what is espn fpi

ESPN FPI stands for Football Power Index, which is a predictive rating system developed by ESPN that measures team strength and uses it to forecast game and season results in American football. FPI is not designed to rank teams 1 through 128, but rather to correctly predict games and season outcomes. Each team’s FPI rating is composed of predictive offensive, defensive, and special teams value, as measured by a function of expected points added (EPA) . EPA is the foundation for FPI, and it breaks down points added in every way, thus having different factors for the team’s offense, defense, and special teams units. FPI accounts for team strength, opponent strength, and home-field advantage, and there are a number of unique inputs into each game prediction. FPI is applied to football both at the NFL level and at the college level, but their models are slightly different. ESPN FPI, along with other metrics from ESPN, have been criticized for its inaccuracy, relying more on probabilities and less on in-game action.