Welcome to a new feature on the Hotline — a regular, but not quite weekly, examination of the Power Four.

The column will be published each Monday through the end of September as the barrage of non-conference matchups provides fresh data. Once October arrives and teams enter the heart of conference play, the column will switch to a bi-monthly schedule.

Although the College Football Playoff uses a clunkier, murkier selection process than the NCAA Tournament, the early-season results help frame decisions made months later.

How the ACC performs head-to-head against the Big Ten, for example, will lend context to the CFP selection committee’s rankings on the first Sunday of December.

Our view of the conference hierarchy:

(Records against Power Four conferences include results against Notre

See Full Page