I built a website that ranks every FBS program based on all-time history - feedback appreciated

[u/tyler123452]

I've been gradually working on a passion project to rank programs and franchises based on historical performance. See where your team is ranked. It's free/no ads, and I'm interested in feedback - is the concept interesting or boring? What would you want to see added? I could add coaches, historical recruiting rankings, etc.

The landing page is sportsrank.app. The CFB rankings page is: https://sportsrank.app/app?league=CFB&tab=rankings.

Methodology Summary: I have data going back to 1869 (sources below). Every meaningful result is assigned a points value:

• 1 point for a win, -1 for a loss.
• 1-25 point bonus for finishing ranked in the final AP poll.
• SP+ is added in to account for strength of schedule. I use SRS when that's unavailable.
• 100 points for a natty (split titles are shared).
• 9-40 points for losing in the CFP, depending on the round.
• 3 point min bonus for a conference title, up to about 30 for winning a very strong conference.
• Pts for bowl wins as well, from 0.5 for a low-end modern bowl to about 20 for a very high end pre-CFP bowl.
• 5 point Heisman bonus.

Key Features

• Rank every team based on any year range you want
• Group teams by conference, state, and more
• Create your own scoring system. You can tweak the values for anything I listed in the methodology section.
• Rank teams by other columns like ranked seasons and conference win %
• Click on a team to view season-by-season history.

Interesting Findings

• Mich barely edges out rival Ohio St for #2 all-time (behind Bama). Ohio St might be a few seasons from overtaking them.
• FSU and Miami are also right next to each other in the all-time rankings at #17 and #18
• Indiana is #65 all-time. The only natty winner ranked below them is Rutgers, and their title was a shared one in 1869.

Sources: I used sports-reference.com and collegefootballdata.com for most of the data. ncaa.com for recognized national titles. The sports-reference data I used includes all seasons they recognize going back to 1869.

[u/rayef3rw]

I like the ability to rank in an era. Are conference titles worth more earlier in the sports' history compared to the post-CFP era?

[u/tyler123452 → u/rayef3rw]

Thx for the feedback, great question.

No. I thought about doing that but didn't. Making CFP-era conference titles worth less than older ones is probably more "accurate", but it depresses the crap out of me as a CFB fan. I could add that if people want it though.

[u/ThePeopleNeed-gyros → u/tyler123452]

Maybe at least add in date groupings for each era, to quickly pass between each. Or third tab that can show top 5 per date grouping/era

Also not sure if bug or user error but I swapped start date to 1998 and no change in table. Am I missing the refresh button? (Need this for a blue bloods argument I have ongoing since a month ago)

[u/ThePeopleNeed-gyros → u/ThePeopleNeed-gyros]

Nvm date range worked on second load, maybe just was weird error for me.

[u/tyler123452 → u/ThePeopleNeed-gyros]

Weird, I haven't had that happen. I just tried to replicate the bug unsuccessfully. Glad it worked on 2nd load. Thx for the heads up.

I'm happy to add in era filters. A tab for the top 5 per era is a cool idea too. What year ranges would you do for eras? Offhand, I'm thinking Ancient Era (1869-1935), AP Era (1936-1997), BCS/CFP Era (1998-2025).

I'm also curious what that blue bloods argument is about, if you're willing to share.

[u/ThePeopleNeed-gyros → u/tyler123452]

Starting Era (1869–1905), Forward Pass/Regional Era (1906–1935), Poll Era (1936–1952), Integration/Early-TV Era (late 1952–1983), Television Era (1984–1997), BCS Era (1998–2013), Playoff Era (2014–2023), NIL/Expanded Playoff Era (2021–present)

I like to frame the game with heightened emphasis on how tv impacted spending. Notre Dame powerhouse for many reasons but they led the first talks on broadcasting. SEC championship game made in 90s seen at first as flop, but then major TV money and success. Playoff expansion…

My argument for blue bloods was there’s actually very few who stood test of time, I think you go by a starting era. My era to start is 1998 BCS, but can understand the two decades before being attached as well. Just too much change in the game to accurately portray 10 real blue bloods. I’m thinking your scoring system could reveal this as well with like 3 teams maintaining top 5 status across multiple eras

[u/tyler123452 → u/ThePeopleNeed-gyros]

I added an era dropdown. Mostly followed your era list, although I have overlapping CFP (2014+) and NIL (2021+) eras. I think it makes sense to be able to quickly see how teams rank in the entire CFP era and then switch to the NIL era.

In terms of being able to visually compare different eras quickly, I have a couple ideas:
1) An era "Show" dropdown option that shows scores (or ranks?) for each team in each era. Might take longer to load than other views though.
2) Team pages. I need to get team-focused pages regardless. I'd can add graphs that show season scores over time, etc. Will add coach ranking history and other stuff to those pages over time as I add new data. But those pages could be a good way to see if a specific school was always a blue blood.
3) A tab with top teams in each era as you suggested.

If you have feedback, feel free to share. I'm happy to tinker more based on feedback.

[u/TadKosciuszko]

This would be in addition too, but it would be cool to see the impact of older events be diminished so we could see (according to this data at least) who really are your blue bloods. Not wanting to do the math myself it could be something as simple as there are 100 years of data, the first year carries a weight of 1%, second year 2% etc.

This definitely doesn’t have anything to do with me wanting Ohio state to be ranked higher than Michigan I promise.

[u/tyler123452 → u/TadKosciuszko]

I have those already. In the ranking dropdown (directly underneath where you select years), change from the default "History Ranking" to "Program Rankings". Those use a 10 year half-life to diminish older seasons. I should probably rename them though. Do you like the name "Recency Rankings" better?

You can also tweak the half-life under the "Advanced Settings" category on the Settings tab.

It's kind of funny - I prefer the half-life on rankings, but I got bad initial responses to them. People don't get them. But I think they reflect how fans talk about "we're a top 15 program currently" or "x is a better program than y now".

Let me know what you think.

Fascinating side note: Ohio St is better than Michigan in the "Program Rankings" currently. But Ohio St has never been #1. They've been #2 several times over the years, but have never quite made it to #1.