The numbers had faith in Ole Miss, and the Rebels returned the favor. Both SP+ and FPI projected them as favorites against Georgia on Saturday, but it was hard to trust the accuracy of that considering their recent history of struggling to compete with the Georgia- and Alabama-level talents. But Lane Kiffin's squad won with shocking ease, overcoming an early interception and Georgia touchdown and finishing the game on a 28-3 run.
While Ole Miss remains behind Ohio State, Texas and Oregon in this week's SP+ ratings, the Rebels continue to keep pace; they're one of five teams within three points of the top spot in the rankings.
By the way, that top spot actually didn't change hands for the first time in a while. With a comfortable win over Purdue, Ohio State held onto the No. 1 ranking by about a point over Texas. But three other teams loom nearby, and all five of these top teams could feature in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
Below are this week's SP+ rankings. 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 college football and its stats has grown, I have made quite a few tweaks to the system.
SP+ is indeed intended to be predictive and forward-facing. It is not a résumé ranking (hence the lack of unbeatens near the top), so it does not automatically give credit for big wins or particularly brave scheduling -- no good predictive system does. 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.
