Adam Burke shares his weekly college football power ratings
Only three weeks remain in the college football regular season, as Week 14 is for conference championship games, Week 15 is for Army/Navy, and then it’s bowl season. At this stage of the game, injuries are a major factor in how these teams are rated and it varies by team on how easy it is to get that information. We have a lot of QB injuries this week and we had some very late announcements this past weekend.
It is tough to know exactly what is going on inside these programs as well. Some locker rooms are in better standing than others. Players are frustrated and upset. They’re looking to transfer. They’re looking to make the most of their opportunities. Some guys are playing the final few football games of their careers. Even though we have a lot of data points and that should make these teams a lot more projectable, there are a lot of variables that we don’t really know about.
A lot of my lines are pretty close to market, which must mean that my team evaluations are pretty close. Other lines are still off, especially for some high-variance teams. I’m finding my power ratings to be less trustworthy at this point of the season compared to previous seasons. I couldn’t really pinpoint why, other than to say that maybe the way the season has played out has made it tough for me to properly evaluate certain programs.
We’ve got the great teams, the bad teams, and everything in between feels kind of like a jumbled mess. I feel like I’ve just pinballed a lot of teams back and forth with each passing week. That’s probably just the new normal of college football, so I’ll have to figure out how to adjust.