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Phil Steele’s unique strength of wins metric has Ohio State, Wisconsin at the top
By Dave Holcomb
Published:
With the Buckeyes blowing away its competition every week, Ohio State is gaining traction as a top team in the country. On Wednesday, college football writer Phil Steele released a new strength of wins metric, where Ohio State came in at No. 1.
Actually, quite a few B1G teams did well in the metric, including Wisconsin, who are just behind Ohio State at No. 2.
Steele’s strength of wins metric isn’t some complicated computer formula; it’s very simple. For every opponent one beats, that team gets to claim all of their wins against an FBS foe as their own as well.
So when Ohio State beat Michigan State this past weekend, the Buckeyes got to claim four victories of their own because that’s how many the Spartans have.
Add them all up and the opponents Ohio State has beaten have 20 victories, more than any other team in the country.
Strength of wins. For every team you defeat you get credit for each of than teams wins over an FBS foe.
1. Ohio St 20
2. Wisconsin 17
3. Auburn 15
4. LSU, Alabama, Penn St, Boise, Oregon 12
9 Clemson, Florida, Wash, Ariz St, Notre Dame 11
14 Michigan, SMU, Minny, Lville 10— Phil Steele (@philsteele042) October 16, 2019
As readers can see, Penn State popped up as the next B1G team in a tie for fourth with 12 wins. Michigan followed with 10, tying the Wolverines for 14th in the nation.
Something tells me this won’t be a new analytic stat the playoff committee uses to pick the Final Four teams at the end of the season, but it is an interesting tidbit nonetheless.