That was a long break

It's been over a year, but I think I'm finally ready to pick this thing up again and give it a second shot. Hopefully this time I'll actually be able to keep up with it. That said, I saw something on MGoBlog's Mailbag today that sparked my interest. Apparently, one of Brian's friends did a comparison of teams in the Big Ten where he looked at their net yards per play average (YPPA). I thought it would be interesting to do the same for the Big XII. Here is the basic premise from that e-mail:

Net YPPA [Yards Per Play Average] so far this year are remarkable. It is the only singular team quality measure that I have ever found. As I have mentioned, I think the number shows more about “how good a team is” than wins and losses. Plus 3 is a possible NC team. Plus 2 is a top 15 team. Minus 2 is a complete patsy.

I'm not quite sure how Craig adjusted for sacks. Actually, I'm not sure how Craig even did the calculation at all. After looking at Ohio State's statistics and running through all the formulas I could come up with, I couldn't replicate his numbers. So, I just faked it and got rough estimates by dividing the total offensive and defensive yards by the total number of offensive and defensive plays, respectively. If you have a suggestion about how to make this more accurate, I'm all ears. I took statistics twice and didn't learn a damn thing either time. So then, how does the Big XII look? Here's a breakdown by division. I've also included over-all conference rank and threw in the rest of the top 5 (Alabama and Florida) for argument's sake.

North Division
Team	Off. YPPA	Def. YPPA	Net YPPA	Conf. Rank
Missouri (8-2)	7.31	5.11	2.20	2
Kansas (6-4)	6.13	5.49	0.64	6
Nebraska (6-4)	6.47	5.99	0.48	8
Kansas St. (4-6)	5.84	5.92	-0.08	9
Colorado (5-5)	4.47	5.36	-0.89	10
Iowa St. (2-8)	5.27	6.63	-1.36	12
South Division
Team	Off. YPPA	Def. YPPA	Net YPPA	Conf. Rank
Texas Tech (10-0)	7.49	5.18	2.31	1
Oklahoma (9-1)	7.01	4.88	2.13	3
Oklahoma St. (8-2)	7.19	5.40	1.79	4
Texas (9-1)	6.57	5.41	1.16	5
Baylor (3-7)	5.79	5.29	0.50	7
Texas A&M (4-6)	5.29	6.21	-0.92	11
Other Top 5
Team	Off. YPPA	Def. YPPA	Net YPPA	Conf. Rank
Alabama (10-0)	5.69	4.23	1.46	--
Florida (8-1)	6.72	4.55	2.17	--

I know that comparing across conferences is difficult at best, but it is interesting to note that Alabama ranks below both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State on this chart while Florida ranks just above Oklahoma and barely behind Missouri. It would be interesting to see what other things could be counted in to this to make it a more accurate representation of a team's quality. Right off the top of my head, I want to try an add special teams and turnover margin, but I'm not sure how you would do that. I'll ponder on it and hopefully have another post about this next week. Look for a preview of the Texas Tech game later next week and maybe reviews of the State vs. Tech and OU vs. A&M games this weekend.

Sunday Roll-call

In this (hopefully) weekly column, I'm going to discuss the performance of a few of the major teams from around the NCAA. Most of the time, I've watched these games, though sometimes I've seen only a few minutes. So, here we go:

• Oklahoma State — While I never really bought the marketing hype about the Pokes having the best offense in the nation this year, I did feel that they could be very, very good. What I, and everyone else, apparently forgot to think about was the fact that defensive players need to be able to tackle...at least a little. I don't think that we can chalk this up to inexperience as much as it looked like a complete lack of effort on the defensive side of the ball. Add to that an enormous number of dropped passes by some usually very good receivers (*cough* Adarius Bowman *cough*) and you end up with a lop-sided loss to possibly the best team in the Sun Belt Conference this year.
• Notre Dame — What can I say here? They absolutely sucked. Clausen was horrible, so was the rest of the offense. Their defense looked hopeless and completely over-matched. If I was a domer, it would have been painful...
• Michigan — ...fortunately, I'm not. Michigan looked like they were back in force. Their performance was definitely enhanced by the fact that Notre Dame was horrible, but I still think they may have turned it around. I'm not going to pick them to win the Big 10, though, that's going to be Penn State, but they could end the season with only 4 losses. That should redeem Lloyd Carr's name enough that he can retire with grace, especially if they end up beating Ohio State this year.
• That other school that wears orange — I have to say that I'm not sure how Mack Brown pulled this one off. For the third straight week, they had a big scare against what should have been an inferior opponent. McCoy looks to be firmly in the grasp of the Law of Averages, which bodes very poorly for short-horn fans. Their running game leaves a lot to be desired as well, though Charles did look good late as did their third-down back Ogbonnaya.
• USC — I was as unimpressed this time as I was when they blundered past Idaho. Now, I'll admit that I did not watch the whole game. I actually only saw the first and fourth quarters (so when Nebraska was playing well) and nothing of the other two. I understand from reading that they have finally decided which of their four million running backs they are going to start. Really, I think this is mostly just reaction against the media (and especially Herbstreit) practically creaming themselves every time they mention the University of Spoiled Children. They're a good football team, but these folks are gushing so much you'd think that they could hold their own against an NFL team and that the rest of the NCAA should just go ahead and forfeit the entire season and let Carrol claim another national championship they didn't earn (no, I'm not bitter, I swear). Anyway, they won, but it wasn't as impressive as LSU dominating VT last week and if I had a vote they'd probably be #4 on my ballot.
• Oklahoma — I almost feel guilty writing about this game. I didn't go and I didn't want to pay more than the cost of a ticket to get the pay-per-view. I did, however, listen to it on the radio. We won, it was impressive, Utah State was not a test. Basically the same story as the last few weeks. The only constructive things I have to say are these: 1) Bradford looks like the best choice the coaches could have made, 2) I'm glad Nichol isn't the starter and 3) damn...our defense rocks! Also, Bob Barry and Marv are probably the funniest play-by-play/color combination in all of sports radio...too bad it's not on purpose.

Well, that's the column. Give me some criticism (constructive or otherwise).