BCS-compliant rankings (no MOV)

Ratings are based on: That's all. The calculation uses the Sonas formula (proposed to replace the Elo formula for ranking chess players). As far as I can tell, this is the first (and maybe the only) college football ranking to use the Sonas formula. Rank is carried over from last season, but each team's score is reset to a fixed rating dependent on the team's rank.

Teams not in Division IA are assigned a rating of 150. Hence, playing a non-Division IA school (IAA, II, III, NAIA, whatever) will hurt a team's ranking regardless of a win by 1 point or by 100 points.

A fixed number of points are added based on location (home or away). This number is based on several factors including the rating of the median ranked team at the end of the previous season. Regardless of win or lose, a team will always gain points for location.

All idle teams gain a fixed number of points based on the total number of teams in I-A.

All points are added together and ranks assigned.

Adjustments are then made by comparing win percentage and total losses - more losses means less points are gained per win. A calculated head-to-head adjustment is also added should two teams be ranked "closely" and the loser is ranked higher than the winner, but by no means does this ensure that the winner will end up ranked higher than the loser - it simply gives credit to the winner for playing, and beating, a higher ranked team.

After these final adjustments, teams are re-ranked, and the final output is available.

Traditional rankings (using MOV)

Ratings are based on: The margin of victory component contains a blowout limiting factor.

This system does not use information from previous seasons, though it does consider games against Top-30 teams more meaningful ("Top-30" as listed in these ratings). The reasoning for using the top 30 teams instead of the traditional 25 is that there are now 120 teams in Division I-A, and 25% of the total number of teams is 30.

Points are awarded based on strength of conference, strength of schedule, record vs. Top-30 teams (starting in week 6), margin of victory, and location (home vs. away). Points are subtracted based on margin of loss. Bonus points are awarded for winning a conference and for being undefeated at the end of the regular season.

In terms of non-conference games vs. non-Div I-A opponents, wins vs. such opponents are not counted toward calculations of conference strength. Also, bonus points are not awarded to teams for wins vs. non-Div I-A opponents, and location points are cut in half. Losses, however, do count fully. Regardless of win or loss vs. a non-Div I-A opponent, the game will be reflected in the win/loss columns.

This system recalculates the ratings until they stabilize. All teams start with the same rating at the beginning of the season since no games have been played yet, and ratings become more distinct as the season progresses. The ratings do not try to predict how teams will do in the future since they only consider the results of games played to date.

With respect to teams on NCAA probation/postseason bans, those teams in question will have their rankings calculated as normal throughout the season but will not receive bonus points at season's end for winning a conference (those will go to the conference runner-up) and for remaining undefeated at the end of the regular season. Obviously, no more points can be gained at that point since the team cannot participate in a bowl game - this will prevent such a team from being ranked first after all games (including bowl games) have completed.