The AP and Coaches Polls are somewhat a tease until the real one that matters — the College Football Playoff rankings.
A ranking that is more of a predictive and forward-looking approach for the future is the S&P Rankings by SB Nation’s Bill Connelly.
This method is expanded with a detailed explanation as, “Good predictive ratings are not résumé ratings, and they don’t give you bonus points for wins and losses. They simply compare expected output to actual output and adjust accordingly. That’s how a given team can win but plummet or lose and move up.