NCAA Football Power Rankings, Week 3

A few years ago, I thought to myself, "I could do a better job than some of the BCS computers".  As I recall, at the time I felt Mizzou was underrated.  The BCS rules state margin of victory cannot be used, so I thought I'd stick to that.  I put together a convergence algorithm, in which I initially sort the teams by record (so all the 3-0 teams are tied at #1 this week), then judge the strength of schedule based on the current rankings of the opponents, and resort based on that strength.  I run through this process until 2 consecutive iterations give the same result, or up to 10,000 times.

If 10,000 iterations happen with no convergence, I search for a loop, that is, a number of iterations that return the results to the initial condition.  So, if iteration 10,002 gives the same rankings as iteration 10,000, then each iteration will fluctuate between the rankings in 10,000 and 10,001.  I average those rankings to come up with the final rankings.  It is still possible - but generally unlikely - that teams can tie for a final ranking.

Due to most teams playing other teams in lower divisions, and a lack of desire on my part to delve so deeply that I have to track down NAIA schedules, I've decided to count all games listed on ESPN's college football site., which includes all Division I, II, and III schools.  I then filter the final results to only the 120 FBS schools.

The Rankings tend to fluctuate wildly near the beginning of the season, but congrats Too Many Grandersons, your Wolverines are on at #2 this week (I don't know any NC fans, and they may miss the postseason either way this year.)

1	North Carolina	3-0
2	Michigan	3-0
3	Nebraska	3-0
4	USC	3-0
5	Iowa State	3-0
6	West Virginia	3-0
7	Illinois	3-0
8	San Diego State	3-0
9	Oklahoma State	3-0
10	South Florida	3-0
11	LSU	3-0
12	Florida International	3-0
13	Vanderbilt	3-0
14	Clemson	3-0
15	South Carolina	3-0
16	Georgia Tech	3-0
17	Wyoming	3-0
18	Ohio	3-0
19	Texas	3-0
20	Virginia Tech	3-0
21	California	3-0
22	Alabama	3-0
23	Florida	3-0
24	Wisconsin	3-0
25	Houston	3-0
26	Stanford	3-0
27	Iowa	2-1
28	Arkansas	3-0
29	Louisville	2-1
30	Penn State	2-1
31	Tennessee	2-1
32	Texas A&M	2-0
33	Utah	2-1
34	Arizona State	2-1
35	Oklahoma	2-0
36	Virginia	2-1
37	Wake Forest	2-1
38	Baylor	2-0
39	Eastern Michigan	2-1
40	Southern Methodist	2-1
41	North Carolina State	2-1
42	Washington State	2-1
43	Syracuse	2-1
44	Pittsburgh	2-1
45	Boise State	2-0
46	Auburn	2-1
47	Kansas	2-1
48	Navy	2-1
49	TCU	2-1
50	Western Michigan	2-1
51	Ball State	2-1
52	Bowling Green	2-1
53	Kansas State	2-0
54	Louisiana-Lafayette	2-1
55	Texas Tech	2-0
56	Oregon	2-1
57	Washington	2-1
58	Kentucky	2-1
59	Michigan State	2-1
60	Missouri	2-1
61	UTEP	2-1
62	Florida State	2-1
63	Southern Miss	2-1
64	UCF	2-1
65	Tulane	2-1
66	Cincinnati	2-1
67	Temple	2-1
68	Ohio State	2-1
69	Purdue	2-1
70	Northwestern	2-1
70	Notre Dame	1-2
72	Marshall	1-2
73	Colorado State	2-1
74	Rice	1-1
75	Maryland	1-1
76	Tulsa	1-2
77	Georgia	1-2
78	Air Force	1-1
79	Connecticut	1-2
80	Fresno State	1-2
81	Rutgers	1-1
82	Northern Illinois	1-2
83	Brigham Young	1-2
83	Arizona	1-2
85	Utah State	1-1
86	Arkansas State	1-2
87	Miami (FL)	1-1
88	UNLV	1-2
89	Army	1-2
90	Mississippi State	1-2
91	Idaho	1-2
92	New Mexico State	1-2
93	UCLA	1-2
94	Louisiana Tech	1-2
95	Indiana	1-2
96	Toledo	1-2
97	Duke	1-2
98	Colorado	1-2
99	Ole Miss	1-2
100	Nevada	1-1
101	Central Michigan	1-2
102	Louisiana-Monroe	1-2
103	Buffalo	1-2
104	Hawaii	1-2
105	Minnesota	1-2
106	Memphis	1-2
107	East Carolina	0-2
108	Troy	0-2
109	North Texas	0-3
110	Florida Atlantic	0-2
111	UAB	0-2
112	Middle Tennessee	0-2
113	Kent State	0-3
114	Western Kentucky	0-3
115	New Mexico	0-3
116	Oregon State	0-2
117	Miami (OH)	0-2
118	Akron	0-3
119	San Jose State	0-3
120	Boston College	0-3