Week 4: Every FBS Team Ranked

Every team that plays FBS football, ranked one through 138, through the games of Saturday, Sept. 26.

A quiet week, and why

Movement is smaller than usual this week, and that is expected. The opponent-adjusted efficiency rating — the ingredient that does most of the work — had not been updated with Week 4 games when this board was built. Records and raw per-play production are current through Saturday; the adjusted rating is still a week old and will catch up on the next refresh. Until it does, a big Week 4 result has not moved a team as far as it eventually will. The betting-market ingredient was carried over from last week as well.

What the number means

The rating is roughly how many points per game a team projects to beat an average FBS opponent by. Ohio State at +31.0 would be better than a four-touchdown favorite against that average team; UL Monroe at −28.8 would lose by about the same. The gap between any two teams is a rough spread: Georgia (+29.5) against Clemson (+4.2) comes out around twenty-five.

Three ingredients go into one number. An opponent-adjusted efficiency rating does nearly all of the work, because it is the only one of the three that accounts for who a team has actually played. Raw per-play production and the betting market are in there to catch what the adjusted rating misses, but they are seasoning, not the meal.

No poll touches any of this. Not the AP, not the coaches. How the three ingredients are weighted against each other is a judgment call, and it is ours — we are not publishing the dial settings.

Off and Def are national ranks, one to 138, not ratings. Off 1 is the best offense in the country, Def 1 the best defense. They come from the on-field blend only, with no market component, because odds do not split by side of the ball. They show where a rating comes from — Oklahoma is 16th overall behind the No. 2 defense despite the 51st offense, while USC has the best offense in the country and sits 11th because the defense ranks 44th.

All 138