2018 - NEMindex Rankings through Conference Championships

Final rankings before bowl selection begins. 

Even after losing the SEC championship, the #NEMindex still has UGA as making the playoff. It is understandable perhaps given that they have played the hardest schedule of any team and had Alabama on the ropes for a while.  My personal opinion has always been that there shouldn't be more than one team of the same conference in the playoff and that only conference champions should be let in, so I'd keep them out even if they're the 4th best. 

Ohio State and Oklahoma come out as TIED. Further sig figs down than I have listed here says Ohio State is better, but parsing difference out there is obviously dubious.  UCF won their championship and stayed undefeated.  As much as I love seeing outsider teams mess with the system, I don't think their performance per their schedule was impressive enough to justify a playoff berth. A New Year's 6 bowl against Michigan or something seems appropriate.

Unfortunately Utah lost the PAC12 championship in a slow, drawn-out, defensive showcase where no offensive TDs were scored.  They fall out of the top 25 as a result.  So Washington is going to the Rose Bowl, and Utah will be in either the Alamo, perhaps against Texas, or the Holiday bowl, perhaps against Penn St.

As always thanks for being here and please let me know if you have feedback or see issues (@NateEMiller). For those that are here for the first time, this system 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 realize. You can find more details here.

Rank	Team	W	L	Conf	RTPS	Change
1	Alabama	13	0	SEC	1.000	0
2	Clemson	13	0	ACC	0.959	0
3	Notre Dame	12	0	IND	0.908	+1
4	Georgia	11	2	SEC	0.885	-1
5	UCF	12	0	AAC	0.833	0
6	Ohio State	12	1	B10	0.794	+1
7	Oklahoma	12	1	B12	0.794	-1
8	Michigan	10	2	B10	0.760	0
9	LSU	9	3	SEC	0.718	0
10	Missouri	8	4	SEC	0.697	+1
11	Kentucky	9	3	SEC	0.691	+1
12	Wash.	10	3	PAC	0.690	+7
13	App. St.	10	2	SUN	0.689	+2
14	Florida	9	3	SEC	0.686	0
15	Fresno St.	11	2	MWC	0.685	+6
16	Wash. St.	10	2	PAC	0.682	-3
17	Miss. St.	8	4	SEC	0.678	-1
18	Boise State	10	3	MWC	0.676	-8
19	Syracuse	9	3	ACC	0.675	-2
20	Texas A&M	8	4	SEC	0.674	0
21	Army	9	2	IND	0.664	-3
22	Penn State	9	3	B10	0.661	0
23	W. Virginia	8	3	B12	0.645	0
24	Cincinnati	10	2	AAC	0.641	+1
25	Utah State	10	2	MWC	0.629	+1
26	Utah	9	4	PAC	0.613	-2
27	Troy	9	3	SUN	0.612	+2
28	NC State	9	3	ACC	0.607	+2
29	Georgia So.	9	3	SUN	0.601	+2
30	Texas	9	4	B12	0.599	-3
31	Stanford	8	4	PAC	0.590	+10
32	Auburn	7	5	SEC	0.588	+2
33	Ohio	8	4	MID	0.580	-1
34	S. Carolina	7	5	SEC	0.576	+6
35	Buffalo	10	3	MID	0.575	-7
36	Iowa	8	4	B10	0.572	+2
37	UAB	10	3	USA	0.572	+6
38	Iowa State	8	4	B12	0.565	-1
39	Temple	8	4	AAC	0.562	+3
40	Northwestern	8	5	B10	0.556	-7
41	Pittsburgh	7	6	ACC	0.554	-2
42	Arkansas St.	8	4	SUN	0.544	+2
43	North Texas	9	3	USA	0.541	+3
44	BC	7	5	ACC	0.541	+6
45	Mich. St.	7	5	B10	0.541	0
46	Mid. Tenn.	8	5	USA	0.540	-10
47	Miami (FL)	7	5	ACC	0.540	+1
48	Duke	7	5	ACC	0.534	-1
49	Vanderbilt	6	6	SEC	0.530	0
50	Georgia Tech	7	5	ACC	0.528	+3
51	Arizona St.	7	5	PAC	0.518	+1
52	Marshall	8	4	USA	0.517	-17
53	Purdue	6	6	B10	0.511	+2
54	Oregon	8	4	PAC	0.510	0
55	N. Illinois	8	5	MID	0.507	+5
56	Virginia	7	5	ACC	0.506	0
57	Memphis	8	5	AAC	0.506	-6
58	Houston	8	4	AAC	0.490	-1
59	Wake Forest	6	6	ACC	0.490	0
60	Tennessee	5	7	SEC	0.478	+2
61	Toledo	7	5	MID	0.478	+3
62	E. Mich.	7	5	MID	0.476	+1
63	UL Lafayette	7	6	SUN	0.470	-5
64	Wisconsin	7	5	B10	0.468	+1
65	Hawaii	8	5	MWC	0.461	+5
66	BYU	6	6	IND	0.459	+2
67	Nevada	7	5	MWC	0.458	+4
68	Florida Int.	8	4	USA	0.456	-2
69	Miami (OH)	6	6	MID	0.456	0
70	Oklahoma St.	6	6	B12	0.454	-3
71	San Diego St.	7	5	MWC	0.453	+1
72	TCU	6	6	B12	0.453	+1
73	Florida St.	5	7	ACC	0.452	+2
74	California	7	5	PAC	0.452	-13
75	Tulane	6	6	AAC	0.445	-1
76	Virginia Tech	6	6	ACC	0.441	+16
77	S. Florida	7	5	AAC	0.440	-1
78	Wyoming	6	6	MWC	0.439	-1
79	W. Michigan	7	5	MID	0.437	0
80	S. Miss.	6	5	USA	0.436	-2
81	Minnesota	6	6	B10	0.422	-1
82	Baylor	6	6	B12	0.422	-1
83	LA Tech	7	5	USA	0.413	0
84	Kansas St.	5	7	B12	0.408	0
85	Florida Atl.	5	7	USA	0.406	-3
86	Ole Miss	5	7	SEC	0.404	+2
87	Indiana	5	7	B10	0.401	0
88	Maryland	5	7	B10	0.400	-3
89	UL Monroe	6	6	SUN	0.399	-3
90	SMU	5	7	AAC	0.379	0
91	Arizona	5	7	PAC	0.378	-2
92	USC	5	7	PAC	0.375	-1
93	Coastal Caro.	5	7	SUN	0.372	+1
94	Texas Tech	5	7	B12	0.372	-1
95	Nebraska	4	8	B10	0.367	0
96	Air Force	5	7	MWC	0.365	0
97	Liberty	6	6	IND	0.364	0
98	Charlotte	5	7	USA	0.337	0
99	UCLA	3	9	PAC	0.322	0
100	Colorado	5	7	PAC	0.319	0
101	Navy	3	9	AAC	0.285	+1
102	UMASS	4	8	MID	0.285	-1
103	E. Carolina	3	9	AAC	0.270	0
104	Ball State	4	8	MID	0.246	+3
105	Kansas	3	9	B12	0.245	0
106	Illinois	4	8	B10	0.244	0
107	Akron	4	8	MID	0.242	-3
108	Old Dominion	4	8	USA	0.242	+1
109	S. Alabama	3	9	SUN	0.240	-1
110	Louisville	2	10	ACC	0.238	0
111	UNLV	4	8	MWC	0.229	0
112	Arkansas	2	10	SEC	0.227	0
113	N. Carolina	2	9	ACC	0.213	0
114	New Mexico	3	9	MWC	0.209	+1
115	UTSA	3	9	USA	0.209	-1
116	W. Kentucky	3	9	USA	0.200	0
117	Colorado St.	3	9	MWC	0.200	0
118	Texas State	3	9	SUN	0.196	+1
119	Tulsa	3	9	AAC	0.196	-1
120	Oregon St.	2	10	PAC	0.195	0
121	Bowling Grn	3	9	MID	0.183	0
122	Georgia St.	2	10	SUN	0.179	0
123	San Jose St.	1	11	MWC	0.179	0
124	NM St.	3	9	IND	0.162	0
125	Kent State	2	10	MID	0.151	0
126	Rutgers	1	11	B10	0.128	0
127	Rice	2	11	USA	0.110	0
128	C. Mich.	1	11	MID	0.057	0
129	Connecticut	1	11	AAC	0.040	0
130	UTEP	1	11	USA	0.000	0

Hardest Schedule Played per Team:

Georgia	42.2
Tennessee	44.8
Texas A&M	46.8
UCLA	48.1
Vanderbilt	48.2
Pittsburgh	48.5
S. Carolina	48.9
Florida St.	49.0
Louisville	49.2
Missouri	50.3
:	:
:	:
Marshall	85.0
S. Miss.	85.2
NM St.	85.8
Old Dominion	86.8
UTEP	89.4
W. Kentucky	89.9
Utah State	90.7
Houston	92.0
Florida Int.	92.8
North Texas	99.6

Average Rank per Conference:

SEC	32.8
ACC	54.7
B12	60.5
B10	61.2
IND	62.2
PAC	63.8
SUN	70.5
AAC	73.1
MWC	75.0
MID	83.2
USA	84.9

Hardest Cumulative Schedules Played per Conference:

SEC	51.1
ACC	60.7
B10	63.8
B12	67.4
PAC	67.6
IND	74.4
SUN	74.9
AAC	75.2
MID	77.0
MWC	77.3
USA	83.4