Daily Blog • April 15, 2011

I am always looking for new stats and new ways to analyze teams each and every year. In my last blog I gave you some information on how YPP (yards per point) affects a team’s record from season to season and a lot of that information will be featured in my upcoming college preview magazine.

This year I expanded this same type of concept by taking a look at points per play. Generally, you would think that the teams’ with the top scoring offenses in ppg would be ranked at the top but there are some noticeable differences.

First, I think it is amazing to see off efficient Wisconsin’s “run-oriented” offense was a year ago. Most teams that usually put up a lot of points have strong passing attacks but the Badgers’ ground game was clearly explosive this past year as they scored an average  of .63 points per play

Another couple of run-oriented teams that were efficient last year was Michigan St which was just #47 in the NCAA in scoring offense averaging 29.46 ppg but the Spartans did it on just 817 offensive plays which placed them #27 in the country in yards per play.  Ohio actually finished with the best difference in this category as they scored 27.46 ppg (#55) on just 768 plays finishing #31 with 0.46 points per play which was 24 spots higher. Iowa also did well placing 21 spots higher.

Teams that placed lower in the list were actually high scoring teams like Oklahoma (#14 scoring offense NCAA, #45 points per play) and Texas Tech (#23 scoring offense NCAA, #56 points per play) but there “poor” points per play rating is due more to their “hurry up” style offenses in which they run as many plays as possible and while both teams were successful averaging more than 33 ppg, it did take them a lot more plays to accomplish it.

Here is the list of the 120 teams with their points per play from last season.

Points Per Play

Rank School Points Plays
Pts/plys
1 Boise St 586 910
0.64
2 Wisconsin 539 860
0.63
3 Auburn 577 948
0.61
4 Hawaii 554 926
0.60
5 Oregon 611 1024
0.60
6 Oklahoma St 575 982
0.59
7 Northern Ill 532 910
0.58
8 TCU 541 931
0.58
9 Stanford 524 914
0.57
10 Ohio St 504 896
0.56
11 Alabama 464 829
0.56
12 Nevada 574 1044
0.55
13 Arkansas 474 886
0.53
14 Tulsa 538 1006
0.53
15 San Diego St 455 865
0.53
16 Utah 430 826
0.52
17 Virginia Tech 474 913
0.52
18 Kansas St 437 847
0.52
19 Georgia 417 814
0.51
20 Maryland 419 822
0.51
21 Houston 452 894
0.51
22 UCF 449 898
0.50
23 Florida St 439 897
0.49
24 East Carolina 478 990
0.48
25 South Carolina 433 911
0.48
26 Nebraska 432 916
0.47
27 Michigan St 383 817
0.47
28 Illinois 423 903
0.47
29 Iowa 376 806
0.47
30 Southern Miss 479 1030
0.47
31 Ohio 357 768
0.46
32 LSU 386 839
0.46
33 Navy 386 849
0.45
34 Michigan 426 941
0.45
35 Western Michigan 388 860
0.45
36 Kentucky 406 910
0.45
37 Troy 443 997
0.44
38 Mississippi 367 826
0.44
39 Arizona St 387 877
0.44
40 Fresno St 377 858
0.44
41 Florida 388 885
0.44
42 Air Force 401 916
0.44
43 USC 403 930
0.43
44 Baylor 405 939
0.43
45 Oklahoma 521 1211
0.43
46 Tennessee 351 827
0.42
47 Toledo 363 860
0.42
48 Arkansas St 360 856
0.42
49 Missouri 388 929
0.42
50 Mississippi St 377 907
0.42
51 FIU 374 906
0.41
52 Temple 300 727
0.41
53 Pittsburgh 342 830
0.41
54 North Carolina St 414 1006
0.41
55 Louisville 343 835
0.41
56 Texas Tech 430 1054
0.41
57 California 310 760
0.41
58 Rice 344 854
0.40
59 UTEP 338 844
0.40
60 Connecticut 343 858
0.40
61 Army 346 866
0.40
62 Texas A&M 406 1034
0.39
63 SMU 360 920
0.39
64 Cincinnati 325 837
0.39
65 South Fla 313 810
0.39
66 Oregon St 293 759
0.39
67 Arizona 367 959
0.38
68 Notre Dame 342 895
0.38
69 North Carolina 329 865
0.38
70 Indiana 326 861
0.38
71 Middle Tenn 344 909
0.38
72 Idaho 346 922
0.38
73 Georgia Tech 338 921
0.37
74 Penn St 319 873
0.37
75 Miami, Fl 342 937
0.36
76 Northwestern 343 942
0.36
77 Louisiana Tech 321 890
0.36
78 Clemson 312 866
0.36
79 West Virginia 327 908
0.36
80 BYU 340 946
0.36
81 UAB 316 882
0.36
82 Wake Forest 273 762
0.36
83 North Texas 287 805
0.36
84 Syracuse 288 812
0.35
85 Virginia 304 862
0.35
86 Ball St 264 754
0.35
87 Duke 303 872
0.35
88 WKU 274 795
0.34
89 Colorado 290 847
0.34
90 Central Michigan 293 860
0.34
91 Minnesota 278 825
0.34
92 Wyoming 230 691
0.33
93 Tulane 299 899
0.33
94 Washington 284 857
0.33
95 Kent St 256 773
0.33
96 Marshall 250 766
0.33
97 Rutgers 250 769
0.33
98 Texas 285 878
0.32
99 Miami, Oh 302 941
0.32
100 Louisiana 268 850
0.32
101 Iowa St 260 828
0.31
102 Bowling Green 255 820
0.31
103 Utah St 264 852
0.31
104 UCLA 242 802
0.30
105 UNLV 239 805
0.30
106 Purdue 236 796
0.30
107 Boston College 240 815
0.29
108 Washington St 235 801
0.29
109 Eastern Michigan 228 793
0.29
110 ULM 250 874
0.29
111 FAU 202 741
0.27
112 San Jose St 209 788
0.27
113 Vanderbilt 203 781
0.26
114 Colorado St 198 785
0.25
115 Akron 187 742
0.25
116 Kansas 205 823
0.25
117 Memphis 173 718
0.24
118 New Mexico 190 805
0.24
119 New Mexico St 188 825
0.23
120 Buffalo 170 850
0.20