The Zeitgeist List

The Dynasty tier is empty — and No. 1 Alabama can't get in

The board right now: 2026 · week 10 · ▲ up 15 vs 2025 · ▼ down 12 · Dynasty empty · ·
138 programs · updated weekly · 2026 · week 10The formula is interim, so placements will shift.

More boards and histories

The greatest coaches →
Every program's coaching lineage, ranked by who built it and who just held on.
The coordinators →
OC/DC rankings, talent-adjusted overperformance, and real career tape.
The rivalries →
Every rivalry on the schedule, scored and settled.
The turncoat ledger →
Every portal move straight from one side of a named rivalry to the other.
The talent factory →
Which programs actually turn recruits into draft picks.
The throne →
Who's held the #1 spot, and for how long.
Every team's full history →
91 years of stature, season by season, for all 138 programs.
Words →
What college football is actually saying, word by word, program by program.
All the boards →
Every ranking board on the site, in one place.

The formula is calibration-grade, and the tier floors shown are published but not yet frozen — recalibration shuffles neighbors, not strata.

Composite (0–100) = Performance 45% (opponent-adjusted quality, multi-season, 3-year half-life) + Achievement 45% (national titles, playoff depth, conference titles scaled by measured league strength, and deep history fading with age) + Talent 10% (recruiting + NFL draft), plus a capped signature-win bonus and a narrow bad-loss debit. The top two tiers are title-gated: Dynasty needs 2 national titles in 3 years, or 3 in 7; Blue Blood needs 1 in 12 — score alone can't get you in. Tiers are sticky and path-dependent: a ±0.5 buffer sits on every line, and a crossing driven by a single win or loss must hold for one extra week before the tier reassigns — so two programs at the same score can legitimately sit in different tiers. The score→tier map is not a plain lookup, and we say so.

This is the condensed version. Read the full methodology →

The totem

All programs, swarmed into their tier — slot height follows how many teams live there and how far their scores spread. Height inside a slot follows score. The top slot is empty: no program clears the Dynasty gate right now — 3 score past its line and sit held in Blue Blood. Hover any program for the full read · click to pin · double-click to open its row.

Lines are sticky: crossing one puts you in range — you hold it a week to lock it in (±0.5 buffer). Positions are settled physics, baked at build time — nothing moves after load. Full data in the list below.
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How to read the gauge: the dot is the program, the colored tick is the tier line above it (Dynasty · Blue Blood · Power · National), −N = points to go. = held by a title gate — points can't cross it. The Δ column is rank movement vs the 2025 final board — weekly deltas take over from Week 1.

Dynasty

empty
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No active dynasty

Nobody clears the gate: 2 national titles in the trailing 3 years, or 3 in 7 — titles only, appearances don't count. 3 programs score past the Dynasty line (Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia) and sit held in Blue Blood. The next title run reopens this tier.

the Dynasty line · 74.5promotion locks at 75.0 · demotion at 74.0 · one-week confirmation on win/loss-bonus swings — the map is sticky, not a plain lookup

Blue Blood

6 teams
the Blue Blood line · 60.8promotion locks at 61.3 · demotion at 60.3 · one-week confirmation on win/loss-bonus swings — the map is sticky, not a plain lookup

Power Program

26 teams
Power Program I · Tier 3 of 14floor 55
Power Program II · Tier 4 of 14floor 49
Power Program III · Tier 5 of 14floor 42
the Power Program line · 42.1promotion locks at 42.6 · demotion at 41.6 · one-week confirmation on win/loss-bonus swings — the map is sticky, not a plain lookup

National Program

37 teams

Rows thin out from here — sparklines and the week-outlook column stop below the Power stratum; every program still carries its full read in the drawer.

National Program I · Tier 6 of 14floor 37
National Program II · Tier 7 of 14floor 31
National Program III · Tier 8 of 14floor 26
the National Program line · 26.4promotion locks at 26.9 · demotion at 25.9 · one-week confirmation on win/loss-bonus swings — the map is sticky, not a plain lookup

Regional Program

69 teams
Regional Program I · Tier 9 of 14floor 22
Regional Program II · Tier 10 of 14floor 19
Regional Program III · Tier 11 of 14floor 15
Regional Program IV · Tier 12 of 14floor 10
Regional Program V · Tier 13 of 14floor 5
Regional Program VI · Tier 14 of 14floor 0

Movers — this board vs the 2025 final

Band-level moves land here when a program crosses a line for good; rank shuffles are the undercard. Weekly movement returns Week 1.

20222023202420252026 pre#53 ARK#55 GT#56 WAKE#58 ORST#72 NU#77 BC#84 ZONA#105 ODU#44 ZONA ▲15#49 NU ▲15#57 GT ▼12#58 WAKE ▲10#61 ARK ▼9#73 ORST ▲11#83 BC ▼10#101 ODU ▼10

Ranks are positions on each season's restated board (the whole history is recomputed under the current methodology, so years compare cleanly). Preseason rank shuffles are small by design — the score prorates between seasons.