Comparison of Competitiveness by Conferences

This all started from an argument with a co-worker (went to UF) about how the SEC is the best football. My argument was that just because you have the best players doesn't mean it's the best product. Bama and UGA plowing through people doesn't make for entertaining games.

This lead me to the thought of how competitive each conference is within itself. My hypothesis was that the ACC would be as good as any because well we've all dealt with coastal chaos.

This table show just how close and how far apart the games were within each conference from the 2021 season.

Season SEC ACC B1G Big12 Pac12
FG or less 21.4% 22.8% 11.3% 22.2% 9.3%
TD or less 39.3% 42.1% 33.9% 42.2% 27.8%
2TD or more 50.0% 42.1% 56.5% 37.8% 57.4%
3 TD or more 35.7% 28.1% 37.1% 33.3% 31.5%

As you can see the ACC stacks up very well.

The ACC has the most 3 point or less games. The ACC is also right with the Big12 for most one score games. The SEC is good but not as good as the ACC or Big 12. The Pac 12 and Big Ten are basically trash.

For the SEC, Big Ten, and Pac 12, half their games or more are not within two touchdowns. The Big 12 keeps it tight and the ACC is respectable. Once you get to blowout games (21 points or more) the ACC leads everyone with the least 3 score or more games. Two score is doable in the 4th, I'm not turning off that TV. One really amazing not is that The Big 12 has very little drop off from 2+ score and 3+ score games. The majority of the Big 12 games that are 2 TDs or more are 3 TDs or more.

Next i looked at week 6 and beyond
I did this because i wanted to see what happens as teams settle in and have a month+ of games under their belts

Week 6+ SEC ACC B1G Big12 Pac12
FG or less 23.8% 23.3% 10.4% 20.0% 9.8%
TD or less 35.7% 39.5% 31.3% 40.0% 29.3%
2TD or more 52.4% 41.9% 56.3% 40.0% 56.1%
3 TD or more 33.3% 27.9% 35.4% 34.3% 31.7%

The take away i had here was the SEC, ACC and PAC 12 increased their FG games, but only the PAC 12 increased the percentage of 1 score games. I think that a lot of conferences like to have their big match ups in November so the close games might be because of how the scheduling is setup.

The SEC and Big 12 had more 2+ score games, but only the Big 12 really increased their 3+ score games.

So who has the most OT games?
Well I'm glad you asked but regretfully it's kind of boring

SEC ACC B1G Big12 Pac12
Number of OT Games 3 3 2 1 2
Total Games 56 57 62 45 54

Finally ... Some basic math on the score differences

SEC ACC B1G Big12 Pac12
Max 62 48 49 52 45
Mean 15.8 14.0 18.2 15.3 15.7
Median 12.5 10.0 17.0 10.0 14.0
STDev 13.4 12.0 13.9 13.8 9.5

The SEC has the biggest blowouts, the ACC has lowest mean in score at 2 TDs. ACC has lowest median and STDev too. The ACC games are just closer contests. The ACC is just the best league to watch for great games.

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Warning: this post occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)..

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From the 2018 VT-uva game-"This is when LEGENDS are made!"

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Never Forget #1 Overall Seed UVA 54, #64 UMBC 74

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Never Forget #1 Overall Seed UVA 54, #64 UMBC 74