Writers of Pro Football Prospectus 2008

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Innovative Statistics

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2011 NCAA FOOTBALL S&P+ RATINGS

through games of 1/9/12

The S&P+ Ratings are a college football ratings system derived from the play-by-play data of all 800+ of a season's FBS college football games (and 140,000+ plays). There are three key components to the S&P+:

  • Success Rate: A common Football Outsiders tool used to measure efficiency by determining whether every play of a given game was successful or not. The terms of success in college football: 50 percent of necessary yardage on first down, 70 percent on second down, and 100 percent on third and fourth down.
  • EqPts Per Play (PPP): An explosiveness measure derived from determining the point value of every yard line (based on the expected number of points an offense could expect to score from that yard line) and, therefore, every play of a given game.
  • Opponent adjustments: Success Rate and PPP combine to form S&P, an OPS-like measure for football. Then each team's S&P output for a given category (Rushing/Passing on either Standard Downs or Passing Downs) is compared to the expected output based upon their opponents and their opponents' opponents. This is a schedule-based adjustment designed to reward tougher schedules and punish weaker ones.

The S&P+ figures used in the tables below only look at the plays that took place while a game was deemed "close," or competitive. The criteria for being "close" are as follows: a game within 24 points in the first quarter, with 21 points in the second quarter, and within 16 points in the second half.

Use the menu above for pages that give more details on offensive and defensive S&P+, or our other college football ratings, the drive-based FEI.


RK TEAM RECORD S&P+ OFF.
S&P+		 RK DEF.
S&P+		 RK
1 Alabama 12-1 313.5 133.8 6 179.7 1
2 LSU 13-1 289.4 129.8 9 159.6 2
3 Boise State 12-1 273.0 130.7 7 142.3 3
4 Oregon 12-2 266.2 137.6 4 128.6 10
5 Oklahoma State 12-1 261.3 142.0 2 119.3 17
6 Wisconsin 11-3 258.3 157.0 1 101.2 59
7 Oklahoma 10-3 255.6 120.5 16 135.1 7
8 Georgia 10-4 245.9 110.2 34 135.7 5
9 Stanford 11-2 245.0 130.2 8 114.8 25
10 Notre Dame 8-5 240.9 117.1 18 123.8 13
11 Florida State 9-4 240.1 105.0 54 135.1 6
12 Michigan State 11-3 239.4 106.8 46 132.7 8
13 TCU 11-2 236.9 123.4 13 113.5 28
14 Michigan 11-2 236.7 127.1 10 109.6 36
15 Houston 13-1 236.6 136.3 5 100.3 63
16 Texas A&M 7-6 236.1 116.8 19 119.3 18
17 USC 10-2 235.8 123.9 12 111.9 33
18 Virginia Tech 11-3 234.1 108.6 40 125.5 12
19 South Carolina 11-2 234.0 110.4 32 123.7 14
20 Baylor 10-3 231.9 139.1 3 92.7 83
RK TEAM RECORD S&P+ OFF.
S&P+		 RK DEF.
S&P+		 RK
21 Arkansas 11-2 231.2 126.3 11 104.9 48
22 Texas 8-5 231.2 95.0 74 136.2 4
23 Tulsa 8-5 229.1 113.0 25 116.1 22
24 Toledo 9-4 227.7 120.2 17 107.5 43
25 Southern Miss 12-2 227.3 106.6 48 120.7 16
26 Penn State 9-4 225.5 93.8 79 131.7 9
27 Temple 9-4 225.1 111.2 29 114.0 26
28 West Virginia 10-3 224.5 121.5 14 103.0 52
29 Nebraska 9-4 222.0 106.1 50 115.9 23
30 SMU 8-5 221.7 109.1 38 112.5 31
31 Missouri 8-5 220.9 112.4 27 108.5 40
32 Nevada 7-6 220.0 110.7 31 109.3 38
33 Georgia Tech 8-5 219.6 120.5 15 99.0 66
34 BYU 10-3 217.9 104.9 55 113.1 29
35 California 7-6 217.6 102.6 58 115.0 24
36 South Florida 5-7 217.3 110.1 35 107.2 45
37 Vanderbilt 6-7 216.1 102.3 59 113.8 27
38 Central Florida 5-7 216.1 106.2 49 109.9 35
39 Cincinnati 10-3 215.6 106.6 47 108.9 39
40 Mississippi State 7-6 215.5 103.2 56 112.3 32
RK TEAM RECORD S&P+ OFF.
S&P+		 RK DEF.
S&P+		 RK
41 Florida 7-6 215.5 106.1 51 109.4 37
42 Northern Illinois 11-3 215.0 114.1 21 100.9 61
43 Tennessee 5-7 214.5 108.4 41 106.1 46
44 North Carolina 7-6 214.5 109.5 36 104.9 47
45 Illinois 7-6 213.4 86.4 100 127.0 11
46 Arizona State 6-7 212.2 111.2 28 101.0 60
47 Arkansas State 10-3 211.7 101.4 60 110.3 34
48 Clemson 10-4 211.7 115.1 20 96.7 70
49 Louisiana Tech 8-5 211.7 93.8 78 117.9 20
50 Iowa 7-6 210.7 107.8 43 102.8 53
51 Miami 6-6 209.8 113.8 23 96.0 73
52 Ohio State 6-7 209.6 96.6 70 113.0 30
53 Utah State 7-6 208.0 112.9 26 95.1 78
54 Utah 8-5 207.1 84.5 106 122.6 15
55 Western Michigan 7-6 206.4 114.0 22 92.4 85
56 Ohio 10-4 205.9 105.1 53 100.7 62
57 Virginia 8-5 204.7 96.9 69 107.8 42
58 Auburn 8-5 204.6 109.1 39 95.5 75
59 Rutgers 9-4 203.9 84.7 105 119.2 19
60 Northwestern 6-7 202.3 113.4 24 88.9 91
RK TEAM RECORD S&P+ OFF.
S&P+		 RK DEF.
S&P+		 RK
61 San Diego State 8-5 202.2 97.9 65 104.4 50
62 Pittsburgh 6-7 202.1 97.4 67 104.8 49
63 Florida International 8-5 201.5 94.1 77 107.3 44
64 Kansas State 10-3 200.5 99.1 63 101.4 58
65 UCLA 6-8 200.1 107.6 44 92.5 84
66 Louisville 7-6 199.7 97.8 66 101.9 56
67 Washington 7-6 199.6 110.7 30 88.8 93
68 Arizona 4-8 198.9 107.2 45 91.7 86
69 Bowling Green 5-7 198.1 102.8 57 95.3 77
70 Air Force 7-6 198.1 109.3 37 88.8 92
71 Wake Forest 6-7 196.2 99.8 62 96.4 71
72 Miami (Ohio) 4-8 195.9 93.1 80 102.8 54
73 UL-Lafayette 9-4 193.9 98.1 64 95.8 74
74 Texas Tech 5-7 193.7 110.4 33 83.3 110
75 Hawaii 6-7 193.4 100.0 61 93.4 79
76 Syracuse 5-7 192.7 94.4 75 98.3 68
77 N.C. State 8-5 190.5 88.0 97 102.5 55
78 UL-Monroe 4-8 190.1 90.8 92 99.3 65
79 Connecticut 5-7 189.7 81.2 110 108.5 41
80 Fresno State 4-9 189.7 105.1 52 84.5 105
RK TEAM RECORD S&P+ OFF.
S&P+		 RK DEF.
S&P+		 RK
81 Kent State 5-7 189.5 72.5 116 117.0 21
82 Boston College 4-8 189.4 86.3 101 103.1 51
83 East Carolina 5-7 189.2 96.1 72 93.1 80
84 Purdue 7-6 187.6 92.3 85 95.4 76
85 Navy 5-7 187.6 108.2 42 79.4 113
86 UTEP 5-7 186.6 96.4 71 90.2 87
87 Oregon State 3-9 186.0 89.7 95 96.3 72
88 Marshall 7-6 185.6 85.7 102 99.9 64
89 Western Kentucky 7-5 185.4 92.6 82 92.8 81
90 Iowa State 6-7 185.2 86.7 99 98.5 67
91 Eastern Michigan 6-6 184.9 86.7 98 98.2 69
92 Duke 3-9 183.6 96.1 73 87.5 96
93 Ball State 6-6 182.6 97.4 68 85.2 103
94 Minnesota 3-9 180.9 90.9 91 90.0 89
95 Maryland 2-10 180.4 92.4 83 88.0 94
96 North Texas 5-7 180.3 92.8 81 87.5 97
97 Buffalo 3-9 179.5 92.4 84 87.1 98
98 Kentucky 5-7 179.3 77.6 113 101.8 57
99 Army 3-9 179.2 94.4 76 84.8 104
100 Wyoming 8-5 178.7 92.2 88 86.5 100
RK TEAM RECORD S&P+ OFF.
S&P+		 RK DEF.
S&P+		 RK
101 Ole Miss 2-10 178.5 88.9 96 89.6 90
102 San Jose State 5-7 178.2 85.5 104 92.8 82
103 Central Michigan 3-9 176.4 92.2 86 84.2 106
104 Washington State 4-8 175.3 91.9 89 83.4 109
105 New Mexico State 4-9 175.2 91.6 90 83.6 107
106 Colorado 3-10 173.4 89.8 94 83.6 108
107 Troy 3-9 173.3 85.6 103 87.7 95
108 Rice 4-8 172.7 82.6 109 90.2 88
109 Kansas 2-10 168.1 89.9 93 78.1 114
110 Colorado State 3-9 167.5 80.8 111 86.6 99
111 UAB 3-9 161.3 92.2 87 69.1 118
112 Idaho 2-10 160.2 74.1 115 86.1 101
113 Tulane 2-11 159.8 79.2 112 80.6 112
114 Middle Tennessee 2-10 158.5 82.6 108 75.8 115
115 Indiana 1-11 156.5 84.2 107 72.3 117
116 UNLV 2-10 156.0 74.5 114 81.5 111
117 Florida Atlantic 1-11 150.1 64.4 120 85.7 102
118 Memphis 2-10 146.5 72.3 117 74.2 116
119 New Mexico 1-11 138.6 70.7 119 67.9 119
120 Akron 1-11 138.0 71.2 118 66.8 120