Updated SOR (strength of record) rankings across the popular computer models that I can find with the stat. Initial playoff rankings come out in a week and claim to be using this as an input this year:

FPI: 1
SP+: 3
FEI (Elite): 1
FEI (Good): 1
FEI (Average): 1

As a reminder, strength of record is how computer models that primarily generate ratings would rank teams based on their body of work.

AP Top 10 SOR results:
Ohio State:
FPI: 3
SP+: 2
FEI (Elite): 4
FEI (Good): 6
FEI (Average): 6

Indiana:
FPI: 2
SP+: 1
FEI (Elite): 2
FEI (Good): 3
FEI (Average): 4

Alabama:
FPI: 4
SP+: 11
FEI (Elite): 5
FEI (Good): 2
FEI (Average): 2

Georgia:
FPI: 6
SP+: 8
FEI (Elite): 6
FEI (Good): 4
FEI (Average): 7

Oregon:
FPI: 10
SP+: 4
FEI (Elite): 10
FEI (Good): 12
FEI (Average): 16

Ole Miss:
FPI: 7
SP+: 14
FEI (Elite): 9
FEI (Good): 5
FEI (Average): 3

Georgia Tech:
FPI: 8
SP+: 9
FEI (Elite): 7
FEI (Good): 10
FEI (Average): 8

Vanderbilt:
FPI: 9
SP+: 12
FEI (Elite): 11
FEI (Good): 8
FEI (Average): 11

BYU:
FPI: 5
SP+: 6
FEI (Elite): 3
FEI (Good): 7
FEI (Average): 5

Can someone really explain the strength of record thing to me. We've had 2 tough great wins on the road, but the rest of the teams on our schedule are combined for a losing record and we had them all at home. Are the tough road games offsetting the home wins

wangus12 said:

---

Can someone really explain the strength of record thing to me. We've had 2 tough great wins on the road, but the rest of the teams on our schedule are combined for a losing record and we had them all at home. Are the tough road games offsetting the home wins

---

That would be correct. We got jobbed under Jimbo in 2020 and should have been in the four team playoff. PAYBACK time.

When you think about strength of record, remember that it is a metric that was created by ESPN so it is not much better than the football power index. But this one has us #1 so, go SOR!

Decent review of SOR from Reddit:

Quote:

---

Strength of Record (SOR) seems fairly popular on this sub, but I think there is a mis-understanding of what it actually is. First, it should be known that SOR is a proprietary ESPN ranking, and the calculation is not published. The definition I found on ESPN's site is fairly vague:

Quote:

---

Strength of Record (SOR) measures how strong a team's record is, given its schedule. It's based on the chance of an average Top-25 team having the team's record or better, given the opponents the team has played (and where they played) to date. A higher Strength of Record indicates a more impressive accomplishment it means that the team's W-L record was more difficult to achieve.

---

The most glaring omission from this brief definition, is how do we determine the actual strength of a given team's opponents? Additionally, it's unclear how and why "an average Top-25 teams" is used in this measure, as that seems completely arbitrary. Why not a Top-10 or simply average FBS team used? I always understood SOR to go off of Strength of Schedule, but that is also not clearly defined. ESPN does not publish (that I could find) the formula for SOS, but it is implied on the above page that FPI is used (Football Power Index (FPI) is ESPN's own proprietary computer poll). However; among computer polls, FPI is unique in that it is the only one I found that uses previous season performance as a part of its calculation, even at the end of the season. From ESPN:

Quote:

---

Each team's FPI rating is composed of a predicted offensive, defensive and special teams component. These ratings represent the number of points each unit is expected to contribute to the team's net scoring margin on a neutral field against an average FBS opponent.

---

Quote:

---

In the preseason, these components are made up entirely of data from previous seasons, such as returning starters, past performance, recruiting rankings and coaching tenure (more on the preseason component below). That information allows FPI to make predictions (and make determinations on the strength of a team's opponents) beginning in Week 1, and then it declines in weight as the season progresses. It is important to note that prior seasons' information never completely disappears, because it has been proved to help with prediction accuracy even at the end of a season. Vegas similarly includes priors when setting its lines.

---

As far as I can tell, none of the big 6 BCS computer polls(Sagarin, Anderson, Billingsley, Colley, Massey, and Wolfe) used or used them, which is most likely by design to prevent bias. Random note: during the BCS, the computer polls were also forbidden from using margin of victory, but these polls now use them.
Now, it should be noted that the CFB Playoff Committee does use SOS as a way to determine it's ranking, but that appears to be a different, also completely proprietary measure, which is different from ESPN and NOT public (again, as far as I could tell): Per [ESPN's article on the CFB Playoff Committee] ( https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/17650166/college-football-playoff-committee-strength-schedule-metrics):

Quote:

---

[SOS is] one of the most frequently mentioned metrics used to explain the Tuesday night rankings, which begin Nov. 1, but it's also one of the most subjective and debatable. There are fans who crave more, wanting the committee's strength of schedule formula spelled out in detail, but it's impossible because the interpretation of it is left to each individual committee member -- and each typically uses about four to five variations of it.

---

From comments on this sub, I had always assumed that SOS was a known, fully transparent calculation (as with the BCS, see below), but this could not be further from the truth. SOS is just as opaque as SOR, and neither are as "clean" as I had thought.
By contrast, BCS used a completely transparent and easily calculable definition for SOS, which is apparently different than that used by the Playoff committee which is:
2 parts Opponent Win % to 1 Part Opponent of Opponents Win %
AKA: ((2 * Opp win %) + (1 * Opp Opp Win %) / 3
It should be simple to compare this SOS to that of the CFP, but I have not yet done that. Also, there are methods of grouping opponents for an average SOS (mean, median, etc.), but that is beyond the scope of this post.
In conclusion, I frequently see SOR and SOS used to "vindicate" a high ranking from a team that some find suspicious or founded in factors beyond those on the football field, such as a teams conference or status as a blueblood (see ]here) . On the surface, SOR and SOS are high quality, perfectly objective measures which counter these arguments, but given we do not fully know their calculation, these rankings should (imo) be treated with a slightly higher degree of skepticism than we currently give them. Also, I would prefer if, when publishing such stats, people referred to SOS and SOR as ESPN's SOS and ESPN's SOR, as again, these are their rankings. Even my preferred BCS ranking, which is objective and transparent, is not a standard measure and has limitations and imperfections.

---

Are you saying these are our rankings? As you didn't list aTm among the teams..

FPI: 1
SP+: 3
FEI (Elite): 1
FEI (Good): 1
FEI (Average): 1

good chance A&M is #1 in the committee's first rankings

Quote:

---

It's based on the chance of an average Top-25 team having the team's record or better, given the opponents the team has played (and where they played) to date.

---

I guess with this definition the wins at night in ND and LSU are massive offsets to get us to #1. I do think that most average top 25 teams would struggle with a really solid ND team away

Jarrin Jay said:

---

Are you saying these are our rankings? As you didn't list aTm among the teams..

FPI: 1
SP+: 3
FEI (Elite): 1
FEI (Good): 1
FEI (Average): 1

---

Yes, these are our rankings.

Vitani said:

---

When you think about strength of record, remember that it is a metric that was created by ESPN so it is not much better than the football power index. But this one has us #1 so, go SOR!

---

Created by ESPN, but now used by others, which is why I list the SP+ and FEI rankings as well (though Bill Connelly now works for ESPN). By the way, Connelly's explanation of SOR:

Resume SP+ compares each team's scoring margin (capped at 50 points for a given game) to what an average top-five team would be expected to generate against a given opponent. If a top-five opponent would be projected to win a game by 10.0 points, and a team wins by 15 instead, that's a +5.0 rating for that game. By the end of the season, only a handful of teams will have a positive rating because clearing a top-five bar is obviously very difficult. (Note: A seven-point penalty for losses is applied to the rating as well, meaning your rating has seven points deducted for each loss.)


Looking at the discussion above for FPI, FEI (Elite) is comparable to SP+ SOR and FEI (Good) is comparable to FPI SOR. FEI (Average) compares to the most average theoretical team (FEI score of 0.0)