From time to time, when you see a good idea, it’s just fine to rip it off.

As long as you give credit where credit is due. 

For the past few seasons, I’ve been a fan of the website, ColdHardFootballFacts.com. 

They’re sports fans.  They’re geeks.  And they use their calculators to break down the NFL.

In doing so, they’ve developed a couple of interesting ways to grade teams’ offensive and defensive production.

We’ll take one of their formulas — “scoreability” — and apply it to the 2008 SEC football season (including bowl stats).



What is scoreability?

Well, it’s damn sure better than “drinkability,” that stupid Bud Light campaign that (for some unknown reason) has replaced Bud Light’s always funny ads in this year’s television rotation.

Scoreability is “a team-wide measurement, not just a measurement of offensive efficiency.  It takes into account a variety of factors, such as the proficiency of defense and special teams, red zone offense and turnover differential.”

To put it more simply, we look at the total offensive yards gained by a team and compare it to the total number of points scored by that team.

Some points come off of defensive scores, some off returns and blocks.  That’s all figured into this mathematical mix.



So, without further ado, here are the SEC’s teams ranked from 1 to 12 in terms of their ability to score points easily in 2008:


1.  Florida (10.2) — The Gators scored one point this season for every 10.2 yards they gained on offense.  It should surprise no one that they led the league in scoring… this team not only had a high-powered offense, but their special teams accounted for several scores as well.


2.  Alabama (11.8) – Just to be clear, that means the smashmouth, grind it out Tide scored one point for every 11.8 yards they gained on offense.


3.  LSU (11.9) — Considering the troubles they had with turnovers, that’s an awfully solid tally.


4.  Ole Miss (12.7) — Before the season I wondered how Houston Nutt’s “Wild Rebel” would mesh with Kent Austin’s CFL-schemes.  Pretty darn well, it turns out.


5.  Kentucky (13.2) – Didn’t see that one coming did you?  Kentucky was near the bottom of the league in total yards, but in the upper half of the conference in terms of points scored.  It might not have been pretty, but UK scored more easily than six other SEC teams.


6.  Vanderbilt (13.4) — Again, near the bottom on yards and near the bottom on points, Vandy made the most of their chances.  It’s just that their chances were rare.


7.  Georgia (13.5) — How can this be?  Georgia was second only to Florida in terms of yardage in 2008.  Yes, but they were fourth (almost fifth) in terms of points scored.  Red zone troubles anyone?


8.  South Carolina (15.2) — We’re really starting to see a drop-off now.  Steve Spurrier’s offense just can’t convert drives into points.  Too many turnovers and interceptions.


9.  Tennessee (15.5) – The Vols managed just one point for every 15-and-a-half yards gained in 2008. 


10.  Arkansas (17.0) — Bobby Petrino’s team finished in the top half of the league in total offensive yardage, but they were eighth in terms of points scored.


11.  Auburn (17.5) — Hope that new smashmouth spread works better than the old spread.


12.  Mississippi State (18.1) — To put this in perspective, let’s look at MSU in terms of a touchdown.  For every seven points the Bulldogs put up in 2008, they had to gain 126.7 yards of offense. 

By comparison, Florida would score 7 points after every 71.4 yards of offense.



And just for the record, here are the final 2008 tallies:

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Alabama, Homepage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.