2017 NCAA Playoff Points Rankings: Week 12

Nick Saban Is A Coward Week is in the books, and with that, it's time to survey the landscape.

There was nowhere near as much chaos this week as there was last week, which will be a good thing when I go to the lab later today to build out another mock bracket. For reference, here's last week's.

We won't worry too much about that yet, though. First, I need to update all of the numbers for everyone, and then below you will find the rankings for each conference. I will later go through the top teams in every category. If you need a refresher on how each of the three types of Playoff Points works, you can view a description of them back in my season introductory post.


American Athletic
Wins: 5.58 (8th)
PP1: 21.58 (7th)
PP2: 14.17 (5th)
aPP: 4.42 (6th)

ACC
Wins: 6.14 (4th)
PP1: 27.86 (3rd)
PP2: 17.47 (2nd)
aPP: 11.14 (3rd)

Big Ten
Wins: 6.29 (3rd)
PP1: 30.07 (2nd)
PP2: 17.81 (1st)
aPP: 14.07 (2nd)

Big XII
Wins: 6.00 (T-5th)
PP1: 23.80 (6th)
PP2: 11.60 (7th)
aPP: 4.60 (5th)

Conference USA
Wins: 5.14 (11th)
PP1: 16.86 (10th)
PP2: 9.08 (9th)
aPP: -8.71 (10th)

Independents
Wins: 6.00 (T-5th)
PP1: 24.00 (5th)
PP2: 12.74 (6th)
aPP: 1.25 (7th)

MAC
Wins: 5.25 (10th)
PP1: 17.17 (9th)
PP2: 10.86 (8th)
aPP: -7.92 (9th)

Mountain West
Wins: 5.33 (9th)
PP1: 18.08 (8th)
PP2: 7.79 (11th)
aPP: -7.08 (8th)

Pac-12
Wins: 6.33 (2nd)
PP1: 27.58 (4th)
PP2: 14.85 (4th)
aPP: 11.08 (4th)

SEC
Wins: 6.79 (1st)
PP1: 30.79 (1st)
PP2: 16.39 (3rd)
aPP: 18.57 (1st)

Sun Belt
Wins: 5.83 (7th)
PP1: 11.92 (11th)
PP2: 8.76 (10th)
aPP: -16.33 (11th)

To see the updated spreadsheet, click here.

Photo by Ben Brengman (Savannah Morning News)

I think the most surprising thing when I did these was to see the Sun Belt climb out of the basement in Second Degree Playoff Points. That's what having Georgia Southern win its first game of the season will do for you. They're still bad in First Degree and Adjusted Playoff Points, though. The SEC, meanwhile, has taken pretty firm control of just about every category, except PP2. Since the ACC fell out of first place as well, I'm pretty sure it has a lot to do with Nick Saban, Will Muschamp, Jimbo Fisher, Dabo Swinney, and Larry Fedora all being cowards. I'm not sure what to make of the Pac-12 being second in average wins but fourth in every Playoff Point category.

Photo by Michael Conroy (AP)

Looking at individual schools, Alabama and Wisconsin are tied for the best PP1 mark with 59 points. Norte Dame and Georgia are tied for third with 56, and USC and Clemson are tied for fifth with 55 points. Over in PP2, Notre Dame leads the country with 30.44 points, followed by 6-5 Iowa with 28.17, 1-10 Charlotte with 26.00, Clemson at 24.70, and Georgia rounds out the top five at 24.60. Finally, over in aPP, Wisconsin and Alabama remain at 59 points and atop the board, Notre Dame is third with 55, Georgia has 54, and Miami rounds out the top five with 53 points.

Armed with this updated information, I'm going to ponder over these and some computer rankings, and I'll be back later this afternoon with my second to last mock bracket for the Death to the BCS Playoffs!