2018 - NEMindex Rankings through Week 4

I honestly didn't know if the code would converge yet, but it did. I don't put a lot of stock in it yet though.

ENGINEERING TALK: When trying to minimize error across an ensemble of regressions it doesn't help when many of the regressions have 0 error by rule because the line is being fit through only 2 points. But it can at least fit to 2 points unlike last week where it was trying to fit a line to only 1 point.  This applies to a handful of teams (e.g., App St, Air Force, Ga Southern) who have still only played 2 FBS opponents.

So, that being the case, there are going to be some strange behaviors in here that will get sorted out within ~2 weeks I'm sure.  Regardless of that, this isn't all that bad. South Carolina is surprisingly high but given they only lost to UGA I guess that's fine for now. They have played the hardest overall schedule of anyone--see the list of those below the rankings. The SEC is destroying that top 5 and top 10. Some of that may change, but likely not by much, as they get into conference games.

A few non-power-five schools are in the top 25. As I always recommend, keep an eye on which ones of them will be making runs for the bowl games. That's why I invented this whole system in the first place. Coastal Carolina, UCF, Buffalo, and Boise State are all in the top 25 with the independents ND and BYU.

Thanks to the loss at home to Washington and playing only 2 FBS teams so far, my Utes barely make the top half of the list right now at a measly 64th.

Again, all these numbers are pretty preliminary. Things are gonna change a lot from week to week until we settle into some more stable behavior.  Go Utes!

Rank	Team	W	L	Conf	RTPS
1	Alabama	4	0	SEC	1.000
2	Georgia	4	0	SEC	0.926
3	S. Carolina	2	1	SEC	0.878
4	LSU	4	0	SEC	0.858
5	Notre Dame	4	0	IND	0.822
6	Stanford	4	0	PAC	0.811
7	Duke	4	0	ACC	0.801
8	Kentucky	4	0	SEC	0.792
9	Penn State	4	0	B10	0.790
10	Clemson	4	0	ACC	0.761
11	Mich. St.	2	1	B10	0.756
12	NC State	3	0	ACC	0.753
13	W. Virginia	3	0	B12	0.750
14	California	3	0	PAC	0.748
15	Texas Tech	3	1	B12	0.742
16	Oklahoma	4	0	B12	0.729
17	Syracuse	4	0	ACC	0.729
18	Wisconsin	3	1	B10	0.718
19	Coastal Caro.	3	1	SUN	0.710
20	Ohio State	4	0	B10	0.709
21	UCF	3	0	AAC	0.704
22	Ole Miss	3	1	SEC	0.702
23	Buffalo	4	0	MID	0.699
24	Boise State	2	1	MWC	0.694
25	BYU	3	1	IND	0.691
26	S. Florida	4	0	AAC	0.689
27	Maryland	3	1	B10	0.686
28	Miami (FL)	3	1	ACC	0.678
29	North Texas	4	0	USA	0.677
30	Oklahoma St.	3	1	B12	0.674
31	Indiana	3	1	B10	0.652
32	Wash.	3	1	PAC	0.644
33	Auburn	3	1	SEC	0.642
34	Missouri	3	1	SEC	0.639
35	Miss. St.	3	1	SEC	0.631
36	Cincinnati	4	0	AAC	0.630
37	Michigan	3	1	B10	0.629
38	Texas	3	1	B12	0.629
39	Virginia	3	1	ACC	0.622
40	Colorado	3	0	PAC	0.611
41	Baylor	3	1	B12	0.610
42	Florida	3	1	SEC	0.608
43	San Diego St.	3	1	MWC	0.604
44	Houston	3	1	AAC	0.604
45	Temple	2	2	AAC	0.598
46	Hawaii	4	1	MWC	0.596
47	App. St.	2	1	SUN	0.594
48	Vanderbilt	2	2	SEC	0.594
49	Arkansas St.	3	1	SUN	0.589
50	Minnesota	3	1	B10	0.589
51	Wash. St.	3	1	PAC	0.585
52	Army	2	2	IND	0.580
53	Iowa	3	1	B10	0.575
54	Texas A&M	2	2	SEC	0.560
55	Troy	3	1	SUN	0.560
56	Memphis	3	1	AAC	0.558
57	Georgia So.	2	1	SUN	0.556
58	LA Tech	2	1	USA	0.555
59	Utah State	3	1	MWC	0.555
60	Oregon	3	1	PAC	0.555
61	Marshall	2	1	USA	0.553
62	Toledo	2	1	MID	0.550
63	USC	2	2	PAC	0.548
64	Utah	2	1	PAC	0.535
65	BC	3	1	ACC	0.534
66	UAB	2	1	USA	0.530
67	Arizona St.	2	2	PAC	0.529
68	Fresno St.	2	1	MWC	0.518
69	New Mexico	2	1	MWC	0.518
70	S. Miss.	2	1	USA	0.516
71	Iowa State	1	2	B12	0.503
72	TCU	2	2	B12	0.501
73	Illinois	2	2	B10	0.500
74	Florida Atl.	2	2	USA	0.499
75	Florida Int.	2	2	USA	0.499
76	E. Mich.	2	2	MID	0.496
77	Wake Forest	2	2	ACC	0.494
78	Louisville	2	2	ACC	0.492
79	Kansas St.	2	2	B12	0.476
80	Tennessee	2	2	SEC	0.473
81	W. Michigan	2	2	MID	0.472
82	Akron	2	1	MID	0.469
83	Virginia Tech	2	1	ACC	0.466
84	Florida St.	2	2	ACC	0.463
85	Navy	2	2	AAC	0.459
86	Wyoming	2	2	MWC	0.457
87	Arizona	2	2	PAC	0.455
88	Pittsburgh	2	2	ACC	0.452
89	UL Monroe	2	2	SUN	0.434
90	Ohio	1	2	MID	0.423
91	UNLV	2	2	MWC	0.423
92	Northwestern	1	2	B10	0.423
93	E. Carolina	1	2	AAC	0.420
94	Kansas	2	2	B12	0.419
95	Mid. Tenn.	1	2	USA	0.414
96	Georgia Tech	1	3	ACC	0.413
97	Liberty	1	2	IND	0.406
98	Connecticut	1	3	AAC	0.406
99	Nevada	2	2	MWC	0.406
100	UMASS	2	3	MID	0.401
101	Air Force	1	2	MWC	0.399
102	UL Lafayette	1	2	SUN	0.399
103	Purdue	1	3	B10	0.396
104	Colorado St.	1	4	MWC	0.388
105	Miami (OH)	1	3	MID	0.384
106	Kent State	1	3	MID	0.375
107	Charlotte	2	2	USA	0.371
108	Tulsa	1	3	AAC	0.364
109	N. Carolina	1	2	ACC	0.359
110	SMU	1	3	AAC	0.358
111	Tulane	1	3	AAC	0.357
112	S. Alabama	1	3	SUN	0.353
113	Rutgers	1	3	B10	0.352
114	Rice	1	3	USA	0.347
115	Georgia St.	1	3	SUN	0.337
116	W. Kentucky	1	3	USA	0.335
117	Arkansas	1	3	SEC	0.328
118	Oregon St.	1	3	PAC	0.325
119	Ball State	1	3	MID	0.317
120	UCLA	0	3	PAC	0.315
121	Nebraska	0	3	B10	0.309
122	N. Illinois	1	3	MID	0.307
123	Old Dom	1	3	USA	0.283
124	Bowling Grn	1	3	MID	0.282
125	C. Mich.	1	3	MID	0.281
126	NM St.	1	4	IND	0.277
127	UTSA	1	3	USA	0.273
128	San Jose St.	0	3	MWC	0.241
129	Texas State	1	3	SUN	0.178
130	UTEP	0	4	USA	0.000

Hardest Schedule Played per Team:

S. Carolina	23.0
UCLA	40.0
Army	41.5
Nebraska	44.0
USC	46.5
Connecticut	48.3
Iowa State	50.3
Vanderbilt	50.5
Alabama	50.8
Mich. St.	52.3
:	:
:	:
Kansas	102.5
BC	102.8
Ohio State	103.5
UTEP	107.0
Memphis	110.8
S. Miss.	111.3
Cincinnati	111.5
Virginia Tech	112.7
North Texas	113.8
Colorado	118.7

Average Rank per Conference:

SEC	34.5
B12	46.9
B10	54.1
ACC	56.6
PAC	60.2
IND	61.0
AAC	69.4
MWC	76.5
SUN	77.4
USA	88.9
MID	93.5

Hardest Cumulative Schedules Played per Conference:

IND	64.2
SEC	65.9
B10	70.1
B12	76.5
MID	79.2
PAC	79.4
SUN	81.0
AAC	83.2
ACC	84.5
MWC	85.4
USA	86.5