Remember back in the day when the BCS was decided by computer ratings and that’s how we decided who would play for the national championship each year?
At least in part that’s how things were done.
One of the most-known of those “Computer Rankings” was the Jeff Sagarin Ratings and all these years later, Sagarin is still pumping out his rankings.
The latest that is out after the fourth week of college football games is interesting to put gently.
Where Notre Dame ranks is perhaps dumb-founding.
Sagarin’s system has Notre Dame ranked 22nd in the nation with their 2-0 mark.
A few of the teams you’ll find listed ahead of them are:
- No. 19 Kansas State despite the Wildcats losing at home to Arkansas State
- No. 14 LSU who just opened their season with a loss on their home field to Mississippi State
- No. 13 Clemson who is for some reason ranked 12 spots lower than the major polls have them, despite dominating in their two wins.
- No. 10 Michigan who is yet to play a game with the same going for No. 18 Washington, No. 9 Oregon, No. 8 Wisconsin, No. 5 Penn State and No. 1 Ohio State
I get strength of schedule mattering and the strength of your opponents schedule also counting for something. Perhaps it’s just a small sample size throwing things off a bit but for the life of me I don’t get how a computer program can rank teams that have played games the same way they can rank or judge teams who are yet to play.