Oklahoma State ranked No. 9 in preseason FEI poll

A lot of you will recall the story I wrote last season about Oklahoma State’s extremely high defensive Fremeau Efficiency Index (FEI) rating, a football version of sabermetrics developed by Brian Fremeau of footballoutsiders.com that adds context when evaluating performance such as pace of play, “garbage time” and strength of schedule.

This week, Fremeau released his preseason overall FEI ratings, or 2012 “projected ratings”, and OSU comes in at No. 9. You can also easily view various ratings over the past 10 years at that page.

Much like his offensive and defensive FEI ratings, a lot of variables over a five-year program are taken into account here, such as FEI ratings, recruiting success, returning starters and quarterback reliance.

Here’s the top 10:

1. Alabama .286
2. Oklahoma .277
3. LSU .267
4. USC .223
5. Florida .218
6. Florida State .215
7. Ohio State .210
8. Oregon .206
9. Oklahoma State .204
10. Georgia .202

Enjoy, stat nerds.