We have an interesting interlude for Alabama football fans, compliments off long-time sports journalist Stewart Mandel. In 2007, at the urging of a reader, Stewart engaged in an imaginative exercise to rank the prestige of the Power Five football programs.
Mandel published his first list in 2007. Realizing that national prestige does not change every season, he waited until 2012 to publish an update.
In explaining how he divided 66 teams into a “four-tier hierarchy,” Mandel wrote twice in si.com and this week in foxsports.com.
“For reasons I can’t recall, I opted to invoke a Medieval feudal system in dividing the 66 BCS programs at the time into Kings, Knights, Barons and Peasants.