So I‘ve been watching College Football for 3 years now, having attended a FBS college as semester abroad myself.
What doesnt get in my head is why certain teams keep getting ranked (even pretty highly) while others with the same record and even stronger schedule arent.
Take for example Texas or Iowa after week 7 this year. Both have a 4-2 record, having lost against 2 top ranked teams and won against unranked only. In contrast, Indiana has the same record, only lost against ranked teams and won the rest of the games easily while having one of the most difficult schedules you could have in Big10 east.
Yet the former are ranked 17 and 20something while the latter doesnt even get one vote in the rankings.
And then teams like Notre Dame almost never play ranked teams and still are consistently ranked top10.
How are both polls evaluating the teams???
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The others already answered your question, but you may also want to know about the CFP (College Football Playoff) ranking. Halfway through the season, a committee of 13 people meet and go through an extensive voting process to rank the teams. The committee members are usually either representatives (mostly athletic directors it seems) of one of the big five conferences (SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12), or have some connection to the sport, such as being former players or sportswriters. This process uses a secret ballot and also places heavy weight on strength of schedule.
Once this ranking is released, they will then update it on a weekly basis. At the end of the season, the top 4 teams play in a 4-team bracket to determine the national champion.
Also, I am not a big Irish fan, but I don’t think it’s fair to say they almost never play ranked teams. They have a rivalry with several teams, including USC and Michigan, as well as a tradition of playing Stanford. (As well as Navy I think?) They also commit to several games a year against ACC teams, a conference they have affiliation with, even if they are technically independent. Outside of those, they always try to schedule at least a few other tough opponents.
National [Strength of Schedule ranking](https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/ranking/schedule-strength-by-other?date=2016-01-12) the last five years for Notre Dame:
2019: 10th
2018: 13th
2017: 9th
2016: 28th
2015: 8th
They’re basically opinion polls.
AP is the Associated Press, and they’ve had an opinion poll from select sportswriters going back to the 1930s.
Coaches Poll is the same thing, but with head coaches being the voters.
They are polls. The AP (associated press) is literally a panel of sports journalists (currently 62 of them), and the Coaches poll is a panel of FBS coaches ([chosen by random draw, conference by conference plus independents, from a pool of coaches who have indicated their willingness to participate.](https://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaaf/polls/amway-coaches-poll/)) that rank teams 1-25.
A first-place vote gives a team 25 pts, a second place vote gives a team 24 pts, etc. The final polls reflect the total points each team earns from all the panelists’ rankings. Each panelist ranks the teams according to his/her own reasoning.
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