As a kid growing up in SW Michigan during the 90s, ND was the most important rival. Fandom was about 40% UM / 30% ND / 30% MSU. I knew that OSU was supposed to be the biggest rival, but a loss to them didn't bring any heckling at school the next Monday!
MSU was more of a sibling rivalry. I wanted them to win as long as they weren't playing UM. We were united in hating ND.
ND rivalry no longer matters much though, since they don't schedule in anymore.
They're undefeated against one of the toughest schedules through eight games. It's been ugly on offense, and they had to get a bit lucky against ND, but the resume is there.
Resumes don't win football games, but they do qualify you to play them.
The rule change affects all hurry-up offenses, even the ones that essentially never snap the ball during the first 10s, because it removes their threat to do so. By lining up immediately, the offense holds the defense hostage in bad or exhausted packages. If the defense tried to substitute, the offense could quick snap with them out of position.
I ever saw on this site was when Mitch McGary committed as the #1 recruit in his class at the time. He obviously fell from there, but Oh, Baby! is he ever beasting now! 25pts and 14reb against Kansas's big seniors? Thank you, may I have another?
It's almost impossible to over-state how sensitive this kind of +/- stuff is to sample size issues.
The article briefly comments on the fact that even the most used line-up listed accounts for less than two games' worth of plays, but it's even less reliable than that, because the line-ups compiled their stats against different opposing line-ups. Stats analysts for the NBA typically prefer to include two seasons worth of data when comparing +/-, and they have twice as many games per season against more consistent opposition.
I like McGary, but this data just really isn't useful.
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As a kid growing up in SW Michigan during the 90s, ND was the most important rival. Fandom was about 40% UM / 30% ND / 30% MSU. I knew that OSU was supposed to be the biggest rival, but a loss to them didn't bring any heckling at school the next Monday!
MSU was more of a sibling rivalry. I wanted them to win as long as they weren't playing UM. We were united in hating ND.
ND rivalry no longer matters much though, since they don't schedule in anymore.
They're undefeated against one of the toughest schedules through eight games. It's been ugly on offense, and they had to get a bit lucky against ND, but the resume is there.
Resumes don't win football games, but they do qualify you to play them.
The rule change affects all hurry-up offenses, even the ones that essentially never snap the ball during the first 10s, because it removes their threat to do so. By lining up immediately, the offense holds the defense hostage in bad or exhausted packages. If the defense tried to substitute, the offense could quick snap with them out of position.
I ever saw on this site was when Mitch McGary committed as the #1 recruit in his class at the time. He obviously fell from there, but Oh, Baby! is he ever beasting now! 25pts and 14reb against Kansas's big seniors? Thank you, may I have another?
It's almost impossible to over-state how sensitive this kind of +/- stuff is to sample size issues.
The article briefly comments on the fact that even the most used line-up listed accounts for less than two games' worth of plays, but it's even less reliable than that, because the line-ups compiled their stats against different opposing line-ups. Stats analysts for the NBA typically prefer to include two seasons worth of data when comparing +/-, and they have twice as many games per season against more consistent opposition.
I like McGary, but this data just really isn't useful.