Monday, November 6, 2017

2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Ranking for Week 10

Below is the Top 25 ranked teams using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided at www.cfbstats.com.  According to the Complex Invasion College Football production model, the University of Alabama is still the most productive team in all of the Football Bowl Subdivision as of the end of last week. Links to the previous weeks rankings for this season are at the bottom of the page.

Rank Team
1 Alabama
2 Washington
3 Ohio State
4 Penn State
5 Notre Dame
6 Georgia
7 UCF
8 Wisconsin
9 Oklahoma State
10 Oklahoma
11 Miami (Florida)
12 Florida Atlantic
13 Auburn
14 TCU
15 South Florida
16 Clemson
17 Fresno State
18 Louisville
19 Memphis
20 USC
21 Toledo
22 San Diego State
23 Mississippi State
24 Virginia Tech
25 Washington State

Previous 2017 Top 25 Rankings
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #9
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #8
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #7
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #6
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #5
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #4
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #3
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #2

Sunday, November 5, 2017

AAC vs Mountain West

Kelly Lyell, who is a reporter for the Fort Collins Coloradoan said the following:
and I thought the same as well.  So I looked at whether this holds using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model since the 2008 season.  The results are listed in the table below.  First, I found the top ranked team in each conference and listed the conference.  The AAC/Big East had the better top ranked team in six of the ten seasons.  Then I looked at the average of the top four teams in each conference and found that the AAC/Big East had the better teams in nine of the last ten seasons.  Finally, in terms of conference overall rankings, the AAC/Big East was better than the Mountain West for each season.

Season
Top
Average
2008
Mountain West
AAC
2009
AAC
AAC
2010
AAC
AAC
2011
Mountain West
AAC
2012
AAC
AAC
2013
AAC
AAC
2014
AAC
AAC
2015
Mountain West
AAC
2016
Mountain West
Mountain West
2017*
AAC
AAC

Monday, October 30, 2017

2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Ranking for Week 9

Below is the Top 25 ranked teams using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided at www.cfbstats.com.  According to the Complex Invasion College Football production model, the University of Alabama is now the most productive team in all of the Football Bowl Subdivision as of the end of last week. Links to the previous weeks rankings for this season are at the bottom of the page.

Rank Team
1 Alabama
2 Ohio State
3 Washington
4 Penn State
5 UCF
6 Georgia
7 Notre Dame
8 Wisconsin
9 Oklahoma State
10 Virginia Tech
11 TCU
12 Clemson
13 Mississippi State
14 South Florida
15 Auburn
16 Oklahoma
17 Miami (Florida)
18 Fresno State
19 Louisville
20 North Carolina State
21 Ohio
22 UTSA
23 Florida Atlantic
24 Washington State
25 LSU

Previous 2017 Top 25 Rankings
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #8
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #7
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #6
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #5
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #4
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #3
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #2

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Florida Parts Ways with Jim McElwain

Earlier today the University of Florida and head football coach Jim McElwain parted ways.  Former head coach McElwain has been with the Gator's for only two and a half seasons, so there is not a lot to look at during his tenure, but here is the program using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.

Below is a chart of offense, defense and total production of the University of Florida Gators football program during McElwain's tenure as head football coach, along with who would be the lowest ranked team during this time period (in purple) and the average team (sky blue).   As you may notice, Florida's offense has dropped dramatically under his brief tenure. All rankings in this blog come from my Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.  More details about the program under McElwain are after the chart below, including a link to his employment contract are below.


Jim McElwain [2015 - 2017]

2015
The Gators were 10-2 during the regular season under McElwain's first year at the helm of the football program (bowl eligible), and lost the SEC conference title game to #7 ranked Alabama (15-29), and were defeated by #24 ranked Michigan in their post-season bowl game by a score of (7-41).  Florida played against a "tougher" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, meaning that their SOS was between one and two standard deviations below the "league" average SOS.  The Gators best game again was their victory over #6 ranked Mississippi (38-10) and their worst loss was to #16 ranked in-state rival Florida State (2-27).  Florida had the #48 ranked team in total production with the #80 ranked offense and the #15 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.

2016
Florida finished the regular season at 8-3 under McElwain's second year at the helm of the football program (bowl eligible), and again lost the SEC title game to #1 ranked Alabama (54-16) but defeated #41 Iowa (30-3) in their post-season bowl game to finish 9-4 overall.  The Gators played against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, meaning that their SOS was plus or minus one standard deviation of the "league" average SOS.  The Gators best game again was their victory over #7 ranked LSU (16-10) and their worst loss was to #85 ranked Arkansas (31-10).  Florida had the #34 ranked team in total production with the #102 ranked offense and the #5 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.

2017*
At the time of McElwain's departure, the Gators were 3-4 overall, playing against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS.  The Gators best win was against #79 currently ranked Kentucky by a score of (28-27) and their worst loss was to #60 currently ranked Texas A&M by a score of (17-19).  In other words, all of Florida's victories were over below average teams and all their losses were to above average teams.  Florida had the #86 ranked team in total production, with the #122 ranked offense and the #29 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.

2017 NCAA FBS Head Coach Changes
Minnesota and Tracy Claeys
California and Sonny Dykes
Oklahoma and Bob Stoops
Mississippi (Ole Miss) and Hugh Freeze
UTEP and Sean Kugler
Oregon State and Gary Andersen
Georgia Southern and Tyson Summers

Thursday, October 26, 2017

MLS Competitive Balance

Now that the 2017 MLS regular season is in the books, I decided to look at MLS competitive balance.  I did this a few years ago, but thought that I would update it.

Using the Noll-Scully measure of competitive balance under the trinomial distribution (since ties are a part of the MLS) I find that competitive balance is higher for the 2017 regular season than the average over the last 18 seasons.  The average Noll-Scully has been fairly stable over the last five years.  The Noll-Scully for the MLS 2017 regular season is 1.383 which is still more competitive than the other "major" US sports leagues.  Here is the Noll Scully since the 2000 regular season.




Want to try to calculate it yourself?  Here is my Noll-Scully competitive balance measure step-by-step guide.  Note:  I used the trinomial distribution.

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Georgia Southern Fires Tyson Summers as Head Football Coach

After losing to previously winless Massachusetts, Georgia Southern fired head coach Tyson Summers this past weekend.

Below is a chart of offense, defense and total production of the Georgia Southern Eagles football program during Summers' tenure as head football coach, along with who would be the lowest ranked team during this time period (in purple) and the average team (sky blue).   As you may notice, Georgia Southern has dropped dramatically under his brief tenure. All rankings in this blog come from my Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.  More details about the program under Summers are after the chart below, including a link to his employment contract are below.



Tyson Summers [2016-2017*]

2016
The Eagles were 5-7 under Summers' first year at the helm of the football program (bowl ineligible),  playing against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, meaning that their SOS was plus or minus one standard deviation of the "league" average SOS.  The Eagles best game again was their victory over #31 ranked Troy (28-24) and their worst loss was to #89 ranked in-state rival Georgia State (24-30).  Georgia Southern had the #84 ranked team in total production with the #97 ranked offense and the #51 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.

2017*
At the time of Summers' firing, the Eagles were 0-6 overall, playing against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS.  The Eagles worst loss was to FCS New Hampshire by a score of (12-22).  Georgia Southern had the #126 ranked team in total production, which is a bottom 5 team in the FBS, with the #130 ranked offense (that would be the worst in all of the FBS) and the #104 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.

2017 NCAA FBS Head Coach Changes
Minnesota and Tracy Claeys
California and Sonny Dykes
Oklahoma and Bob Stoops
Mississippi (Ole Miss) and Hugh Freeze
UTEP and Sean Kugler
Oregon State and Gary Andersen

Monday, October 23, 2017

2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Ranking for Week 8

Below is the Top 25 ranked teams using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided at www.cfbstats.com.  According to the Complex Invasion College Football production model, Ohio State University is now the most productive team in all of the Football Bowl Subdivision as of the end of last week. Links to the previous weeks rankings for this season are at the bottom of the page.

Rank Team
1 Ohio State
2 Washington
3 Penn State
4 Alabama
5 TCU
6 Georgia
7 Notre Dame
8 Wisconsin
9 Auburn
10 Mississippi State
11 Virginia Tech
12 Miami (Florida)
13 Clemson
14 Fresno State
15 Oklahoma
16 Washington State
17 Louisville
18 Northern Illinois
19 Southern Mississippi
20 Iowa State
21 Michigan State
22 West Virginia
23 UCF
24 SMU
25 Minnesota


Previous 2017 Top 25 Rankings
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #7
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #6
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #5
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #4
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #3
2017 NCAA FBS Top 25 Rankings for Week #2