Imagine following your favorite college football team who is ranked in the top ten. Now imagine that same team, ranked higher than they were after a bye week.
In the world of college football, one can have so many questions and opinions on why teams move up in the rankings during their bye week.
What is the college football poll? Who runs it and who decides what teams get ranked? The college football poll ranks the top 25 teams of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
The Associated Press (AP), runs the oldest and most popular sports poll in the United States of America. Founded in October 1936, the poll currently is the longest on-going poll that assigns national championships at the conclusion of each season.
There is a console of 61 writers and broadcasters worldwide who know a lot about the sport. Each member of the console uses a formula system as to where to rank each team, i.e. the first place team gets granted 25 points the second place team gets 24.
Many college football fans who follow and know a little about it have mixed opinions on why teams move up in the rankings during bye weeks.
“Sometimes [the rankings] are selfish, and sometimes they makes sense,” Malik Clayton, ‘19, said, “[The console] usually goes over the season events the week before the bye and looking at the games after to see what the chances of the team successfully winning.”
What Clayton means is that the point system can be a little biased, but it sometimes makes sense. It makes sense in the way that each member examines how well the teams played before the bye week and the games after to see what the chances are of the team winning.
“I think [the ranking] is fair because every team in college football gets a bye week. So whether they drop or rise up in the poll doesn’t really matter,” Brandon Johnson, ‘20, said.
Another fan who agrees with them is Weston Sharpensteen, ‘22.
“I guess for the teams that are winning, absolutely I’d be okay with them moving up in the bye week,” Sharpensteen said.
However, there are two fans who disagree with Johnson, Sharpensteen and Clatyon.
“I don’t think it is fair for [the teams] to move up during their bye week because they haven’t gotten a chance to play like the other teams have,” Erin Helge ‘20, said.
“I think that the college football ranking system should be revamped,” Blake Atwell, ‘21, said. “The way it is organized and decided is just like unfair to teams. I feel like it is heavily biased and should be based off of stats and not off of decision of what people think.”
In conclusion, many college football fans have many mixed opinions on how teams that have bye weeks move up in the rankings. Whether it is biased or not, the poll and ranking system will not be leaving any time soon.