How the ranking model works

Written By Michael King

This is the model behind Mike’s Poll. It is a simple concept where teams are assigned a number in inverse order of their current ranking. In the FBS, there are 138 teams. So every team is ranked from #1 to #138. In 2026, Ohio State is the preseason number one. So, they will be assigned 138 points. Oregon is preseason #2; so they will be assigned 137 points…and so forth all the way down the list. Charleston is preseason #138; therefore they be assigned 1 point to start the year. If Oregon played Charleston and won. Oregon would receive 1 point towards their rankings. If Charleston pulled the upset, they would receive 137 points.

At the end of every week, teams are given points from that week and added to cumulative total of the year.

Every team will be re-ranked at the end of every week based on their cumulative points earned to date.

The Points Rules

  • Teams earn zero points for a loss

  • Zero points for beating a 1-AA or any other non-Div 1A (FBS) team

  • Ranking is for Div 1A schools only

  • Bye weeks are counted as zero (if you don’t play, you can’t accumulate points)

  • Rankings will be recalculated and published at the end of every week.

Preseason Rankings Source

  • The preseason rankings come from CBSSports.com

  • Inherent starting bias - while the goal is to remove all East Coast, SEC, Blue Blood-program bias, all schools are initially ranked by CBS Sports. There will undoubtably be some inherent biases built into the preseason ranking, but we have to start somewhere.

Michael King