The Georgia Bulldogs made the FPI’s preseason top ten once again. The Dawgs check in tenth in the rankings. LSU comes in at twelfth. Here’s a description of ESPN’s FPI:
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 10,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule. Ratings and projections update daily.
Here’s the rankings of the top 25 SEC teams:
Should Georgia be ranked higher? I think so. The Dawgs return so many studs on defense that they deserve to be a few spots higher than Texas and Texas A&M.
Both Georgia and LSU should be ranked above Texas A&M. It’s rare to take the side of the Tigers, but they’re defending national champions and return lots of talent.
FPI, to put it simply, is not an extremely accurate measure of the college football universe. For instance, who was first in FPI after last season? You’d think 15-0 LSU would be, but they’re third behind first-rated Ohio State and second-rated Clemson.
In last season’s preseason FPI rankings, Georgia was rated third. It did correctly pick two of the four playoff teams (LSU and Clemson), but it missed on numerous teams like Michigan (5th), UCLA (20th), Tennessee (15th), and South Carolina (18th).
