AP Top 25 Podcast: Crunching early season numbers

Posted September 18, 2019 7:00 am

By RALPH D. RUSSO

Early in the season it can be difficult to know what to make of teams and results. Who is ranked too high? Who is underrated?

On the latest AP Top 25 College Football Podcast, Bill Connelly of ESPN joins AP's Ralph Russo to sort through the small-sample size haze with some advanced analytics. Connolly's SP+ rankings measure the underlying strength of teams, not just wins and losses. So far, the numbers look a lot like the AP Top 25 presented by Regions Bank.

Connelly explains why we should pay more attention to blowouts, why last year's results are relevant - at least for a while - and why his ratings actually love Kansas State even though it has the undefeated Wildcats ranked 49th.

Also, why it's time to get on the UCF bandwagon.

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Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at https://podcastone.com/AP-Top-25-College-Football-Podcast

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More AP college football: https://apnews.com/APTop25CollegeFootballPoll and https://apnews.com/Collegefootball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25