SP+ Rankings for All 134 FBS Teams After Week 9: Texas Retakes No. 1 Spot

For perhaps the first time in the 2024 college football season, we had a week where nothing really happened.

means, things happened In Week 9: Two top-five teams (Ohio State and Texas) narrowly survive upset bids, Texas A&M makes a statement, the Group of 5 playoff race crystallizes and Pitt's defense (21 points) outscores its opponents (13) and His own offense surpassed both (20). But only four teams ranked in the AP Top 25 have lost, and they've all come against higher-ranked teams. Even with Ohio State's serious flirtation with disaster, nothing of lasting consequence has really materialized.

For the sixth time in seven weeks, however, the top spot in the SP+ rankings has changed hands. With the aforementioned flirtation with Ohio State, Texas moved ahead of the Buckeyes for the top spot despite narrowly avoiding an upset of its own.

No one wants to be top dog at this point, and again, we've got an interesting near-logjam at the top. The top five teams in this week's SP+ rankings are separated by just 1.6 points, and that batch includes two two-loss teams. Meanwhile, only one of the eight remaining undefeated teams in the FBS is currently in the SP+ top seven. It's a funny world right now.

Below are this week's SP+ rankings What is SP+? In one sentence, It is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football skill. I created the system at Football Outsiders in 2008, and as my experience with both college football and its statistics grew, I made several changes to the system.

SP+ is indeed predictive and forward facing. It's not a resume ranking (hence the lack of undefeated near the top), so it doesn't automatically give credit for big wins or particularly bold schedules — no good predictive measures. It is simply a measure of the most durable and predictable aspects of football. If you are lucky or overwhelming to win, your rating will likely drop. If you are strong and unlucky in losses, this will probably increase.