Building on the drive summary plot design introduced a few weeks ago and inspired by last week’s look into historic handmade possession diagrams , this week I’m pulling a few elements together into an overall game possession and drive summary visualization: Data visualization of the CFP National Championship game played on January 19, 2026 and won by Indiana over Miami by a final score of 27-21.…
There’s no time like the present to obsess over old school, hand-illustrated possession charts. Image from “The Rose Bowl: A Complete Action and Pictorial Story of Rose Bowl Football” book by Maxwell Stiles, a chart detailing possession sequences, annotations of key plays and players, and a summary table of game statistics for California’s 1938 Rose Bowl victory over Alabama. I have flipped…
I’ve been working on better ways to visualize college football game data for as long as I’ve been collecting it. This is the start of what I hope/expect will be a series of whiteboard posts about the development and refinement of new game and possession data visualization standards. Chart titled “Drive Summary v.01”, an illustrated data table representing Miami’s 11 offensive drives against…
Possessions per game have steadily declined since 2015, points per game reached a 15-year low in 2025, plays per game have held steady over the last three seasons, points per possession appear to be leveling off, and plays per possession jumped to a 19-year high... Chart series titled "FBS vs FBS Trends, 2007 to 2025" with line charts illustrating trends in Possessions Per Game, Points Per Game,…
Let’s talk about visualizing game possessions in college football. Clock rule changes in combination with pace of play trends and improved offensive efficiencies have impacted the distribution and median number of possessions per game over the last 19 seasons. Chart titled "Possessions Per Game Season Distributions", a bubble chart representing games played between FBS opponents plotted by the…
Fifteen wins over FBS teams. Eight wins over FEI top-30 teams. Four wins over FEI top-5 teams. No losses. No matter how you slice the data, the 2025 Indiana Hoosiers are the most accomplished national champion to date. Chart titled "Best and Most Accomplished National Champions", a triptych of scatterplots illustrating the relationship between "best" (FEI) ratings and three versions of "most…
Welcome to the bcftoys whiteboard, something new here at the site. Aside from social media interactions, I haven’t otherwise had a feedback loop for folks that want to engage with FEI ratings, data visualizations, and more stuff that I produce. The whiteboard isn’t a fully developed idea yet, but perhaps it might be a place where a college football data community can form. I won’t promise a…