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How the ELO System Works

What is ELO?

ELO is a rating system originally developed for chess that measures the relative skill level of teams. In college football, it provides a more accurate ranking than traditional polls by empirically considering strength of schedule.

How Teams Gain/Lose ELO

• Winning: Beat a higher-rated team = big ELO gain
• Winning: Beat a lower-rated team = small ELO gain
• Losing: Lose to a lower-rated team = big ELO loss
• Losing: Lose to a higher-rated team = small ELO loss

Starting Values

Teams start each season with ELO ratings based on their previous year's final ELO ratings, regressed 5% towards the mean of 1500. New teams or teams without history start at 1500.

Weekly View

This table shows how team rankings evolved week by week throughout the season. You can see how big wins and losses affected each team's position in the rankings.