Prestige Rankings: Nos. 11-15 (College football rankings)
Who is No. 1? That debate rages weekly during each college football season, and often long after the season is over and the trophies have been handed out. The debate is as much a part of the annual ritual as the touchdowns, fight songs and bowl games.
If you think that process can spark a debate, try ranking each Football Bowl Subdivision team’s all-time position in college football history.
But the ESPN Research Department devised a plan to settle the argument. Its system lets the numbers do the talking.
ESPN’s Prestige Rankings are a numerical method of ranking the best FBS college football programs since the 1936 season. Point values were assigned for certain successes (win a national title, earn 25 points) and failures (get your program banned from the postseason, lose two points). The research department ran all the numbers through the computer to come up with the No. 1 program (and Nos. 2 to 119) of the past 73 seasons.
ESPN.com will be rolling out the rankings all week. Third stop: teams 11 to 15. Take a look:
11. Penn State Nittany Lions
