Takeaways from College Football's SP+ Rankings in Week 3

What happens when the top-ranked team in SP+ narrowly beats a team that just got beat by a near-top-40 opponent? That team falls significantly behind. Georgia's narrow 13-12 win over Kentucky — a game that wasn't close because of poor results or bad luck — means that as we enter Week 4 of the 2024 college football season… we really don't have a No. 1 team.

Ohio State earned the honor after a bye week win, but Georgia's fall leaves the top five teams within 1.8 points of each other (and Tennessee, which moves up to No. 6, isn't far off). The Bulldogs are still the only team in the top 10 in offense, defense and special teams, but their offensive rating has dropped by four points, and strong performances from Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss have created quite a crowd at the top.

Below you will find this week's SP+ rankings. What is SP+? In a single sentence: It is a measure of efficiency in college football that is adjusted for pace and opponent.. I developed the system in 2008 at Football Outsiders and have made some tweaks to the system as I've gained more experience with college football and its statistics.

SP+ should actually be forward-looking and future-oriented. It's not a ranking that celebrates big wins or particularly bold game plans – no good prediction system does that. It's simply a measure of the most enduring and predictable aspects of football. If you're lucky or unlucky in a win, your rating is likely to go down. If you're strong and unlucky in a loss, it's likely to go up.