With two of four rounds done in the first ever 12-team College Football Playoff, it's pretty clear that Angry Ohio State is the best team in the country. But following two of the best performances of the season by any college football team -- wins over Tennessee and Oregon by a combined 83-38 -- can the Buckeyes keep up this mean streak? And ... who exactly is the second-best team in the country at this point?
SP+ doesn't have much of an answer for the former question, but it's got a hell of an answer for the latter.
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 indeed 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.
More on the CFP:
• Connelly's first-round takeaways (E+)
• What's next for eliminated teams? (E+)
• First look at semifinals