When ESPN released the first preseason Football Power Index, somehow Mississippi State was listed at No. 8 and that raised a lot of eyebrows.
Yeah, it was a screwup and they finally got it fixed and released another index Thursday morning with a disclaimer at the top:
Editor’s Note: We recently discovered that our previous preseason release of the Football Power Index in April contained data and modeling errors. We have remedied the issues and are re-releasing FPI here ahead of the 2021 season. ESPN Analytics regrets the error.
Mississippi State was re-arranged at No. 24. Arkansas, meanwhile, is now No. 36 with the index projecting 6.3 wins for the 2021 season.
While all of that is at least a glimmer of hope for Razorback fans, it really didn’t make the schedule that much easier. When you take out non-conference games against Rice, Georgia Southern and Arkansas-Pine Bluff, the Hogs have eight opponents ranked in the Top 25 of the index.
The average opponent FPI of those eight opponents is 12. Alabama (1), Georgia (5), Texas A&M (7) and Texas (8) are the most highly-rated teams on the schedule.
Auburn is 15th, LSU 18th with Ole Miss No. 20 and Mississippi State 24th.
The usual teams are at the top. Behind the Crimson Tide are Clemson, Oklahoma and Ohio State.
Other teams affected by the revised index included Miami (moved up from No. 20 to No. 10), Oklahoma State (down from No. 9 to No. 19), Washington (up from No. 59 to No. 25), Utah (up from No. 57 to No. 30), UCF (up from No. 70 to No. 34), BYU (up from No. 63 to No. 38), Coastal Carolina (down from No. 35 to No. 60), Kansas State (down from No. 44 to No. 67).
