Michigan State had their second bye week of the season this weekend and because of that, along with a fairly by the numbers weekend in college football, they remain ranked at number 29 in the latest ESPN SP+ College Football Rankings.
MSU’s defense is still cream of the crop and ranked at number 11 despite some tough weeks. Special teams is ranked all the way down at 114 and the offense is 88th.
SP+, as defined by ESPN:
What is SP+? In a single sentence, it’s a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. I created the system at Football Outsiders in 2008, and as my experience with both college football and its stats has grown, I have made quite a few tweaks to the system. SP+ is intended to be predictive and forward-facing. That is important to remember. It is not a résumé ranking that gives credit for big wins or particularly brave scheduling — no good predictive system is. It is simply a measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football. If you’re lucky or unimpressive in a win, your rating will probably fall. If you’re strong and unlucky in a loss, it will probably rise.
