The bolstering of the Big Ten and Southeastern Conferences has caused several of ESPN’s favorite metrics to lean in favor of the two biggest entities in college football.
As of Week 8, 22 of the 25 most difficult remaining schedules in college football come from one of those two conferences. However, when it comes to what teams in college football have done to this point, there’s another conference that stands among the top two.
According to ESPN’s Strength of Record metric, which can be found in the “Resume” tab of the College Football Power Index, two of the top five teams in the country heading into Week 8 are in the Big 12.
Oregon and Penn State rank first and second in SOR, as the Ducks’ win over Ohio State and Penn State’s wins over USC and Illinois give them two of the best resumes among College Football Playoff contenders thus far. However, just behind them at No. 3, is BYU, who enters Week 8 as the No. 13 team in the AP Poll and is sitting at 6-0 (3-0) at their halfway point.
The Cougars’ 38-9 victory over Kansas State earlier in the season continues to look better and better as the Wildcats continue to win, and their sixth-best rank in game control also makes a statement for them being one of the top teams in the country.
Meanwhile, Iowa State is two spots behind the Cougars with the No. 5 Strength of Record metric after starting off 6-0 (3-0). The Cyclones have beaten Iowa and West Virginia on the road and are the No. 9 team in this week’s AP Poll.
The SEC’s first team — Texas — doesn’t show up until No. 6 in Strength of Record, but it does have five of the next six teams in SOR with Georgia (7), Alabama (9), Texas A&M (10), and LSU (11) all listed shortly thereafter.
