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Do Polls Truly Reflect The Best?

  • ljm623
  • Sep 16
  • 2 min read
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We are a quarter of the way into 2025 college football season. Miami is undefeated (3-0) and ranked #4 in the nation by the AP. However, there is growing debate over the AP Poll and the method used to determine a true Top 25.


The CaneReports decided to take a deep dive into the metrics that determine college football proficiency.


We asked ourselves...“Who is really the Top 10 teams in college football?”


We decided to examine the key mathematical metrics of the game that determines the success of a college program. In the best of worlds, we would examine the results of all 130+ teams. However, time and resources limited our exercise to the current top ten ranked schools.


As of Monday, September 15th, here is the AP Top Ten.


  1. Ohio State

  2. Penn State

  3. LSU

  4. Miami

  5. Georgia

  6. Oregon

  7. Florida State

  8. Texas

  9. Illinois

  10. Texas A&M


Mythology: We decided to examine the eight key offensive and defensive metrics used to judge a team’s proficiency.


On offensive, we looked at total yards of offense per game, average passing yards per game, average rushing yards per game and average points scored per game.


On defense, we looked at total yards allowed per game, average passing yards allowed per game, average rushing yards allowed per game and average points allowed per game.


Using industry game data, we awarded each of the above teams points in each metric in reverse order of success, with 10 points going to the best performance in that metric.


In part one of our series, we broke down AP Top 10 from an offensive perspective.


OFFENSE:


Total Yards Per Game: Points

  1. Florida State 555.5 (2 games) 10

  2. Oregon 503.3 9

  3. Miami 485.0 8

  4. Texas A&M 480.3 7

  5. Ohio State 475.3 6

  6. Georgia 470.3 5

  7. Penn State 437.3 4

  8. Illinois 405.7 3

  9. Texas 382.7 2

  10. LSU 345.7 1


Passing Yards Per Game: Points

  1. Texas A&M 323.3 10

  2. Miami 306.7 9

  3. Ohio State 283.3 8

  4. Georgia 261.3 7

  5. Florida State 260.0 6

  6. Oregon 256.3 5

  7. Penn State 243.7 4

  8. Illinois 241.0 3

  9. LSU 235.0 2

  10. Texas 200.3 1


Rushing Yards Per Game: Points

  1. Florida State 295.5 10

  2. Oregon 247.0 9

  3. Georgia 209.0 8

  4. Penn State 193.7 7

  5. Ohio State 192.0 6

  6. Texas 182.3 5

  7. Miami 179.3 4

  8. Illinois 164.7 3

  9. Texas A&M 157.0 2

  10. LSU 110.7 1


Points Per Game: Points

  1. Oregon 54.0 9.5

  2. Florida State 54.0 9.5

  3. Illinois 45.0 8

  4. Penn State 44.0 7

  5. Texas A&M 42.3 6

  6. Ohio State 40.3 4.5

  7. Miami 40.3 4.5

  8. Georgia 39.0 3

  9. Texas 24.0 2

  10. LSU 20.0 1


OFFENSE: Total Points

  1. Florida State 35.5

  2. Oregon 32.5

  3. Miami 25.5

  4. Texas A&M 25.0

  5. Ohio State 24.5

  6. Georgia 23.0

  7. Penn State 22.0

  8. Illinois 17.0

  9. Texas 10.0

  10. LSU 5.0


BOTTOM LINE:

At the end of Week 3, the clear leader on offense is Florida State, with Miami at #3. We feel LSU, Texas and Penn State are over-hyped. But that’s just from an offensive perspective.


In part two of our series, we will breakdown AP Top 10 from a defensive perspective.


GO CANES!

 
 
 

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