Facing Winners
Each week I put together a unofficial blog poll entry and as an analysis piece I like to look at each team's record against winning and losing FBS teams. I thought it would be interesting to take those records at a conference level. I also found out something interesting about Michigan's schedule when compared nationally. First conferences
Avg# FBS Winning Teams Faced | |
---|---|
Big 10 | 7.09 |
Big 12 | 6.75 |
ACC | 6.41 |
Big East | 6.12 |
Independent | 6 |
SEC | 5.75 |
MWC | 5.66 |
MAC | 5.15 |
WAC | 4.87 |
Pac10 | 4.7 |
CUSA | 4.66 |
Sun Belt | 3.44 |
Hey, so ah, PAC-10 way to get out there and get after it. Oregon and Stanford combined have only faced 7 winning teams (two of which are each other). The other piece of fun here is the mighty SEC falling below the ACC and Big East.
That's great but what did they conferences do against those schedules?
Win % vs FBS teams with winning recoreds
Win% vs FBS teams with winning record | |
---|---|
Big 12 | 0.782 |
Big 10 | 0.695 |
SEC | 0.642 |
Independent | 0.636 |
Big East | 0.58 |
ACC | 0.509 |
Pac10 | 0.424 |
MWC | 0.342 |
WAC | 0.3 |
CUSA | 0.272 |
MAC | 0.155 |
Sun Belt | 0.107 |
So here the SEC gains some respect back by posting a good overall winning percentage. But I think it's safe to say that Big 12 and Big 10 teams should fair pretty well come bowl time.
Now lets get closer to home since we've arguably established that the Big Ten is a pretty good conference.
Let's see how each Big Ten team did against FBS teams with winning records.
Team | Games | Wins | Losses |
---|---|---|---|
Minnesota | 9 | 2 | 7 |
Penn State | 8 | 3 | 5 |
Michigan | 8 | 3 | 5 |
Purdue | 8 | 1 | 7 |
MSU | 7 | 6 | 1 |
OSU | 7 | 6 | 1 |
Illinois | 7 | 3 | 4 |
Iowa | 7 | 3 | 4 |
Indiana | 7 | 0 | 7 |
Wisconsin | 5 | 4 | 1 |
Northwestern | 5 | 1 | 4 |
So we see that only three teams played as many or more winning teams than Michigan this season. And look as ol Wiscy down there toughing it out with 5 games against winning competition and yet there they go to the Rose Bowl. So Michigan played one of the toughest Big Ten schedules what about nationally.
Team | Games | Wins | Losses | Win% |
---|---|---|---|---|
Notre Dame | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0.500 |
Minnesota | 9 | 2 | 7 | 0.222 |
Mizzou | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0.750 |
Ok. State | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0.750 |
Texas A&M | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0.625 |
Penn State | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0.375 |
Michigan | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0.375 |
Pittsburgh | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0.375 |
East Carolina | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0.375 |
Iowa State | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0.250 |
Clemson | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0.250 |
Purdue | 8 | 1 | 7 | 0.125 |
Duke | 8 | 1 | 7 | 0.125 |
Cincinnati | 8 | 1 | 7 | 0.125 |
Of all 120 teams in the FBS 11 faced as many winning teams and only 2 faced more winning teams than Michigan. And of this group Michigan is tied for 5th for the best winning percentage. With only two teams posting winning records. And holy hell ND. I guess that's the price you pay for being independent.
And finally here is a look at teams with winning records against FBS teams Team Games
Team | Games | Wins | Losses | Win% |
---|---|---|---|---|
Auburn | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1.000 |
TCU | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1.000 |
Oregon | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1.000 |
MSU | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0.857 |
OSU | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0.857 |
Wisconsin | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0.800 |
VT | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0.800 |
Boise State | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0.800 |
Mizzou | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0.750 |
Ok. State | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0.750 |
Stanford | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0.750 |
Nebraska | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0.750 |
LSU | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0.714 |
Oklahoma | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0.714 |
Arkansas | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0.667 |
South Carolina | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0.667 |
NC State | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0.667 |
Nevada | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0.667 |
Northern Illinois | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0.667 |
Texas A&M | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0.625 |
UCONN | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0.600 |
Hawaii | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0.600 |
Utah | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0.600 |
Alabama | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0.571 |
FSU | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0.571 |
Maryland | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0.571 |
Anyway, take that for what it's worth. I just found it interesting at how small the number of teams that post winning records against teams that have winning records (26), that Big Ten looks a lot tougher than I thought and really that Michigan's schedule was as tough as it was. Carry on with the coaching debate.
November 29th, 2010 at 5:39 PM ^
sorry about the crappy formatting. I've never figured out how to put up the pretty charts.
November 29th, 2010 at 5:54 PM ^
Holy hell, I went to make the charts all pretty, then it tried to switch the entire thing into one long paragraph with no breaks whatsoever. I'll try again, if not, it's going to stay this way, as I'm not going to screw up the currently pretty breaks.
EDIT: There, all better.
November 29th, 2010 at 6:56 PM ^
Thanks
November 29th, 2010 at 5:52 PM ^
Awesome data. Thanks for doing the work on this and sharing it. Obviously it would be a lot easier to read if it were in chart format, but the point is still easily made (and I'm like you, I don't know how to make charts, either). I definitely would not have expected the numbers to look like this.
November 29th, 2010 at 6:05 PM ^
Thanks!
FYI, the Pac-10 has the top 8 spots in Strength of Schedule according to Sagarin. Go figure.
November 29th, 2010 at 6:19 PM ^
This is insane, since the Pac Ten has only 3 bowl-eligible teams right now.
November 29th, 2010 at 6:23 PM ^
Playing a 9 game conference schedule has some "draw backs". While PAC10 teams schedule pretty well on the whole, they lose an opportunity to schedule a cup cake by playing one more conference game than the other big boys.
Goes from a weekend where 90% of the conference is going to win a game to a weekend where half the conference loses. With 4 teams sitting at 5 wins right now, that one shift is a looming problem for filling bowl agreements.
November 29th, 2010 at 6:37 PM ^
Great info. I was just looking at more stats on the PAC 10(minus 8) to through back at a few friends of mine. Thank you!
November 29th, 2010 at 7:18 PM ^
so your saying ND is a pretty good team then, to have gone up against 11 bowl eligible teams (under normal circumstances) in one season and come out on top of that schedule.
good job, I agree
November 29th, 2010 at 9:52 PM ^
ND never gave up when their starting QB went down and they were losing to Navy and Tulsa. Congrats on some nice wins down the strech.
PS I hope we crush you next year (in the nicest way possible)
November 29th, 2010 at 8:44 PM ^
And 3 of the 5 losses came against three of the top 8 in the BCS (though still can't believe Sparty is one of them).
As far as the 'we should do well in bowl season' comment, keep in mind that for bowl season, we haven't been looking as good as we think we are because the Big Ten has been a little overmatched. Consider the Texas Bowl which is Big Ten #6 against Big 12 #5. Now add the fact that with 2 BCS teams, it'll be Big Ten #7. And in the Insight it's is Big Ten #5 against Big 12 #4, which this year will be Big Ten #6.
November 29th, 2010 at 9:57 PM ^
as always, the Big 10 teams will play all of their bowl games basically as the road team. The Insight Bowl will be the closest to a neautral site the Big 10 will see this year. If we go to AZ, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let us play Baylor so I might watch the game and be entertained at the same time. If we play Oklahoma State I may as well watch it in my dentists office while I get a root canal.
November 30th, 2010 at 10:30 AM ^
As much as I want the Insight bowl (as I live in Vegas) I think our best shot would be against Florida in the Gator bowl.
If we do play Ok St, that will be one giant offensive shootout, wow!
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