The same result against a higher ranked team should produce a higher standing. Any team is eligible to be ranked anywhere in the standings based on their own scores, no matter what their opponents do in their other games. One list of all NCAA and NAIA teams should be produced, with division of competition indicated. Standings should lead to automatic and foolproof selection of playoff participants and seeding, and determine the national championship. Most computer standings meet very few of these conditions, either because of lack of mathematical sophistication or because they are intended primarily for betting.
Polls meet only the final condition.
Because of the irregularity of college football schedules, the requisite complicated system would necessitate a sideline lap-top computer. But the official standings program should be in the public domain and made available to those schools with the resources to perform their own verification. Thus accessibility seems possible only to the extent that a coach interacts with his computer science department. The self-censorship condition makes it very difficult to compute meaningful standings before October. In 1985, for example, Oklahoma played only one game in September.