DSA Labs Research · First of its kind
Every college football team. One scale.
Every division normally gets ranked on its own, with its own #1 set to 100. That means a 100 in DIII and a 100 in FBS are not the same team. We used the games played between divisions to measure how far apart they really are, then put all 686 teams in FBS, FCS, DII and DIII on a single index.
2026 season · live · updated October 2, 2026
- Teams on one scale
- 686
- Games analyzed
- 1,342
- Cross-division bridges
- 180
- Unconnected, flagged
- 22
Where each division's #1 lands overall
- FBS4-0
Indiana Hoosiers
Overall rank
#1
Index
100.0
- FCS5-0
Montana State Bobcats
Overall rank
#138
Index
7.36
- DII4-0
Ferris State Bulldogs
Overall rank
#218
Index
2.09
- DIII3-0
The shape of the sport
How the divisions stack up
Each dot is one team, placed by its overall rank. FBS fills the top of the table on its own. The first team from outside FBS is Montana State Bobcats (FCS) at #138. Below that, the other three divisions mix together, and the best DIII teams usually finish above the best DII teams.
The rankings
All divisions, one table
Index is on one scale where the top FBS team is 100. Because the model is Bradley-Terry, the numbers work as ratios: a team with an Index of 50 is half as strong as one at 100. The bar uses a log scale so you can still see the differences between teams outside FBS.
| Rank | Team | Div | Div rank | Record | Div index | Index (log scale) | vs #1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indiana Hoosiers | FBS | 1 | 4-0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | — |
| 2 | Miami Hurricanes | FBS | 2 | 4-0 | 98.3 | 98.3 | 49.6% |
| 3 | BYU Cougars | FBS | 3 | 3-0 | 87.7 | 87.7 | 46.7% |
| 4 | Georgia Bulldogs | FBS | 4 | 4-0 | 85.5 | 85.5 | 46.1% |
| 5 | James Madison Dukes | FBS | 5 | 4-0 | 85.2 | 85.2 | 46.0% |
| 6 | Texas Longhorns | FBS | 6 | 4-0 | 85.0 | 85.0 | 45.9% |
| 7 | Texas Tech Red Raiders | FBS | 7 | 4-0 | 83.8 | 83.8 | 45.6% |
| 8 | Oregon Ducks | FBS | 8 | 3-1 | 82.4 | 82.4 | 45.2% |
| 9 | Alabama Crimson Tide | FBS | 9 | 4-0 | 82.1 | 82.1 | 45.1% |
| 10 | Utah Utes | FBS | 10 | 4-0 | 79.0 | 79.0 | 44.1% |
| 11 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | FBS | 11 | 4-0 | 77.5 | 77.5 | 43.7% |
| 12 | Duke Blue Devils | FBS | 12 | 4-0 | 74.6 | 74.6 | 42.7% |
| 13 | Iowa Hawkeyes | FBS | 13 | 4-0 | 73.4 | 73.4 | 42.3% |
| 14 | South Florida Bulls | FBS | 14 | 4-0 | 73.0 | 73.0 | 42.2% |
| 15 | Ohio State Buckeyes | FBS | 15 | 3-1 | 70.9 | 70.9 | 41.5% |
| 16 | Ole Miss Rebels | FBS | 16 | 3-1 | 70.6 | 70.6 | 41.4% |
| 17 | Mississippi State Bulldogs | FBS | 17 | 4-0 | 65.6 | 65.6 | 39.6% |
| 18 | Florida Gators | FBS | 18 | 4-0 | 65.5 | 65.5 | 39.6% |
| 19 | North Texas Mean Green | FBS | 19 | 3-2 | 62.9 | 62.9 | 38.6% |
| 20 | North Dakota State Bison | FBS | 20 | 4-0 | 62.2 | 62.2 | 38.3% |
| 21 | Boise State Broncos | FBS | 21 | 3-1 | 62.0 | 62.0 | 38.3% |
| 22 | USC Trojans | FBS | 22 | 4-1 | 61.3 | 61.3 | 38.0% |
| 23 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | FBS | 23 | 4-0 | 60.9 | 60.9 | 37.9% |
| 24 | Pittsburgh Panthers | FBS | 24 | 4-0 | 60.7 | 60.7 | 37.8% |
| 25 | Houston Cougars | FBS | 25 | 3-1 | 60.1 | 60.1 | 37.6% |
| 26 | UCLA Bruins | FBS | 26 | 4-0 | 60.1 | 60.1 | 37.5% |
| 27 | Virginia Tech Hokies | FBS | 27 | 4-0 | 58.6 | 58.6 | 36.9% |
| 28 | Wake Forest Demon Deacons | FBS | 28 | 3-1 | 58.2 | 58.2 | 36.8% |
| 29 | Vanderbilt Commodores | FBS | 29 | 3-1 | 57.9 | 57.9 | 36.7% |
| 30 | Cincinnati Bearcats | FBS | 30 | 4-0 | 56.7 | 56.7 | 36.2% |
| 31 | Arizona Wildcats | FBS | 31 | 3-1 | 56.6 | 56.6 | 36.2% |
| 32 | Memphis Tigers | FBS | 32 | 3-1 | 56.3 | 56.3 | 36.0% |
| 33 | SMU Mustangs | FBS | 33 | 3-1 | 55.7 | 55.7 | 35.8% |
| 34 | LSU Tigers | FBS | 34 | 3-1 | 55.1 | 55.1 | 35.5% |
| 35 | Michigan Wolverines | FBS | 35 | 3-1 | 54.8 | 54.8 | 35.4% |
| 36 | Virginia Cavaliers | FBS | 36 | 3-1 | 53.4 | 53.4 | 34.8% |
| 37 | UTSA Roadrunners | FBS | 37 | 3-1 | 52.9 | 52.9 | 34.6% |
| 38 | New Mexico Lobos | FBS | 38 | 3-1 | 52.4 | 52.4 | 34.4% |
| 39 | Oklahoma Sooners | FBS | 39 | 2-2 | 52.0 | 52.0 | 34.2% |
| 40 | Missouri Tigers | FBS | 40 | 3-1 | 51.6 | 51.6 | 34.0% |
| 41 | Fresno State Bulldogs | FBS | 41 | 3-1 | 51.5 | 51.5 | 34.0% |
| 42 | Clemson Tigers | FBS | 42 | 3-1 | 51.3 | 51.3 | 33.9% |
| 43 | Tulane Green Wave | FBS | 43 | 2-2 | 50.7 | 50.7 | 33.7% |
| 44 | Arizona State Sun Devils | FBS | 44 | 2-1 | 50.0 | 50.0 | 33.3% |
| 45 | Minnesota Golden Gophers | FBS | 45 | 3-1 | 49.9 | 49.9 | 33.3% |
| 46 | Wisconsin Badgers | FBS | 46 | 3-1 | 49.2 | 49.2 | 33.0% |
| 47 | Tennessee Volunteers | FBS | 47 | 3-1 | 48.4 | 48.4 | 32.6% |
| 48 | Massachusetts Minutemen | FBS | 48 | 4-0 | 48.3 | 48.3 | 32.6% |
| 49 | Texas A&M Aggies | FBS | 49 | 2-2 | 47.5 | 47.5 | 32.2% |
| 50 | Kentucky Wildcats | FBS | 50 | 3-1 | 47.4 | 47.4 | 32.2% |
Showing 50 of 708
Matchup lab
Pick any two teams, from any division
Every team is on the same scale, so we can estimate a result between teams that would never meet: a DIII champion against a mid-table FBS team, or the top FCS team against a Power 4 school. Home field multiplies the home team's strength by 1.45.
vs
20.9%
Montana State Bobcats
79.1%
Maryland Terrapins
- Montana State Bobcats
- #138 · 7.36 · 5-0
- Maryland Terrapins
- #104 · 27.9 · 2-2
- Strength ratio
- 1 / 3.79
- Confidence
- Moderate: cross-division
The research
How we put 700 teams on one scale
01 — The naive approach
Putting every game into one model doesn't work
The simple idea is to load every game into one model and let the results sort it out. We tested that on the full 2025 season: 3,824 games, 699 teams, and 99% of teams linked by a chain of results. The ranking still made no sense. Only 227 games (6%) were played between divisions. That wasn't enough to separate four talent pools, so a 14-1 DIII team ended up looking a lot like a 13-2 FBS team.
- 1FBSIndiana Hoosiers15-0
- 2DIIIWisconsin-River Falls Falcons14-1
- 3DIIFerris State Bulldogs16-0