I want to start by saying I know that this is really nerdy but I think it's an interesting exercise to say the least and can be fun, so just stay with me here. Also, the point of my posting this is to get some input. Do you like my methodology? What could be improved? Is Microsoft Excel really the best program for this (of course not)? Etc.

All this talk about the "eye-test" or whatever Heather Dinich calls it now days has made me want to do my own college football rankings based purely on every team's on-field performance, AKA stats. This may not be the absolute best way to judge the best teams in college football, but at least no one can accuse me of bias.

Here's my methodology:

1. We need to know every team's schedule. I used www.fbschedules.com for this, and I put it in an Excel sheet, then made a few formulas out of this list of the 10-12 FBS teams everyone has scheduled - don't worry, FCS opponents are accounted for later. These formulas are below:

         a. Average of your FBS opponents' winning percentage
         b. Average of your FBS opponents' Offensive Yards/Game
         c. Average of your FBS opponents' Defensive Yards/Game

  These calculations come together, with your opponent's combined win %, to form your FBS Strength of Schedule. Based on this strength of FBS schedule rating system, South Carolina has the hardest schedule so far, and the weakest schedule belongs to FBS newcomer Liberty - seems reasonable. 

2. Now we need to make adjustments based on that strength of schedule. So take Maryland. Week one Maryland put up 79 points, but they played an FCS team, so it's not a fair comparison to say they have the best offense when, say, Ohio State dropped 45 on FBS Florida Atlantic, or Washington State scored 58 on fellow FBS New Mexico State. I made these adjustments by multiplying the strength of schedule I just calculated with the following four key measures of offensive and defensive performance:

          a. Offensive Yards/Game
          b. Defensive Yards/Game
          c. Offensive Redzone Scoring %
          d. Defensive Redzone Scoring %

  This gives me a "Strength of Schedule Adjusted" grade for each of those components, and it is these adjusted stats that get added to my final rating for each team.

3. There are other factors to determining a good team, so I also account for total time of possession per game, penalties per game, turnover differential and hopefully obviously your own win %. Here is my formula in its entirety:

(Your Win % * 500)
+ ( Strength of FBS Schedule / 2)
+ Strength of Schedule Adjusted Offensive Grade
+ Strength of Schedule Adjusted Defensive Grade
- (Number of FCS Teams played * 10)
+ (Turnover Differential / 10) + (Penalties Per Game / 10)
+ Strength of Schedule Adjusted Offensive Redzone %
- Strength of Schedule Adjusted Defensive Redzone %
+ Time of Possesion per Game

All divided by 10 to make the result look nicer.

4. The output is a score between a theoretical minimum of -17 (only playing FCS teams, losing to all of them and having the worst defense and offense in NCAA history) and a theoretical max of ~100 (being the best team in CFB history and going undefeated against the next 12 best teams in CFB in history).

Here is my top 25 through this past weekend (Week 9):

1. Ohio State (with a score of 65.35)
2. Penn State (64.58)
3. LSU (61.92)
4. Clemson (60.72)
5. SMU (60.65)
6. Alabama (60.48)
7. Baylor (59.76)
8. Minnesota (57.79)
9. Appalachian State (57.73)
10. Florida (56.50)
11. Oklahoma (54.94)
12. Georgia (54.86)
13. Navy (54.51)
14. Cincinnati (54.15)
15. Utah (53.69)
16. Oregon (53.03)
17. Memphis (52.88)
18. Auburn (52.74)
19. Wisconsin (52.36)
20. Wake Forest (52.36)
21. Boise State (52.09)
22. TTUN (51.43)
23. San Diego State (49.48)
24. Iowa (49.30)
25. Louisiana Tech (49.13)

Other interesting rankings:
27. Indiana (47.78)
31. Notre Dame (46.05)

Our next two opponents
95. Maryland (29.67)
118. Rutgers (22.72)

And the worst team, 130. Akron (3.62)

What do y'all think? Is this worth keeping up? What are your suggestions? Do you want to see my top 25 each week? Either way I think it's kinda cool so I'm gonna keep doing it instead of working on slow days :D