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Drive Efficiency

Analysis

Every team gets about a dozen possessions a game. This is what they do with them, and what they give up.

Points per drive, both directions

Scoring across, points allowed up. Fast and slow teams compare fairly here, because it is per possession. Top right is best.

1.02.03.01.02.03.04.0Points per drive← worsebetter →Points per drive allowed← worsebetter →
128 teams · dashed lines mark the league medianr = -0.11(r² = 0.01)

Sorted by Points per drive (offense). Every possession is an opportunity; this is what one is worth. Tap any column to re-sort.

#TeamPPD
1Oregon3.63
2Georgia Tech3.47
3Baylor3.35
4Marshall3.34
5Ohio State3.33
6Georgia3.29
7Western Kentucky3.22
8Georgia Southern3.17
9Michigan State3.12
10Auburn2.98
11Alabama2.97
12Toledo2.94
13Kansas State2.81
14TCU2.79
15Navy2.75
16Wisconsin2.69
17Boise State2.68
18USC2.66
19Colorado State2.65
20Western Michigan2.65
21App State2.60
22Florida State2.58
23California2.54
24Pittsburgh2.53
25Miami2.53
26NC State2.53
27Nebraska2.52
28Mississippi State2.51
29Louisiana Tech2.49
30Arkansas State2.49
31Cincinnati2.49
32Old Dominion2.49
33Air Force2.49
34South Carolina2.47
35Oklahoma2.42
36Buffalo2.42
37Notre Dame2.42
38BYU2.38
39Texas A&M2.36
40Northern Illinois2.35
41Stanford2.32
42Arkansas2.30
43Rice2.30
44Central Michigan2.29
45Nevada2.27
46East Carolina2.27
47Texas Tech2.25
48Arizona2.23
49Arizona State2.22
50North Carolina2.21
51Louisiana2.20
52UCLA2.20
53Boston College2.20
54Minnesota2.19
55Houston2.18
56New Mexico2.17
57Duke2.17
58Memphis2.14
59Ball State2.13
60Texas State2.13
61UTEP2.12
62Rutgers2.11
63Middle Tennessee2.11
64Missouri2.11
65Idaho2.10
66Army2.05
67Washington State2.02
68Massachusetts2.01
69Bowling Green2.00
70San Diego State1.99
71UAB1.98
72Miami (OH)1.95
73Tennessee1.94
74UCF1.94
75Utah1.94
76Iowa1.94
77West Virginia1.93
78Colorado1.92
79Oregon State1.89
80Louisville1.88
81LSU1.87
82Florida Atlantic1.86
83Washington1.86
84Florida1.85
85Utah State1.80
86Clemson1.77
87Texas1.71
88Troy1.69
89Iowa State1.69
90Georgia State1.68
91Indiana1.66
92Fresno State1.66
93Oklahoma State1.63
94Hawai'i1.62
95Ole Miss1.62
96Michigan1.59
97South Alabama1.58
98Kentucky1.58
99UNLV1.56
100Southern Miss1.56
101Illinois1.56
102Tulsa1.56
103Purdue1.56
104New Mexico State1.53
105Akron1.53
106Maryland1.51
107Wyoming1.49
108Ohio1.49
109Virginia1.48
110Northwestern1.45
111Penn State1.38
112Virginia Tech1.33
113UL Monroe1.31
114San José State1.31
115Florida International1.29
116UTSA1.26
117Kent State1.24
118UConn1.16
119Kansas1.16
120North Texas1.16
121Temple1.13
122South Florida1.07
123Vanderbilt1.05
124Syracuse0.97
125Eastern Michigan0.94
126Wake Forest0.84
127Tulane0.82
128SMU0.82

What counts as a drive

210,509 possessions counted. A drive that starts with 24 seconds left and ends in a kneel is a real row in the data and a fake possession; left in, it drags every team’s points per drive down in proportion to how often their games were already decided. Excluded here:

  • end of half / game / quarter possessions
  • possessions starting inside 40s of a half
  • kickoff and uncategorised rows
  • FBS vs FCS games

CFBD spells the same outcome four ways across seasons — FG / FG GOOD / MADE FG, DOWNS / TURNOVER ON DOWNS / POSS. ON DOWNS — so every result is normalized once at build time rather than string-matched anywhere downstream.