For all their claims to objectivity, college football rankings systems from Sagarin to Colley are all different. Some weigh historical data. Others microanalyze on-field play. Still others employ arcane mathematical concepts.

But all have one thing in common: They are created by people, and people have biases.

COSMOS doesn’t pretend otherwise. What it does instead is make those biases explicit, transparent, and, hopefully, ones you can agree with (or at least understand). The formula is built around two questions that any football fan already asks instinctively: Who did you play? and How did you play against them? Everything else flows from there.