As I was sitting around last Sunday looking at the first BCS standings of the season, I had the following train of thought:

I wonder what goes into all these computer programs that rank the teams.

Hey, I'm in a computer methods class, I could make a program to rank all the teams.

No I couldn't, I've learned the basics of PowerPoint and Excel, these kind of programs are way too complicated for what I know how to do.

Well, maybe that would be a good thing. I could make a program that wasn't so complicated.

And so I went to work. At the sacrifice of the homework I was supposed to be doing for that class, I developed a spreadsheet to rank all of the teams in the FBS division.

So why do I think it's in the least bit accurate?

Because it only considers wins and losses. No polls, no past-year performances, no conference affiliations.

So here it is, the unadulterated top 25:

 

1 Iowa
2 Texas
3 Cincinnati
4 Alabama
5 Florida
6 TCU
7 Boise State
8 Pittsburgh
9 West Virginia
10 Oregon
11 Georgia Tech
12 Penn State
13 USC
14 Oklahoma State
15 LSU
16 Utah
17 Houston
18 Central Michigan
19 Ohio State
20 South Carolina
21 Arizona
22 South Florida
23 Miami (FL)
24 Virginia Tech
25 Kansas

 

As you can see, the formula favors undefeated teams, which I feel is reasonable. What separates the teams with the same record is a strength of schedule formula based on the win-loss record each team's opponents and each team's opponent's opponents.

Let me know what you think. Is this poll fair? Is it accurate?