I pulled together some advanced college football rankings to see how Iowa stacks up against the teams it played, the other Big 10 teams and some potential bowl opponents.
There are a couple of different rankings I pulled. First is the F/+ rating used by Football Outsiders. It is a combination of two other ratings (the Fremeau Efficiency Index and the S&P+ ratings). Essentially these are looking at the succes rate per play as well as drive based efficiency. Again these are the rankings, you can go to Football Outsiders to see the raw ratings.
I've included the S&P+ ratings for passing and rushing offense and defense as well.
Team | F/+ | F/+ Offense | F/+ Defense | S&P+ | S&P+ Offense | S&P+ Pass Offense | S&P+ Rush Offense | S&P+ Defense | S&P Pass Defense | S&P Rush Defense | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ohio State | 5 | 5 | 27 | 7 | 3 | 20 | 1 | 32 | 49 | 34 | ||
Wisconsin | 9 | 23 | 8 | 4 | 18 | 33 | 6 | 5 | 15 | 9 | ||
Michigan State | 12 | 55 | 2 | 12 | 75 | 89 | 82 | 3 | 3 | 1 | ||
Iowa | 28 | 49 | 16 | 24 | 58 | 41 | 54 | 10 | 27 | 5 | ||
Michigan | 35 | 36 | 32 | 41 | 41 | 19 | 65 | 48 | 51 | 29 | ||
Nebraska | 44 | 60 | 41 | 58 | 45 | 65 | 14 | 70 | 53 | 90 | ||
Minnesota | 47 | 74 | 40 | 71 | 74 | 63 | 71 | 52 | 35 | 73 | ||
Northern Illinois | 53 | 44 | 66 | 66 | 32 | 30 | 20 | 97 | 107 | 99 | ||
Northwestern | 56 | 67 | 43 | 54 | 52 | 35 | 37 | 50 | 71 | 51 | ||
Iowa State | 83 | 84 | 81 | 89 | 89 | 78 | 61 | 81 | 37 | 105 | ||
Purdue | 113 | 112 | 105 | 112 | 114 | 100 | 85 | 91 | 68 | 72 | ||
Western Michigan | 117 | 118 | 93 | 117 | 120 | 115 | 118 | 108 | 88 | 116 | ||
Indiana | 57 | 13 | 106 | 43 | 12 | 16 | 4 | 94 | 95 | 71 | ||
Penn State | 61 | 72 | 33 | 51 | 84 | 67 | 94 | 23 | 43 | 6 | ||
Maryland | 64 | 75 | 70 | 59 | 56 | 36 | 35 | 59 | 57 | 54 | ||
Illinois | 70 | 39 | 96 | 69 | 32 | 30 | 22 | 102 | 103 | 81 | ||
Rutgers | 94 | 96 | 95 | 95 | 95 | 85 | 101 | 87 | 99 | 18 | ||
Missouri | 13 | 27 | 9 | 9 | 20 | 21 | 32 | 14 | 11 | 17 | ||
South Carolina | 15 | 10 | 19 | 15 | 13 | 8 | 45 | 24 | 19 | 38 | ||
LSU | 18 | 9 | 47 | 20 | 11 | 5 | 25 | 47 | 26 | 53 | ||
Texas A&M | 23 | 3 | 86 | 17 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 67 | 50 | 75 |
Some of my observations:
- Iowa had a tough Big Ten schedule (duh).
- Iowa's passing offense was actually more efficient than the rushing offense.
- The gap between Ohio State's rushing offense and the number 2 rushing offense (Oregon) is as big as the gap between number 2 and number 13 (ASU).
- The loss to NIU sticks out here. Other then that game, Iowa beat all the teams rated lower than them and lost to higher rated teams.
- Maryland and Rutgers may have some tough sledding ahead of them next year. Rutgers was right between Purdue and Illinois.
- Iowa State is not the best 3 win team in the country. 3-8 Memphis ranks 69th in F/+ (although they have a game left against Connecticut so they could end up a 4 win team). Even 2-10 Virginia is ranked ahead of ISU at 75.
The potential bowl opponents look like a tough matchup.
- Facing Texas A&Ms offense would be a huge test but their defense would be in the bottom half of the Big Ten and is similar to Nebraska's.
- Missouri's offense is probably underrated here. They didn't have their top QB for several games this year although they still seemed to do ok.
- The three of the four potential bowl opponents I've listed have more efficient pass offenses than rushing offenses.
- LSU's passing offense is really good. Their defense is about on par with Michigan but its pass defense is better than its rushing defense.