ESPN releases first SP+ Top 25 for 2022 college football season

ESPN has released their first SP+ Top 25 for the 2022 college football season. The rankings are one of the most interesting in the sport, as ESPN takes into account a tempo and opponent adjusted measure of college football efficiency to create their rankings.

According to ESPN’s Bill Connelly, the measure is a predictive one — taking into account the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football. All in all, the ESPN SP+ Top 25 is “simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather to date.”

Moreover, Connelly bases the ESPN SP+ projections off of three primary factors — returning production, recent recruiting and recent history. Additionally, ESPN weighs each factor by their predictiveness.

First, returning production is based upon rosters Connelly has updated as much as possible to account for transfers and attrition. Then, recent recruiting informs Connelly of the caliber of a team’s potential replacements in the lineup. Finally, recent history uses a sliver of information from previous seasons to give ESPN a good measure of an overall program’s health. As Connelly writes, “It stands to reason that a team that has played well for one year is less likely to duplicate that effort than a team that has been good for years on end.”

As you can see, the ESPN SP+ is a thought-provoking, interesting look at the sport of college football. While the season is a ways away, here’s the first ESPN SP+ Top 25 for the 2022 college football season.

ESPN SP+ Top 25:

1) Ohio State Buckeyes (30.8)
2) Georgia Bulldogs (28.7)
3) Alabama Crimson Tide (27.4)
4) Michigan Wolverines (21.5)
5) Clemson Tigers (21.0)
6) Texas A&M Aggies (20.1)
7) Oklahoma Sooners (19.2)
8) Notre Dame Fighting Irish (19.0)
9) Tennessee Volunteers (18.7)
10) Wisconsin Badgers (17.7)
11) Cincinnati Bearcats (17.2)
12) Mississippi State Bulldogs (16.8)
13) Pittsburgh Panthers (16.2)
14) Utah Utes (16.2)
15) NC State Wolfpack (16.0)
16) Penn State Nittany Lions (15.9)
17) Michigan State Spartans (15.3)
18) Florida Gators (15.0)
19) Minnesota Golden Gophers (14.6)
20) Miami Hurricanes (14.6)
21) Kentucky Wildcats (14.5)
22) Ole Miss Rebels (14.4)
23) BYU Cougars (14.1)
24) Florida State Seminoles (13.4)
25) Auburn Tigers (13.2)