College football rankings help drive the discussion between games. Every Sunday, we get updated top 25 polls from coaches and Associated Press voters, with plenty of pundits share their own rankings. Out in Las Vegas, oddsmakers have power rankings for every FBS team.
Vegas numbers are a bit different. The smartest folks in the desert only care about making money, as the casinos on The Strip weren’t built out of charity. Vegas rates teams based on who would be favored on a neutral field. These rankings can differ from traditional polls that value preseason rankings, records, resumes and results.
Phil Steele, widely recognized as one of college football’s leading experts, has connections to oddsmakers at the Las Vegas SuperBook and other casinos. Steele has published weekly in-season Vegas Power Ratings since his time at ESPN. He’s now independent but continues to publish the Vegas numbers in weekly updates on his website during the season.
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Each team is given a numerical value called a Vegas Rating. The difference between two teams’ Vegas Ratings offers a look into what the opening betting line would be if those two teams met on a neutral field. Lines can then move based on action.
Steele reminds fans that Vegas Rankings do not always reflect prior outcomes. That’s on display in Week 3, as Kentucky remains ahead of South Carolina despite the Gamecocks delivering a beatdown in Lexington.
Here’s where all 16 SEC teams stand in the Vegas Power Rankings for Week 3:
- No. 1 Georgia (136.88 Vegas Rating)
- No. 3 Texas (132.88)
- No. 4 Alabama (130.26)
- No. 6 Ole Miss (126.26)
- No. 8 Tennessee (125.26)
- No. 12 Mizzou (121.81)
- No. 13 LSU (120.68)
- No. 14 Texas A&M (120.38)
- No. 19 Oklahoma (119.49)
- No. 25 Arkansas (115.45)
- No. 28 Auburn (115.18)
- No. 32 Florida (113.93)
- No. 36 Kentucky (113.34)
- No. 41 South Carolina (112.42)
- No. 61 Mississippi State (107.72)
- No. 82 Vanderbilt (100.98)
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
