Unlike the weekly human polls (the Associated Press Top 25 and the Coaches Poll), which mostly serve as a retrospective measurement of a team’s performance on a week-by-week basis throughout the season, the ESPN FPI describes its measurement model as an assessment of “team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season.”
I have no argument with the ESPN Power Index having Clemson and Alabama as heavy favorites to be at the top of the pile once the dust settles in the wake of the regular-season wars and sets the stage for the four teams selected to fight it out in the four-team playoff for college football’s national championship.