Rankings: Wisconsin Leaps from No. 3 to No. 1

November 15, 2020 by Staff

Wisconsin, now 2-0 after outscoring its first two opponents, Illinois and Michigan 94-18, takes a giant leap for Badger-kind over Alabama and Ohio State to gain status as king of the hill in the Congrove Computer Rankings which were released within minutes of the conclusion of UCLA's 34-10 win over visiting Cal on Sunday.

Results of each week's games are always a primary factor in teams rising and falling in the computer rankings, but a new wrinkle which Covid presents are the weekly cancellations and postponements that cause a team's over-all schedule strength to rise or fall. As it stands, Wisconsin's schedule is rated as the toughest in the nation. Alabama's schedule strength dropped 6 spots to 27th when the LSU game was canceled. Wisconsin missed games versus Nebraska and Purdue and saw its schedule strength increase from No. 6 to 1. It also doesn't hurt that upcoming opponents Northwestern and Indiana are both undefeated.

While schedule strength doesn't always have an exact correlation to the ranking of teams, it carries a reasonable amount of weight in the algorithm. Strength of schedule is a definite factor in why an undefeated Cincinnati at 7-0 is currently No. 12 while an 8-0 Notre Dame is No. 4. And though humans may agree that a team has little control over its schedule, human opinion isn't part of the mathematical equation. In the Congrove Computer Rankings, every team is mathematically evaluated on the same criteria and the schedule strength is determined by simply averaging the power rating of every opponent on that teams' schedule.

Five teams from last week's top 11 in the CCR Top 127 didn't play this past week, with four of those getting an unscheduled week off due to covid situations. The idle schools were No. 1 Alabama, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 8 Clemson (planned), No. 10 Utah and No. 11 Texas A&M.

After Wisconsin, Ohio State and Alabama, teams ranked 4th through 8th are unchanged with Notre Dame leading that group. Indiana once again ranks 5th, followed, by Oregon, USC and Clemson. Rounding out the top ten is a Utah team that has yet to open its season, and Texas A&M.

The top-ranked school from a Group Of Five conference is still Cincinnati (American) which rises from 14th to 12th. Independent BYU jumps from 20th to 16th, and Marshall rises from 25th to 21st. Another Group of Five school, Appalachian State, finally re-enters the top 25 after being knocked out by its loss to Marshall on September 19.

See the latest CCR Top 127.