Few things in sports are as larded up with fat as the record of a major college-football coach. (One exception: the record of a major college-basketball coach.) There are games against schools that aren’t in the top-tier Football Bowl Subdivision, games against schools that shouldn’t be in it, games against the dregs of one’s conference and so on.

To take a much more critical look at coaching performance, the Count for the second straight year has compiled how major-conference coaches have fared against teams ranked in the Associated Press top 25 at the time of the game. That is, against real competition.

This is a harsh measurement. With few exceptions, any team that is in the top 25 is a high-quality opponent that has a lot to play for. Also, coaches who worked their way up the profession’s ladder by running less-regarded programs are bound to have worse top-25 records.

But it is intriguing to see how coaches’ resumes hold up to such an unforgiving standard. For instance, according to Stats LLC, just one season at Washington has dropped Chris Petersen’s career top-25 record below .500 (8-9) despite a brilliant eight-year run at Boise State. That is because Washington played five ranked opponents in the brutal Pac-12 last season (and lost to them all), while Boise State tended to face only one or two a year. The Huskies open the season at Boise on Sept. 4.

At the top of the win-percentage list happen to be the two coaches who met in the national-championship game last season: Oregon’s Mark Helfrich and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer. In the case of Helfrich, that is partly owed to small sample size; in Meyer’s, it is further proof that he is without question the top coach in the game today. Meyer’s .707 career mark, which includes the period when he didn’t have the advantage of coaching powerhouses Ohio State and Florida, even exceeds Nick Saban’s stellar .702 winning percentage at Alabama.