Penn State is behind Ole Miss in ESPN’s FPI rankings, ranking No. 5 while Ole Miss is No. 4.
In the AP Poll, it’s nowhere close, with Penn State being ranked No. 2 and Ole Miss being No. 21.
Yeah, this is going to surprise some people.
Penn State is an objectively better football team than Ole Miss, as evidenced by the fact that PSU made the Final Four of the College Football Playoff last season and Ole Miss didn’t make it to the dance. Penn State also returns most key pieces from last year’s squad, including star QB Drew Allar, whereas Ole Miss lost star QB Jaxson Dart to the draft.
In fairness, there is a method to ESPN’s madness.
HOW FPI WORKS
Here is how ESPN’s FPI ratings work.
By definition, FPI is a “predictive rating system developed by ESPN that measures team strength and uses it to forecast game and season results in American football. Each team’s FPI rating is composed of predictive offensive, defensive, and special teams value, as measured by a function of expected points added (EPA). That rating is the basis for FPI’s game-level and season-level projections.”
If you need any more reason to be confused, Texas is still No. 1, ahead of No. 3 Ohio State, despite Ohio State beating Texas 14-7 Saturday.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.USC is No. 6, despite not being in the top 25 in the traditional polls. Yeah, it’s a mess.
THE RANKINGS THAT MATTER
In the rankings that matter, the AP and coaches poll, Penn State is still in a good place.
Penn State is likely to still be No. 2 in the AP No. 3 in the coaches poll.
Well, technically, those rankings don’t matter a ton either. But for now, they matter more than anything else since the College Football Playoff rankings don’t come out until late October or early November.
All Penn State needs to do to get a first-round bye is finish in the top four. Last season, Penn State finished in the top four but didn’t get a bye by virtue of it not winning the Big Ten.
Now, the automatic bids are reserved for the four teams ranked the highest.
PSU takes on FIU at Beaver Stadium Sept. 6. Kickoff is scheduled for noon on the Big Ten Network.
