How each of us views CFB tiers- from bad up to elite

[mstateglfr]

What are your tiers, going by FPI or whatever other common metric...?
I often see someone call a top 30(receiving votes)team 'bad' or 'trash' or even 'average'.
Each of us views this all differently, just curious to see the general breakdown.

There are 138 D1 FBS teams.
We are currently 27th in FPI, finished 58th in '25, and finished 66th in '24.

1-10 = elite
11-20 = excellent
21-35 = very good
36-50 = solid
51-70 = ok
71-90 = not good
91-138 = bad

 

[HRMSU]

What are your tiers, going by FPI or whatever other common metric...?
I often see someone call a top 30(receiving votes)team 'bad' or 'trash' or even 'average'.
Each of us views this all differently, just curious to see the general breakdown.

There are 138 D1 FBS teams.
We are currently 27th in FPI, finished 58th in '25, and finished 66th in '24.

1-10 = elite
11-20 = excellent
21-35 = very good
36-50 = solid
51-70 = ok
71-90 = not good
91-138 = bad

Only small change I'd make is changing "very good" to simply "good"

 

[PBRME]

1-5 elite
6-15 very good.
16-25 good
26-35 above average
36-50 average
51-75 below average(power 4 coach shopping)
76-138 you suck

 

[jethreauxdawg]

1-5 elite
6-10 very good
11-25 good
26-30 respectable
31+ who cares.

 

[mstateglfr]

1-5 elite
6-10 very good
11-25 good
26-30 respectable
31+ who cares.

Ha, yeah this tracks how I sometimes think.
There is truth to this...

 

[Crazy Cotton]

I don't know that there's a tier 1 at all right now in college football. We've seen it before with some of Saban's teams, couple of LSU teams, Oklahoma was there for a while, Georgia and Ohio State can make the case in past years, but they're pretty rare birds. I think of tier 1 as nobody can compete with you except another tier 1. The NIL era may get rid of that entirely, because there's a lot more than 5 schools with rich alumni. See the Indiana juggernaut from last year.

Tiers 2-4 regularly beat each other - a tier 4 team can have a great game at home and take out a tier 3 or even tier 2 team, and 3-2 upsets happen on the regular. A true Tier one doesn't work that way - a tier 2 might get em in a huge upset, but tier 3 down is a guaranteed loss. That's jump up to 1 is a big one.

I don't know that GA, Bama, and Texas are tier 1, I don't think any of them are yet. Texas was getting handled by Ohio State until they collapsed, and TN exposed that crap TX offense. Bama didn't look like a tier 1 in those games against FL State and Ky, but they're pretty young so they seem to be working in that direction as their QB and some other skill players gain experience. I thought GA was confidently in that tier but that Vandy game has me questioning that.

I don't know that there is any team in that top tier currently in college football, in a way that differentiates them from the top 20 or so teams. Hell Northwestern played Indiana down to the wire, Miami got all they wanted from Wake Forest, etc.

 

[DT4248]

Tier 1 is typically 2 to 8 teams in a given year that are "top shelf".

Tier 2 is a bubble of "contenders" - this is where we are this year. Typically about 15 teams. Very good, but can get blown out by a contender or a top shelf at any moment.

Tier 3 - good - fringe top 25 - basically can be 21 through 45 or down to 21 through 25 depending on the year. They are a tough out and can beat contenders. They typically get boat raced by top shelf.

Tier 4 - mediocre - teams that won't beat top shelf and would be a major upset over contenders. Typically covers until the 70s

Tier 5 - trash - embarrassing for even good teams to lose to. Basically 75ish through the rest of FBS.

 

[ZombieKissinger]

1-5 elite
6-16 very good
17-30 good
41-55 solid
56-80 average
80-138 the rest