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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 = -0.24(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
1Western Michigan3.63
2Navy3.61
3Louisiana Tech3.59
4Oklahoma3.51
5Western Kentucky3.44
6Washington3.21
7South Florida3.18
8Texas Tech3.10
9Michigan3.06
10Pittsburgh3.04
11Toledo2.99
12Louisville2.98
13Ohio State2.97
14New Mexico2.96
15Penn State2.93
16Washington State2.89
17Air Force2.88
18Oklahoma State2.83
19Middle Tennessee2.81
20Boise State2.80
21Alabama2.76
22Clemson2.76
23Old Dominion2.75
24Memphis2.73
25San Diego State2.72
26Oregon2.68
27Colorado State2.67
28Tulsa2.65
29Florida State2.64
30California2.63
31USC2.63
32Kansas State2.60
33Temple2.55
34Auburn2.55
35App State2.54
36Army2.53
37Virginia Tech2.51
38Miami2.51
39Idaho2.42
40Georgia Tech2.42
41West Virginia2.38
42Iowa State2.38
43Texas A&M2.37
44Kentucky2.36
45Houston2.35
46North Carolina2.34
47LSU2.34
48Southern Miss2.33
49Notre Dame2.31
50UTSA2.31
51Wisconsin2.30
52BYU2.30
53Wyoming2.29
54Northern Illinois2.29
55Ole Miss2.28
56Baylor2.26
57Texas2.24
58Tennessee2.23
59Mississippi State2.22
60Stanford2.20
61Arkansas2.14
62Nevada2.13
63Utah2.13
64Hawai'i2.13
65UNLV2.12
66Arizona State2.11
67TCU2.10
68Troy2.09
69Northwestern2.08
70Nebraska2.07
71Minnesota2.07
72Miami (OH)2.05
73Iowa2.02
74NC State2.02
75South Alabama2.01
76Michigan State2.00
77Eastern Michigan1.97
78Arizona1.97
79Georgia Southern1.97
80Akron1.95
81SMU1.89
82UTEP1.89
83Ohio1.89
84Florida Atlantic1.87
85Vanderbilt1.84
86UCLA1.84
87Arkansas State1.84
88Georgia1.83
89North Texas1.83
90Missouri1.83
91Ball State1.82
92Colorado1.81
93Duke1.78
94Utah State1.77
95Indiana1.76
96East Carolina1.76
97Massachusetts1.71
98Purdue1.68
99Maryland1.67
100Oregon State1.67
101Charlotte1.65
102Rice1.65
103Louisiana1.64
104Marshall1.64
105San José State1.64
106Central Michigan1.62
107UL Monroe1.61
108UCF1.61
109Florida International1.60
110Florida1.59
111Virginia1.58
112Bowling Green1.57
113Syracuse1.55
114South Carolina1.55
115Tulane1.51
116New Mexico State1.46
117Georgia State1.45
118Buffalo1.36
119Wake Forest1.33
120Cincinnati1.28
121Fresno State1.25
122Boston College1.23
123Illinois1.18
124UConn1.04
125Kent State1.02
126Texas State0.94
127Kansas0.89
128Rutgers0.67

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.