ESPN's Football Power Index is fascinating to me, because it provides a gauge of every college football matchup throughout the season and factors in the science of probability.
Here’s what I mean: The FPI formula favors Utah in 10 of 12 regular-season games, so the natural response is to think the Utes are expected to go 10-2 (losing at USC and Washington). But that’s not how probability works. The projection is for the Utes to win 8.6 games. I’ll list the FPI’s game-by-game look at the Ute schedule later in this newsletter.
First, a review of some recent stories.