Overview

• The selection committee will unveil its first Top 25 on Nov. 4, release weekly rankings through Dec. 2, and announce the final field on Dec. 7 on ESPN.
• The adjusted strength-of-schedule model gives greater weight to games against strong opponents, and the new record strength metric credits wins over quality teams while minimizing penalties for losses to them.
• The updates also reduce credit for beating weak opponents and increase the penalty for losing to lower-quality teams, formalizing an approach the committee says it has long applied.
• The recusal policy now distinguishes between full and partial recusals, allowing partially recused members to join discussions about a team but barring them from voting.
• After a six-month review by data and membership panels, the committee reaffirmed that any movement of idle teams in the final week must be evidence-based, as commentators continue to call for transparency on metric design and weighting.