Welcome to CFB Marble Game
CFB Marble Game is a novel college football ranking system that brings clarity to the chaos of the season using a simple, marble-based algorithm. Instead of subjective polls or complex computer models, this system uses straightforward rules to determine team rankings based on wins, losses, and the quality of opponents.Why Marbles?
The marble system provides an intuitive way to visualize team strength throughout the season. Teams accumulate marbles based on their schedule strength, then transfer marbles with each game result. The more marbles you have, the higher your rank - it’s that simple.The algorithm was originally created by David Burge (@iowahawkblog) and has been implemented as an open-source web application.
Key Features
Simple Algorithm
Four straightforward rules determine the entire ranking system - no black boxes or subjective judgments
Schedule Strength Matters
Teams earn bonus marbles for facing power conference opponents, rewarding difficult schedules
Home Field Advantage
Road victories are worth more - teams take 25% of marbles for away wins vs. 20% for home/neutral wins
Weekly Rankings
Rankings update automatically as games are completed, reflecting the latest results
Using the Rankings
The CFB Marble Game displays weekly rankings through a simple web interface:- Current Rankings: Visit the home page to see the latest rankings
- Historical Rankings: View rankings for any completed week using the week selector
- Week Navigation: Rankings are available from Week 1 (Preseason) through Week 17 (Final)
You can view rankings for any specific week by using the
?week= query parameter (e.g., ?week=5 for Week 5 rankings).Quick Start
Understand the Rules
Read How It Works to learn the four simple rules that power the marble algorithm
Explore the Rankings
View the latest weekly rankings to see how teams stack up based on their marble totals
Built in the Open
CFB Marble Game is an open-source web application built with PHP and powered by the CollegeFootballData.com API. The entire codebase is available for anyone to review, contribute to, or learn from.View Source Code
Explore the implementation on GitHub
Local Development
Set up a local dev environment with Docker and Traefik
Ready to understand how the marble system works? Continue to How It Works to learn the algorithm in detail.