Rankrly Research

College football rabbit holes, measured.

Original research, data, history, rankings, and unnecessarily thorough investigations into the sport we spend all week arguing about.

Built to be cited

Methods, caveats, tables, and sources.

The goal is not content volume. It is publishing work useful enough to reference, debate, correct, and share.

Featured investigation

First from the lab

A 138-stadium LiDAR analysis measuring how far each playing surface sits below the immediate ground around its stadium.

Structured comparisons, historical datasets, and calculations that go beyond repeating the same national talking points.

Questions about poll behavior, disagreement, inertia, and what thousands of fan ballots can reveal about consensus.

The weird architectural, historical, and statistical questions that are too interesting to leave unanswered.

In the lab

These are placeholders for the editorial direction, not published findings yet.

How accurate are preseason college football rankings?

Which programs are most consistently overrated or underrated?

How much does poll inertia matter after the games begin?