Indiana is now rated No. 32 in ESPN contributor Bill Connelly's latest SP+ ratings. That's a 16-place jump from week three.
ESPN's Bill Connelly releases new SP+ rankings after every week of college football. He released the week four rankings Sunday, and Indiana saw quite an uptick. The Hoosiers came in at No. 32 nationally, jumping 16 spots from their previous position after the Ohio State loss.
The SP+ rankings are determined as Connelly explains in a note every week:
"What is SP+? In a single sentence, it's a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. I created the system at Football Outsiders in 2008, and as my experience with both college football and its stats has grown, I have made quite a few tweaks to the system.
SP+ is intended to be predictive and forward-facing. That is important to remember. It is not a résumé ranking that gives credit for big wins or particularly brave scheduling -- no good predictive system is. It is simply a measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football. If you're lucky or unimpressive in a win, your rating will probably fall. If you're strong and unlucky in a loss, it will probably rise."
Indiana began the season ranked No. 51, so Connelly's analytical system must see something in Indiana to believe it will find more success than originally thought. The way his system is explained above, the absolute success of Ohio State – the only loss IU has suffered – combined with the efficiency Indiana showed on offense against Connecticut could have resulted in the big jump.
The rankings are not meant to mirror the Associated Press Top-25 Poll, where IU hasn't received any votes. IU had fallen from No. 40 to No. 48 after the Ohio State loss, so its current position is the highest it's owned all season.
Michigan State, IU's next opponent, is rated No. 20.
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