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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.

1.02.03.01.02.03.0Points per drive← worsebetter →Points per drive allowed← worsebetter →
128 teams · dashed lines mark the league medianr = -0.25(r² = 0.06)

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

#TeamPPD
1Navy3.73
2Baylor3.48
3Stanford3.38
4Western Kentucky3.32
5North Carolina3.26
6Bowling Green3.25
7Arkansas3.16
8Oklahoma3.15
9Texas Tech3.11
10Southern Miss3.11
11Georgia Southern3.04
12Oregon2.92
13Western Michigan2.91
14Notre Dame2.87
15California2.84
16Houston2.83
17Ohio State2.79
18Clemson2.79
19Memphis2.78
20Ole Miss2.75
21Toledo2.74
22Boise State2.70
23LSU2.69
24Air Force2.68
25Oklahoma State2.65
26Louisiana Tech2.64
27App State2.62
28San Diego State2.60
29TCU2.59
30USC2.59
31Michigan2.56
32Tennessee2.55
33NC State2.49
34Florida State2.48
35Mississippi State2.45
36Indiana2.45
37South Florida2.45
38Washington State2.43
39Michigan State2.42
40Nebraska2.41
41Iowa2.38
42Arizona2.38
43Tulsa2.37
44Cincinnati2.34
45UCLA2.33
46Pittsburgh2.30
47Auburn2.30
48West Virginia2.28
49Utah State2.27
50Alabama2.25
51Temple2.23
52Arkansas State2.19
53Arizona State2.19
54Utah2.18
55San José State2.18
56Washington2.18
57Middle Tennessee2.15
58BYU2.13
59Wisconsin2.12
60Kansas State2.12
61Nevada2.10
62Idaho2.10
63Colorado State2.10
64Eastern Michigan2.09
65Duke2.09
66Georgia Tech2.08
67Central Michigan2.04
68Northern Illinois2.04
69New Mexico2.03
70Virginia Tech2.03
71East Carolina2.00
72Rice1.99
73Marshall1.98
74Army1.97
75Miami1.97
76SMU1.96
77Florida International1.95
78Virginia1.92
79Ohio1.91
80Old Dominion1.88
81Penn State1.87
82Texas1.87
83Iowa State1.86
84Georgia State1.85
85Louisville1.85
86South Carolina1.84
87Louisiana1.84
88Syracuse1.80
89Georgia1.79
90UTSA1.77
91Kentucky1.77
92Minnesota1.75
93Rutgers1.75
94Florida1.75
95Troy1.72
96Akron1.69
97Colorado1.69
98New Mexico State1.69
99Ball State1.68
100Texas A&M1.68
101Massachusetts1.67
102South Alabama1.66
103Florida Atlantic1.62
104Wyoming1.62
105Texas State1.61
106UNLV1.60
107Purdue1.55
108Buffalo1.54
109Maryland1.51
110Illinois1.44
111UConn1.37
112Oregon State1.33
113Fresno State1.21
114UL Monroe1.20
115Miami (OH)1.14
116Hawai'i1.14
117Tulane1.12
118UTEP1.09
119Northwestern1.07
120North Texas1.07
121UCF1.05
122Wake Forest1.01
123Missouri0.94
124Boston College0.92
125Kansas0.74
126Charlotte0.72
127Vanderbilt0.69
128Kent State0.56

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.