College Football Playoffs odds and contenders
As the 2023 college football season rolls on, there has been one question persisting among everyone from casual fans to data-driven models: are any of these teams elite? Two-time defending champion Georgia has looked mortal to this point, escaping Auburn last week on the road in a game where Auburn had fewer than 100 passing yards.
Perennial powerhouse Alabama has looked extremely flawed on offense so far and lost a game before the calendar turned to October. The list goes on. We’ll call it “parity” in college football this year. How do this year’s championship contenders stack up against playoff-era champions through the lens of my T Shoe Index?
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Offense
From 2014-2022, the average National Championship team registered a 42.4 TSI offensive rating, which is how many points that team would be expected to score against the average FBS team. The best offensive rating in the CFP era has been the 2019 Joe Burrow-led LSU Tigers, and the worst offensive rating to win a title has been the 2017 Alabama Crimson Tide, a team that had to bench its starting QB Jalen Hurts in the national title game to secure a championship.