucf, ucla, virginia, wake forest, washington, and west virginia

the d tier

appalachian state, colorado state, connecticut, east carolina, florida atlantic, fresno state, liberty, louisiana, marshall, miami ohio, north texas, ohio, oregon state, purdue, rice, san jose state, south alabama, south florida, troy, utah state, utsa, and washington state

the e tier

air force, akron, arkansas state, ball state, bowling green, buffalo, central michigan, charlotte, coastal carolina, delaware, eastern michigan, florida international, georgia southern, georgia state, hawaii, jacksonville state, kennesaw state, kent state, louisiana monroe, louisiana tech, middle tennessee, missouri state, nevada, new mexico, new mexico state, northern illinois, old dominion, sam houston, san diego state, southern mississippi, temple, tulsa, uab, umass, utep, western kentucky, western michigan, and wyoming

promotion and relegation will of course be possible between the tiers by secretive committee vote, and all teams playing up from the football championship series will be considered f tier.

tier system points

points will be distributed according to the following tables for wins and losses as a base value for the week:

these values will be augmented by the remaining categories to produce a score each week for each team.

scorigami points

scorigami is fun, sometimes even more than football. accordingly, scoring one of the weird or difficult amounts of points from the following list in a game is worth five points added on to your week score:

• 1
• 2
• 4
• 5
• 11
• 15
• 18
• 22
• 25
• 29
• 32
• 36
• 39 or more

the all-important belt

my following of the entirety of bowl series football rather than a few teams began with the knowledge of the belt, a traveling trophy almost none of the teams know about that is nonetheless diligently tracked by its fans dating back to the very first game in 1869. whoever beats the team holding the belt becomes its next holder. holding the belt is worth an additional five points per week. this will begin with florida, who will attempt to defend the belt against long island in week 1.

"strength of schedule"

to balance things out, teams will receive 1-136 points at the start of the season based on their position in the preseason strength of schedule chart. this will be augmented by any adjustments the committee deems necessary at the end of the season.

vibe points

this being the real world, adjustments must constantly be made to a thing like this. myself and my secretive committee of people with opinions about how this list should turn out will adjust weekly scores based on vibes alone. we promise not to abuse this power, but we will see how that turns out. my personal adjustments will be based on whatever games i manage to see live (usually those in the late timeslots each gameday). pre-determined possibilities for such adjustments are determining a loss a "moral victory" to add eight points to the week score in recognition of impressive performance, the aforementioned promotion and relegation, and perhaps other categories to be determined later. we still have a week to iron this out, it'll be fine.

where to find further information

posts will come out about every sunday on this topic until after the conference championships. bowl schedule will be figured out later. until then, see you in a week for discussions on the opening games.