2017 NCAA Playoff Points Rankings: Week 11

Wow. Where to begin?

I always expect some degree of chaos in college football, but not like this. The top of the College Football Playoff rankings got shaken up last night, which means last week's mock bracket for the Death to the BCS Playoffs needs to be blown up and rebuilt from scratch. But I'll get to that later.

For now, as I've done every Monday morning for the past several weeks, I'm running through results and updating my spreadsheet for Playoff Points. If you need a refresher on how these work, you can view that in my season introductory post.

Below are the averages for win totals and First Degree, Second Degree, and Adjusted Playoff Points for each conference, along with how they rank.


American Athletic
Wins: 5.17 (8th)
PP1: 18.33 (7th)
PP2: 11.37 (5th)
aPP: 5.33 (5th)

ACC
Wins: 5.50 (T-4th)
PP1: 22.64 (4th)
PP2: 14.73 (1st)
aPP: 8.64 (4th)

Big Ten
Wins: 5.79 (3rd)
PP1: 25.50 (T-1st)
PP2: 14.58 (2nd)
aPP: 12.43 (2nd)

Big XII
Wins: 5.50 (T-4th)
PP1: 19.80 (5th)
PP2: 9.42 (7th)
aPP: 4.20 (6th)

Conference USA
Wins: 4.64 (11th)
PP1: 13.36 (10th)
PP2: 7.15 (9th)
aPP: -7.36 (10th)

Independents
Wins: 5.50 (T-4th)
PP1: 19.25 (6th)
PP2: 10.09 (6th)
aPP: 0.25 (7th)

MAC
Wins: 4.75 (10th)
PP1: 13.75 (9th)
PP2: 8.76 (8th)
aPP: -6.83 (9th)

Mountain West
Wins: 4.83 (9th)
PP1: 15.08 (8th)
PP2: 6.54 (10th)
aPP: -5.92 (8th)

Pac-12
Wins: 5.92 (2nd)
PP1: 24.50 (3rd)
PP2: 13.43 (4th)
aPP: 10.25 (3rd)

SEC
Wins: 6.14 (1st)
PP1: 25.50 (T-1st)
PP2: 13.55 (3rd)
aPP: 15.14 (1st)

Sun Belt
Wins: 5.42 (7th)
PP1: 9.42 (11th)
PP2: 5.43 (11th)
aPP: -14.25 (11th)

To see the updated spreadsheet, click here.

Photo by John Reed (USA TODAY Sports)

The biggest note I saw from this week, at least from a conference perspective, was the righting of the Sun Belt ship. They've been in the top five in average wins for much of the season, and with some non-conference games mixed in there, dropped to seventh this week, while remaining dead last in every other category, and by pretty wide margins. The SEC appears to have reclaimed its perch, leading three of the four categories. The Big Ten remains strong, but I'm a little surprised the ACC is as lackluster as it is, given the presence of an unbeaten and a one-loss team.

Photo by Gwinn Davis (The Post and Courier)

Looking at top five teams in every category, Alabama now leads in PP1 with 53 points, followed by Clemson with 49, Wisconsin and USC with 46, and Note Dame rounding out the top five with 45 points. The Irish lead in PP2 with 25.63 points, followed by 6-4 Iowa at 23.83, a tie between Michigan State and 1-9 Charlotte with 22 points, and Clemson rounding out the top five with 21.89 points. Finally, over in aPP, Alabama leads that category also with 53 points, followed by Wisconsin at 46, Notre Dame with 44, Clemson at 43, then Georgia and USC tie for fifth with 42 points apiece. If you're curious, 1-10 San Jose State has the worst aPP at -49 points, which is somehow worse than winless UTEP (they're 0-10 with -41 points, for reference).

Given all this chaos, the presence of only four undefeated teams combined with another 21 teams who have no more than two losses, I need to get into the lab. Last week's mock bracket is a disaster now, and I need to fix it. Check back later to see what the newest playoff field would look like!