If the first eight weeks of the college football season have taught us anything, it's that we don't have an invincible team in 2024. Texas was the closest thing to it after seven weeks, and the Longhorns got roughed up at home by Georgia on Saturday. Ohio State is once again up to first in SP+ -- this is the fifth time in six weeks that No. 1 changed hands -- and the Buckeyes took the spot by not playing at all after losing a week ago. The top four teams have combined for five losses! Strange things are afoot!
Below are this week's SP+ rankings. What is SP+? In a single sentence, it's a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. I created the system at Football Outsiders in 2008, and as my experience with both college football and its stats has grown, I have made quite a few tweaks to the system.
SP+ is intended to be predictive and forward-facing. It is not a résumé ranking that gives credit for big wins or particularly brave scheduling -- no good predictive system is. It is simply a measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football. If you're lucky or unimpressive in a win, your rating will probably fall. If you're strong and unlucky in a loss, it will probably rise.