College Football Rankings are Biased for SEC Schools

Question

The SEC is the most historically accomplished conference in college football, and it seems that because of this they are given very generous rankings. The the current BIG 12 leader, ASU, is ranked below 3 loss SEC schools like Alabama and Ole miss. Texas is also ranked #3 and will likely jump to the #2 spot this week without having any current ranked wins.

Answer 1

The original source appears to be from a sporting blog site that aids in online sports gambling and various other sporting news topics. And while the blog posts and articles may be well researched, the authors are fairly unknown and may have various interests or biases. Their information and posts should be taken with a grain of salt. This following post is an opinion backed by a small sample of evidence from this past FBS season. The information here is correct, but much of the ranking system in college football comes down to the opinions of a handful of former coaches and athletic commissioners. Aforementioned "SEC Bias" is a well known phenomena that gives teams in the South Eastern Conference more leeway because the teams they play on a weekly basis are collectively better than the teams in other conferences. Even after an SEC team stacks up multiple loses, as long as they come against other SEC teams it won't negatively affect their ranking as much as teams in other conferences. The company, ESPN, who broadcasts SEC games is the main benefactor as they higher ranked teams are the more people will watch. By keeping SEC schools ranked (and ranked highly) ESPN keeps up interest in said teams among the national media and fans. So while this source is rooted in some truth, it is at the end of the day an opinion and must be treated as such.

https://www.si.com/fannation/college/cfb-hq/news/sec-football-espn-kirk-herbstreit-comments

Answer 2

Yes, college football rankings are definitely biased towards the SEC because "it matters more in the SEC," (The SEC's catch phrase). Historically Alabama, Georgia, and LSU have proven themselves to be some of the best schools of all time. And every year they find themselves high in the rankings to start the year. These past few years Alabama and Georgia have always been in the top 10 to start the year. This is only because they've proven themselves in the past with a few championships. Because of their success recently, we are going to find them high in the rankings every year no matter how good they are. This year Alabama didn't make the playoff, and Georgia lost their first game in the playoff showing that those high pre-season rankings were definitely off. 

https://www.si.com/fannation/college/cfb-hq/news/sec-football-espn-kirk-herbstreit-comments