ESPN releases initial college football FPI. Where is Ohio State?

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We have the initial release of ESPN's Football Power Index for the 2026 college football season, and Ohio State is ranked No. 1 before the season gets underway. So what exactly is the FPI? According to ESPN's website, "the Football Power Index (FPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team's performance going forward for the rest of the season. FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 20,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule.'

In other words, it's an analytics-driven model that takes into account a lot of data points used to predict the future performance of a team. In this case, those data-driven markers have Ohio State (28.7) almost two points ahead of the No. 2 team, the Texas Longhorns (26.9).

As great as this is, we all know that the FPI has been awfully kind to the Buckeyes in years past, often having them No. 1, but on-field success at the highest championship levels hasn't always followed. It must be noted as well that OSU has a very, very tough schedule, making the journey harder than in recent years.

The FPI has Ohio State's projected win/loss total set at 10.2-2.4, it's chance of going unbeaten at 9.2%, a 99.4% chance of winning at least 6 games, a conference-best 38.8% chance of winning the Big Ten, and a nation's best chance of not only making the College Football Playoff (75.7%), but making the national championship game (28.2%), and winnng the national title (17.1%). All disclaimers and asterisks apply.

Rounding out the top ten of the FPI behind the Buckeyes and Longhorns are Notre Dame (25.9), Oregon (25.3), Georgia 24.8), Indiana (23.1), Miami (FL) (21.8), Alabama (20.1), LSU (20.0), and Texas Tech (20.0). The rest of the top 25 is below.

If you follow the FPI at all, you know that these rankings change throughout the season. As they do, we'll have updates along the way.

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This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: ESPN releases initial college football FPI. Where is Ohio State?

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