The top Division II team has passed 18 FBS programs in latest ESPN rankings

The latest AP poll to come out this week put some media folks in the crosshairs, including at least one voter who had Florida rise two spots in their ranking despite losing to South Florida last week.

That voter, a California-based writer named Haley Sawyer, defended her rankings earlier this week despite widespread national criticism.

Fair or not, being trusted to give your opinion on the top 25 teams in major college football is going to come with more than its fair share of criticism. 

But what about a rankings system that ranks 766 four-year football-playing schools in college football, ranging from Power Four, Group of Five, FCS, D-II, D-III, and even NAIA programs?

That may seem like an absolutely impossible task, but ESPN's Bill Connelly devised a system years ago to do just that.

Connelly created SP+ back in 2008 while working for Football Outsiders. He explains on his latest rankings piece for ESPN that "in a single sentence, it's a tempo and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency" that is "intended to be predictive and forward-facing." It is not a resume ranking, so things like big wins and scheduling challenging teams are often not taken into account.

Instead, Connelly prides his system on being able to measure the "most sustainable and predictable aspects of football."

The early season version of the SP+ rankings are based a lot on preseason projections, but take into account a full statistical profile of each team as well.

With two weeks of college football (officially) in the books, Connelly's rankings have a few surprises.

First off, Oregon and Ohio State top the list, which shouldn't be all that surprising. But number three on the list? A 1-1 Alabama squad that lost fo Florida State to open the year.

The first Group of Five team to appear on the rankings is Memphis at #39, followed by a first FCS program in defending national champions North Dakota State at #40.

The first Division II program to appear in the rankings is also not a surprise. In a ranking that values the most predictable aspects of football, Ferris State finds themself the top D-II program, and rightly so, as Tony Annese's program has won three of the last four titles, with the only year they came up short he was serving a highly subjective and controversial suspension from the NCAA.

With an explosive offense as creative as any from any level of college football leading the way, with one of the best defenses in the country year-in and year-out, and creative special teams that do things like utilize two punters, a right-footed one, and a lefty as well, Ferris State is ranked 128th in Connelly's SP+ rankings. 

That puts them ahead of 18 FBS programs? Major college football programs ranked lower than Ferris? Central Michigan, Southern Miss, Nevada, New Mexico, Marshall, Delaware, Sam Houston, ULM, Eastern Michigan, Kennesaw State, Akron, Georgia State, Charlotte, Missouri State, MTSU, Kent State, UMass, and Ball State. 

Fellow Division II programs Harding (D-II - AR), West Florida, and fellow Ferris State GLIAC foe Grand Valley State (D-II - MI), as well at Kutztown round out the Division II schools ranked ahead of the bottom two FBS programs.

Perhaps even more impressive than being ranked above all those FBS programs is that Ferris State is doing it after losing a number of players to the portal including their top two leading rushers, leading passer, both starting offensive tackles, and a few other key players.

Former Bulldogs quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, a product of Forest Hills Northern HS (Grand Rapids, MI), who led the team to a national title last year with a dominant season as a dual threat signal caller where he rushed for over 1,000 yards and threw for just shy of 3,000 yards, entered the game following a second-half injury to starting quarterback Austin Simmons and led a key drive that ended with a field goal for Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin this past weekend to help power them past a pesky Kentucky squad 30-23.

In addition to Chambliss, their leading rusher (Kannon Katzer) committed to West Virginia, one tackle committed to Iowa while the other went to Michigan and a top linebacker left for Western Michigan.

Ferris opened their season against a top 10 Pitt State (D-II - KS) squad, who handed them their only loss of the 2024 season, and rolled to a 34-17 win at home before hitting the road and beating Lake Erie (D-II - OH) 63-6 last 

With Connelly's formula ranks 766 programs in total, it's only natural to wonder who is dead last.

That designation belongs to Oberlin (D-III - OH) this week, who lost to a Calvin (D-III - MI) program still in its football infancy as they embark on year two as a program with a 88-6 route from the Knights last weekend.