I put together each B10 teams performance in yards per point and defensive yard per point for B10 play only in 2008. My thought was it might give some insight into what to look for in 2009 based on who could reasonably be expected to be better, worse or about the same.
Yards per point is designed to measure efficency. How many yards a team must accumulate to score a point on offense (lower is better) or how many yards a team makes its opponent accumulate before surrendering a point on defense (higher is better).
Theoretically it takes the complete game into account, field position, turn overs, kicking game etc. There are some I know people (gamblers mainly) who put a ton more faith in it than I do but like most stats I think its a good tool to use as an indicator and sometimes expose bias that may exist. I used B10 play only in attempt to even out some of the "noise" you get from CFB data in terms of OOC games. Its just too hard to give credit for the various SOS's.
So with all that said......
2008 B10 play only YPP rankings:
1.
OSU-11.74
2. PSU-12.07
3. Iowa-12.26
4. scUM-13.15
5. MSU-13.51
6. NU-14.37
7. Wisky-15.33
8. Illini-15.67
9. Purdue-16.44
10. Minny-16.56
11. IU-20.28
2008 B10 play only DYPP
1.
OSU-24.08
2. PSU-20.90
3. Iowa-18.86
4. NU-15.64
5. Minny-14.87
6. MSU-14.44
7. Illini-13.23
8. Purdue-12.96
9. scUM-12.03
10. IU-11.49
11. Wisky-11.20
Delta
or how many more yards a team forced its opponent to gain to score a point than it had to go (lower the better).
1.
OSU: -12.34 (opponent had to gain 12.34 more yards to score 1pt than
OSU)
2. PSU: -8.83
3. Iowa: -6.6
4. NU: -1.27
5. MSU: -.93
6. scUM 1.12 (scUM had to gain 1.12 more yards to score 1pt than opponent did)
7. Minny: 1.69
8. Illinois: 2.44
9. Purdue: 3.48
10. Wisky: 4.13
11. IU: 8.79
I'll follow up with some look ahead stuff tied to this later. Just thought I'd put it our for general consumption and feedback.