Resume rankings

Not who's best, but who's done the most: every FBS team ranked by how hard its record would be for a playoff-calibre team to match on the same schedule. The committee says it weighs resumes; here is one, ranked beside its own list. It's the record so far, not a forecast: each team's chance of making the playoff, which also weighs how good it is and what's left on its schedule, is on the playoff odds page, which uses this ranking to pick the field.

2026 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015

Full regular season. AP poll: final. Committee ranking: final.

Biggest disagreements with the committee

Teams either list has in its top 25 whose CFP rank is furthest from their resume rank.

Ranked above their resume

Texas
6-3 · resume score 14.3 · schedule 2.2
Resume #40
CFP #20
North Carolina
8-3 · resume score 16.9 · schedule 2.3
Resume #32
CFP #13
Oregon
4-2 · resume score 14.6 · schedule 1.5
Resume #38
CFP #25

Resume says higher

San José State
7-0 · resume score 80.7 · schedule 1.4
Resume #9
CFP #22
Louisiana
9-1 · resume score 81.1 · schedule 2.6
Resume #8
CFP #19
Coastal Carolina
11-0 · resume score 95.5 · schedule 2.4
Resume #2
CFP #12

Every FBS team, 2020

127

Resume is how often a top-12 team, playing the same schedule, would fall short of the record, out of 100: higher is harder to match. Schedule is how many of these games a top-12 team would expect to lose. The rule under row 12 marks the size of the playoff field.

#	Team	Record	Resume	Schedule	Elo	AP	CFP
1	Alabama	11-0	98.8	3.5	1	1	1
2	Coastal Carolina	11-0	95.5	2.4	11	14	12
3	Notre Dame	10-1	91.4	3.2	6	5	4
4	Cincinnati	9-0	90.7	1.9	4	8	8
5	Clemson	10-1	85.7	2.9	3	3	2
6	Texas A&M	8-1	84.9	2.7	5	4	5
7	Ohio State	6-0	84.1	1.5	2	2	3
8	Louisiana	9-1	81.1	2.6	12	15	19
9	San José State	7-0	80.7	1.4	21	24	22
10	BYU	10-1	74.6	2.3	10	11	16
11	Indiana	6-1	71.3	2.1	16	12	11
12	Miami	8-2	61.5	2.9	42	22	18
13	Georgia	7-2	56.4	2.8	8	7	9
14	USC	5-1	49.0	1.5	23	21	17
15	Tulsa	6-2	48.6	2.5	35	-	24
16	Oklahoma	8-2	45.9	2.4	9	6	6
17	Florida	8-3	43.9	3.3	13	13	7
18	Iowa State	8-3	43.5	3.3	20	9	10
19	Ball State	6-1	40.9	1.4	32	23	-
20	Northwestern	6-2	40.8	2.3	44	10	14
21	Liberty	9-1	38.3	1.3	27	17	-
22	Army	9-2	31.5	2.0	41	-	-
23	Boise State	5-2	30.7	2.0	24	-	-
24	Stanford	4-2	28.1	1.9	65	-	-
25	Iowa	6-2	26.1	1.8	7	16	15
26	Oklahoma State	7-3	25.6	2.7	36	20	21
27	Colorado	4-1	24.4	1.0	73	-	-
28	NC State	8-3	23.2	2.6	50	-	23
29	Marshall	7-2	18.2	1.6	51	-	-
30	Buffalo	5-1	17.7	0.8	29	25	-
31	Auburn	6-4	17.2	3.3	26	-	-
32	North Carolina	8-3	16.9	2.3	15	18	13
33	SMU	7-3	16.4	2.3	48	-	-
34	UCF	6-3	15.6	2.3	18	-	-
35	Memphis	7-3	15.3	2.3	33	-	-
36	App State	8-3	15.1	2.3	17	-	-
37	Nevada	6-2	14.7	1.5	49	-	-
38	Oregon	4-2	14.6	1.5	14	-	25
39	Miami (OH)	2-1	14.5	0.8	61	-	-
40	Texas	6-3	14.3	2.2	19	19	20
41	UAB	6-3	11.1	2.0	38	-	-
42	Utah	3-2	8.7	1.2	28	-	-
43	Washington	3-1	8.0	0.5	25	-	-
44	Wisconsin	3-3	7.8	2.0	31	-	-
45	Kent State	3-1	7.3	0.6	58	-	-
46	TCU	6-4	5.8	2.5	39	-	-
47	Western Michigan	4-2	3.9	1.0	79	-	-
48	Toledo	4-2	3.8	0.9	76	-	-
49	Missouri	5-5	3.7	3.2	77	-	-
50	Houston	3-4	3.4	2.4	70	-	-
51	Georgia State	5-4	3.3	2.2	72	-	-
52	UTSA	7-4	3.3	2.2	82	-	-
53	Boston College	6-5	3.1	3.0	66	-	-
54	Maryland	2-3	2.8	1.7	101	-	-
55	Wake Forest	4-4	2.6	2.3	62	-	-
56	LSU	5-5	2.6	3.1	22	-	-
57	Florida Atlantic	5-3	2.4	1.3	53	-	-
58	Arizona State	2-2	2.3	0.9	43	-	-
59	Pittsburgh	6-5	2.2	2.8	40	-	-
60	Louisiana Tech	5-4	2.1	2.1	68	-	-
61	Air Force	3-3	2.0	1.5	37	-	-
62	West Virginia	5-4	2.0	2.1	54	-	-
63	Tulane	6-5	1.9	2.6	34	-	-
64	Georgia Southern	7-5	1.6	2.7	57	-	-
65	Washington State	1-3	1.5	1.5	78	-	-
66	Virginia	5-5	1.5	2.7	59	-	-
67	Virginia Tech	5-6	1.4	3.3	55	-	-
68	Hawai'i	4-4	1.4	1.9	69	-	-
69	San Diego State	4-4	1.4	2.0	52	-	-
70	Ole Miss	4-5	1.1	2.6	75	-	-
71	Central Michigan	3-3	1.0	1.1	89	-	-
72	Penn State	4-5	1.0	2.6	30	-	-
73	Ohio	2-1	0.9	0.2	47	-	-
74	UCLA	3-4	0.9	1.9	71	-	-
75	Nebraska	3-5	0.7	2.7	81	-	-
76	Michigan State	2-5	0.7	2.7	84	-	-
77	Minnesota	3-4	0.7	1.7	45	-	-
78	Arkansas	3-7	0.5	3.9	98	-	-
79	Colorado State	1-3	0.5	1.2	99	-	-
80	Michigan	2-4	0.5	1.7	60	-	-
81	Kentucky	4-6	0.5	3.2	46	-	-
82	Rice	2-3	0.4	1.0	87	-	-
83	Fresno State	3-3	0.4	0.9	88	-	-
84	Kansas State	4-6	0.3	2.9	86	-	-
85	California	1-3	0.3	1.0	74	-	-
86	Western Kentucky	5-6	0.2	2.6	56	-	-
87	Texas Tech	4-6	0.2	2.7	93	-	-
88	Troy	5-6	0.2	2.6	67	-	-
89	Purdue	2-4	0.1	1.4	106	-	-
90	Mississippi State	3-7	0.1	3.6	85	-	-
91	Oregon State	2-5	0.1	1.9	100	-	-
92	Tennessee	3-7	0.1	3.4	83	-	-
93	East Carolina	3-6	0.1	2.5	80	-	-
94	Charlotte	2-4	0.1	1.3	96	-	-
95	Eastern Michigan	2-4	0.1	1.3	92	-	-
96	Wyoming	2-4	0.1	1.1	64	-	-
97	Navy	3-7	0.1	2.9	95	-	-
98	Illinois	2-6	<0.1	2.4	102	-	-
99	Florida State	3-6	<0.1	2.5	94	-	-
100	Rutgers	3-6	<0.1	2.3	109	-	-
101	New Mexico	2-5	<0.1	1.6	116	-	-
102	Louisville	4-7	<0.1	2.7	63	-	-
103	Georgia Tech	3-7	<0.1	2.8	103	-	-
104	Middle Tennessee	3-6	<0.1	2.0	104	-	-
105	South Alabama	4-7	<0.1	2.7	110	-	-
106	Arkansas State	4-7	<0.1	2.9	97	-	-
107	Baylor	2-7	<0.1	2.8	91	-	-
108	North Texas	4-5	<0.1	1.1	107	-	-
109	South Carolina	2-8	<0.1	3.3	105	-	-
110	UTEP	3-5	<0.1	1.4	119	-	-
111	Utah State	1-5	<0.1	1.4	108	-	-
112	Akron	1-5	<0.1	1.4	125	-	-
113	Temple	1-6	<0.1	2.0	111	-	-
114	Southern Miss	3-7	<0.1	1.8	90	-	-
115	Duke	2-9	<0.1	2.8	112	-	-
116	South Florida	1-8	<0.1	3.0	117	-	-
117	Texas State	2-10	<0.1	3.2	114	-	-
118	Syracuse	1-10	<0.1	3.7	115	-	-
119	Florida International	0-5	<0.1	1.1	113	-	-
120	Arizona	0-5	<0.1	1.4	118	-	-
121	Northern Illinois	0-6	<0.1	1.4	120	-	-
122	UNLV	0-6	<0.1	1.6	121	-	-
123	Vanderbilt	0-9	<0.1	2.5	122	-	-
124	Kansas	0-9	<0.1	2.7	123	-	-
125	UL Monroe	0-10	<0.1	2.4	124	-	-
126	Bowling Green	0-5	<0.1	1.1	126	-	-
127	Massachusetts	0-4	<0.1	1.5	127	-	-

How it works

Each team's record is held up against a benchmark: the season's 12th-best FBS team, about the last at-large team into a 12-team playoff, playing the same opponents at the same sites. The resume score is how often that benchmark would fall short of the record, out of 100. An unbeaten season through a hard schedule can score above 99; a three-loss season usually scores under 50. Only wins and losses count, not margins: this is what a team has done, not how good it is.

Team strength comes from YardLine's margin-of-victory Elo rating, the same one behind each team's stock chart, built from every game since 2014. Opponents are rated as they stand now, not on the day of the game, so beating a team that turned out to be good counts for more as the season goes on. The Elo column is that rating's rank: how good, beside the resume's how accomplished.

Elo's raw win chances are adjusted to match a decade of results: rating gaps count 15% more than plain Elo says, and teams below FBS are rated 310 points lower than their Elo, because the archive only sees them against FBS teams, which leaves their ratings too high. Both are fitted on every game since 2015, so a predicted 80% is won about 80% of the time.

Regular-season games only, conference championship games included: the committee ranks before the bowls and the playoff. Games update every Tuesday morning; the AP poll from its Sunday release, and the committee's ranking the morning after its Tuesday-night release.