ESPN Releases College Football Power Index Rankings; Rutgers Lands at 67

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ESPN recently released its College Football Power Index Rankings, with Rutgers being the second-lowest-rated team in the Big Ten with an FI rating of -.2. That rating placed the Scarlet Knights as the No.67 team in the country, with Purdue being the only Big Ten team rated lower at No.71

According to a 2016 ESPN article, their data for determining the preseason FPI is based on how the team performed in previous seasons.

“Each team’s FPI rating is composed of a predicted offensive, defensive and special teams component. These ratings represent the number of points each unit is expected to contribute to the team’s net scoring margin on a neutral field against an average FBS opponent.

In the preseason, these components are made up entirely of data from previous seasons, such as returning starters, past performance, recruiting rankings and coaching tenure (more on the preseason component below). That information allows FPI to make predictions (and make determinations on the strength of a team’s opponents) beginning in Week 1, and then it declines in weight as the season progresses. It is important to note that prior seasons’ information never completely disappears, because it has been proved to help with prediction accuracy even at the end of a season. Vegas similarly includes priors when setting its lines.”

The FPI has been updated since then to factor in things like the transfer portal.

However, even with all of the data from previous seasons, there is still a lot of positive uncertainty at play. Last season, Rutgers’ defense was one of the worst in the FBS. With a load of transfers coming in on that side of the ball and a complete overhaul of the defensive coaching staff, it is hard to imagine that there won’t be some form of significant improvement.

On top of that, Rutgers was able to keep major pieces on the offensive side of the ball around, such as WR KJ Duff, RB Antwan Raymond, and OL Kwabena Asamoah. While there is uncertainty surrounding the quarterback position, whoever ends up winning the battle will be stepping into one of the better situations that a new Rutgers quarterback has stepped into in a long time.

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