ESPN’s Football Power Index has always had its blunders. Its latest is having the Ohio State Buckeyes ranked ahead of Clemson football.
Clemson football has been slowly moving up towards the No. 1 spot every single poll, vote-by-vote, over the past few weeks, except in one.
ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) has the Tiger ranked third.
After Clemson football defeated Wake Forest 28-14, the Tigers actually moved up.
What has gone under the radar is the fact that Clemson football, before this week, was actually ranked fourth in the nation behind Alabama, Ohio State, and Oklahoma.
After the Sooners lost to Iowa State, the Tigers moved up one spot, but are still behind Ohio State.
Here is the ESPN Football Power Index Top 10:
- Alabama
- Ohio State
- Clemson
- Penn State
- Washington
- Oklahoma
- Georgia
- Wisconsin
- Auburn
- Notre Dame
Thoughts:
The ESPN FPI is based on a bunch of metrics and computer simulations.
Unfortunately, it’s just plain wrong in a lot of circumstances. Besides having Clemson behind an Ohio State team that already has one loss, it has several other blunders.
Florida State, who has three losses, is still ranked No. 14.
Oklahoma, even after losing to Iowa State, is ranked No. 6. Washington State, who is undefeated with a win over USC, is ranked No. 18 behind the Trojans (16).
The reason behind all of this is that the FPI believes Ohio State has a better percentage chance to go undefeated than Clemson.
It’s the most messed up system poll in the country. There definitely needs to be some work done to it, but overall it just doesn’t mean anything.
It has no affect on anything, it’s just funny to look at.
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The FPI does have Clemson with a 28.6% chance of going undefeated, 55% chance to win the ACC and the 33rd-ranked strength of schedule in the country.