2018 - NEMindex Rankings through Week 7

Here's my disclaimer for all the new people that are here for the first time: This system, which I've been working on for ~8 years, is entirely data-driven and uses a set of metrics I've identified to measure the actual performance of all of the teams simultaneously and rank them all against each other using a multi-regression technique. If a team comes up higher than seems logical, it's not because I think they're that good, it's because something in their performance is saying they are probably better than what we are realizing yet. It may also be anomalous and they won't keep it up and will plummet in the following week. You can find more details here.

So many upsets this week. My #5 from last week beat my #1 (I'm sorry Morgan). My #65 beat my #11. My #51 beat my #16. And my #43 beat my #24.  It caused a bit of shuffling in the top 10 thanks in part to Georgia dropping to 12th and the Penn St loss causing Ohio State to drop to 10th.  The new #1, on a lucky bye week is Clemson, thanks in part to the big win by Texas A&M. Look for one of their first big tests this week when they face the undefeated NC State.  For those that are going to ask, Alabama just hasn't played a hard enough schedule yet to pass Clemson (though their RTPS did go up since last week). Yes their margins are bigger and if I turn up the weighting on that 'knob' they do move up, but leaving the knob where I've always had it and where it seems to work best results in this list. Clemson's average opponent is ranked 65.8. Alabama's is ranked 74th. I do still suspect Alabama is the better team and will pass them shortly.

The PAC12 again did what it does best, cannibalized itself out of any chance at a playoff spot or any ranking respect. Oregon beat Washington but UW stays steady in the rankings. USC beat the previously undefeated Colorado, moving them up 12 spots and Colorado down 15.  Stanford's ranking got some help on their bye week, thanks to wins elsewhere in the PAC, including Utah's win that moved Utah to 21st. I'm just hoping Utah can win out now and maybe get to the Rose Bowl since the PAC12 shot itself in the foot again.

As always, please feel free to send your comments and thoughts to me on facebook or twitter (@NateEMiller). Go Utes!

Rank	Team	W	L	Conf	RTPS	Change
1	Clemson	6	0	ACC	1.000	+2
2	Notre Dame	7	0	IND	0.991	0
3	Alabama	7	0	SEC	0.977	+1
4	LSU	6	1	SEC	0.972	+1
5	NC State	5	0	ACC	0.887	+3
6	Florida	6	1	SEC	0.886	+4
7	Kentucky	5	1	SEC	0.886	0
8	Michigan	6	1	B10	0.875	+5
9	Oklahoma	5	1	B12	0.866	+3
10	Ohio State	7	0	B10	0.857	-4
11	Texas	6	1	B12	0.851	-2
12	Georgia	6	1	SEC	0.849	-11
13	Iowa	5	1	B10	0.807	+7
14	Stanford	4	2	PAC	0.804	+8
15	Duke	5	1	ACC	0.796	0
16	UCF	6	0	AAC	0.791	+1
17	Army	4	2	IND	0.776	-3
18	W. Virginia	5	1	B12	0.766	-7
19	Cincinnati	6	0	AAC	0.734	+6
20	Texas Tech	4	2	B12	0.732	+6
21	Utah	4	2	PAC	0.731	+11
22	S. Florida	6	0	AAC	0.720	-3
23	Wash.	5	2	PAC	0.719	+1
24	San Diego St.	5	1	MWC	0.713	+3
25	Texas A&M	5	2	SEC	0.713	+16
26	Miss. St.	4	2	SEC	0.712	+7
27	USC	4	2	PAC	0.710	+12
28	App. St.	4	1	SUN	0.702	+24
29	Utah State	5	1	MWC	0.692	+5
30	Iowa State	3	3	B12	0.687	+35
31	UAB	5	1	USA	0.682	-2
32	Mich. St.	4	2	B10	0.682	+19
33	Fresno St.	5	1	MWC	0.675	-5
34	Wisconsin	4	2	B10	0.673	-13
35	Miami (FL)	5	2	ACC	0.668	-12
36	Oregon	5	1	PAC	0.668	+7
37	North Texas	6	1	USA	0.667	+8
38	Ole Miss	5	2	SEC	0.665	+2
39	Penn State	4	2	B10	0.662	-23
40	Wash. St.	5	1	PAC	0.661	-2
41	LA Tech	4	2	USA	0.657	+17
42	Buffalo	6	1	MID	0.654	+2
43	Syracuse	4	2	ACC	0.652	+3
44	Maryland	4	2	B10	0.642	-8
45	Georgia So.	5	1	SUN	0.642	-3
46	Colorado	5	1	PAC	0.637	-15
47	Houston	5	1	AAC	0.628	+3
48	Virginia	4	2	ACC	0.626	+13
49	Boise State	4	2	MWC	0.624	-12
50	S. Carolina	3	3	SEC	0.622	-32
51	BYU	4	3	IND	0.620	+17
52	Virginia Tech	4	2	ACC	0.617	+4
53	BC	5	2	ACC	0.611	+10
54	Troy	5	2	SUN	0.598	-19
55	Indiana	4	3	B10	0.592	-2
56	W. Michigan	5	2	MID	0.589	+8
57	Baylor	4	3	B12	0.573	+2
58	Tennessee	3	3	SEC	0.572	+24
59	Minnesota	3	3	B10	0.566	-4
60	TCU	3	3	B12	0.565	-3
61	Temple	4	3	AAC	0.561	+8
62	Arizona St.	3	3	PAC	0.559	+4
63	Hawaii	6	2	MWC	0.551	-14
64	Northwestern	3	3	B10	0.550	+11
65	Missouri	3	3	SEC	0.549	-11
66	Auburn	4	3	SEC	0.549	-19
67	Florida Int.	4	2	USA	0.544	+7
68	Purdue	3	3	B10	0.543	+23
69	Oklahoma St.	4	3	B12	0.542	-7
70	Wake Forest	3	3	ACC	0.535	+6
71	Marshall	4	2	USA	0.528	0
72	Coastal Caro.	3	3	SUN	0.525	-42
73	Mid. Tenn.	3	3	USA	0.522	-13
74	Florida St.	3	3	ACC	0.516	+9
75	N. Illinois	4	3	MID	0.515	+13
76	Arkansas St.	3	3	SUN	0.515	-9
77	Kansas St.	3	4	B12	0.514	+10
78	Vanderbilt	3	4	SEC	0.513	-30
79	Florida Atl.	3	3	USA	0.501	-1
80	Liberty	3	3	IND	0.488	+10
81	Georgia Tech	3	4	ACC	0.480	-4
82	Memphis	4	3	AAC	0.479	+2
83	E. Mich.	3	4	MID	0.478	+10
84	Tulane	2	4	AAC	0.475	+1
85	Ohio	3	3	MID	0.466	-6
86	UL Lafayette	3	3	SUN	0.466	+6
87	Pittsburgh	3	4	ACC	0.465	-6
88	Toledo	3	3	MID	0.457	-18
89	Colorado St.	3	4	MWC	0.443	+10
90	Arizona	3	4	PAC	0.442	-4
91	Miami (OH)	3	4	MID	0.433	+4
92	New Mexico	3	3	MWC	0.430	-12
93	UCLA	1	5	PAC	0.420	+16
94	Illinois	3	3	B10	0.419	-21
95	UL Monroe	3	4	SUN	0.412	+15
96	SMU	2	4	AAC	0.399	-2
97	Georgia St.	2	4	SUN	0.396	+1
98	Akron	2	3	MID	0.395	+8
99	Charlotte	3	3	USA	0.395	+12
100	California	3	3	PAC	0.393	-28
101	Air Force	2	4	MWC	0.387	-5
102	S. Miss.	2	3	USA	0.385	0
103	Nevada	3	4	MWC	0.381	-14
104	UMASS	2	5	MID	0.377	-1
105	E. Carolina	2	4	AAC	0.369	-5
106	Wyoming	2	5	MWC	0.362	-9
107	Kansas	2	4	B12	0.341	-6
108	S. Alabama	2	5	SUN	0.341	+9
109	UTSA	3	4	USA	0.340	-2
110	Tulsa	1	5	AAC	0.331	+3
111	UNLV	2	4	MWC	0.328	-7
112	Ball State	3	4	MID	0.324	+6
113	Louisville	2	5	ACC	0.314	-5
114	Connecticut	1	5	AAC	0.308	+1
115	Arkansas	1	6	SEC	0.304	+1
116	Navy	2	4	AAC	0.298	-11
117	N. Carolina	1	4	ACC	0.277	-3
118	Old Dominion	1	6	USA	0.272	+4
119	NM St.	2	5	IND	0.261	-7
120	Oregon St.	1	5	PAC	0.251	-1
121	Nebraska	0	6	B10	0.249	-1
122	W. Kentucky	1	5	USA	0.248	-1
123	C. Mich.	1	6	MID	0.246	0
124	San Jose St.	0	6	MWC	0.236	+3
125	Rutgers	1	6	B10	0.205	-1
126	Rice	1	6	USA	0.199	0
127	Bowling Grn	1	6	MID	0.198	+1
128	Kent State	1	6	MID	0.189	-3
129	Texas State	1	5	SUN	0.165	0
130	UTEP	0	6	USA	0.000	0

Hardest Schedule Played per Team:

UCLA	38.3
Stanford	40.2
S. Carolina	43.2
Iowa State	44.5
Nebraska	45.7
LSU	47.0
Oklahoma	47.8
TCU	49.7
Minnesota	51.7
USC	52.0
:	:
:	:
UTEP	94.2
Hawaii	95.0
Memphis	95.1
Fresno St.	96.7
Houston	97.0
UCF	98.2
North Texas	99.3
Cincinnati	99.7
Texas State	100.7
S. Florida	104.2

Average Rank per Conference:

SEC	39.5
B12	45.8
IND	53.8
B10	54.7
PAC	56.0
ACC	56.7
AAC	72.7
MWC	77.0
SUN	79.0
USA	86.1
MID	93.2

Hardest Cumulative Schedules Played per Conference:

SEC	59.5
B12	61.5
B10	64.7
PAC	67.4
IND	67.8
ACC	72.4
MID	79.3
SUN	82.0
AAC	82.1
MWC	82.6
USA	85.7