2015 NCAA Playoff Points: Week 9

It took nine weeks, and we're still at 11 undefeated teams in FBS football. However, they are distributed such that we can officially start building mock brackets after thinking that last week would have been my first crack.

To help determine seedings and what have you for these mocks, we need to update some rankings. To me, Playoff Points are among the most important rankings to keep updated. They really help us see through some of the BS that of records and look to see just how good a team really is.

Now, before I get into everything, I have to touch on the ending to the Miami-Duke game. I watched the final play. There are a million and one reasons why Duke got screwed by the officials on that play, and they won that game, not Miami. However, because the ACC is dumb and/or corrupt, the record books will show the Hurricanes winning this game. Because of the cluster that could come of me trying to subjectively reject official final scores because of perceived injustice (even when the perception is reality), I'm applying the Playoff Points based on the ruling on the field. I'm sorry, Duke. File a protest with the ACC and the NCAA and get your rightful win, and I will change this.

If you need a refresher on how Playoff Points work, you can refer back to my Week 1 post. Let's take a look at the updated rankings.


American Athletic
Wins: 4.42 (7th)
PP1: 10.50 (7th)
PP2: 3.60 (8th)

ACC
Wins: 4.79 (5th)
PP1: 13.36 (5th)
PP2: 5.93 (5th)

Big Ten
Wins: 5.14 (1st)
PP1: 17.36 (2nd)
PP2: 7.99 (3rd)

Big XII
Wins: 4.70 (6th)
PP1: 12.20 (6th)
PP2: 5.61 (6th)

Conference USA
Wins: 4.00 (8th)
PP1: 7.62 (10th)
PP2: 2.81 (10th)

Independents
Wins: 5.00 (3rd)
PP1: 17.33 (3rd)
PP2: 7.73 (4th)

MAC
Wins: 3.77 (9th)
PP1: 8.08 (8th)
PP2: 3.51 (9th)

Mountain West
Wins: 3.75 (10th)
PP1: 7.92 (9th)
PP2: 4.44 (7th)

Pac-12
Wins: 4.92 (4th)
PP1: 16.92 (4th)
PP2: 9.38 (1st)

SEC
Wins: 5.07 (2nd)
PP1: 17.64 (1st)
PP2: 9.02 (2nd)

Sun Belt
Wins: 3.18 (11th)
PP1: 5.73 (11th)
PP2: 2.59 (11th)

Photo by Matt Cashore (USA TODAY Sports)

If you want to see exact numbers for each team and conference, you can view my spreadsheet here. I thought at first that the Sun Belt was going to get out of the basement in Second Degree Playoff Points, but they remain stuck. We did, however, get to see a couple teams pick up their first wins of the season which is nice.

As I take a look at individual teams, Michigan State was off this week, but still gained some points, and leads the nation in First Degree Playoff Points with 35. Clemson is in second with 34, Ohio State has 32, LSU is fourth with 31 and Alabama is in fifth with 30 points. There are 22 other teams that have at least 20 PP1 through nine weeks. On the Second Degree sides, USC leads the nation with 15 points, while you have LSU right behind them with 14.71. Notre Dame is next with 13.86, and Stanford is not far behind at 13.57.

Now, I am going to take all of this information, my NCSS rankings, and try to dig up a couple computer rankings, and later today, I will have my initial Death to the BCS mock bracket available.