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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/angrysquirrel777 on 2025-07-31 16:36:51+00:00.
I have posted about this before but got some good feedback on how to trim out unnecessary data. I also have some extra fun facts this time!
This post looks at CFP rankings for every week of all years and counts up how often a conference has a team that is the top ranked team with X losses. For example, Week 10 of 2014 would get 1 ‘point’ for the SEC because Mississippi St. is the highest ranked undefeated team above undefeated FSU. The same would also apply to 1 loss Auburn who is ranked above all other 1 loss teams.
I have trimmed out occurrences where:
- There are teams with fewer losses ranked above a team. For example, 2014 FSU does not count for some weeks even though they were undefeated because there are 1 loss teams ranked above them.
- There are no other teams with the same record to be directly compared against. This most commonly happens later in the year with undefeated teams. (2020’s Week 17, the SEC does not get a ‘point’ for Alabama being undefeated because they are compared against an Ohio State team with only 6 wins)
- The teams that are being compared all fall in the same conference. In 2024’s Week 12 rankings only Oregon and Indiana were undefeated so no conference got a ‘point’ for having an undefeated team.
This data is also only for P4/5 teams. Teams are counted for the conference where they played in that year.
Without further ado, here is the all time data summed up:
| Conference | 0 Loss | 1 Loss | 2 Loss | 3 Loss | 4 Loss | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEC | 33 | 28 | 38 | 31 | 16 | 146 |
| B1G | 8 | 13 | 14 | 5 | 40 | |
| PAC 12 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 33 | |
| ACC | 5 | 10 | 7 | 22 | ||
| BIG XII | 4 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 21 | |
| Notre Dame | 2 | 2 |
Here is the chart but just for weeks in 2024:
| Conference | 0 Loss | 1 Loss | 2 Loss | 3 Loss | 4 Loss | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEC | 1 | 6 | 4 | 11 | ||
| B1G | 2 | 4 | 6 | |||
| PAC 12 | 0 | |||||
| ACC | 2 | 2 | ||||
| BIG XII | 0 | |||||
| Notre Dame | 0 |
Now some interesting facts:
- No Group of 5 team has ever gotten a point by being the highest ranked team with X losses by the committee.
- 2024 is the only year (excluding the covid year) where no 4 loss teams were ever ranked by the committee.
- Only two 5 loss teams have ever been ranked by the committee: 2015 USC and 2018 Northwestern. I think everyone always suspected that the committee had a Northwestern bias.
- The BIG XII did not get any points in 4 years: 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2024.
- The ACC did not get any points in 6 years: 2014, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
- The PAC 12 did not get any points in 2 years: 2020 and 2024.
- The B1G did not get any points in 3 years: 2014, 2020, and 2022.
- The SEC has received points in every year.
- The only years where the SEC did not get the most points were in 2016 to the B1G and 2020 to the ACC.
What I find interesting in all of this is the fact that Northwestern was one of the only 5 loss teams to ever be ranked, that the PAC 12 scored as well as it did, and that the SEC has 146 total points compared to 118 for all other conferences.