Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME Brian Fremeau graduated from Notre Dame in 1999 and currently works for the university's stu- dent activities branch. In 2007, he joined FootballOutsiders.com as a statistical analyst, and his work has since been fea- tured there and on ESPN.com as a regular contributor. Blue & Gold Illustrated: How did you get involved in tracking statistics? Fremeau: "I had been playing with stats as a hobby, kind of a way to settle arguments or start arguments with my brothers back in the early 2000s. Partly because I was looking for data that didn't currently exist, and I wanted to know answers to questions about the true value of a turnover, for instance, or field posi- tion, etc. "I started collecting data myself and was fiddling with numbers and formulas and found something I liked." Blue & Gold Illustrated: Do you think we're seeing the beginning of a stats revolution like we've seen with baseball the past decade? Fremeau: "As much as I believe we are on a revolution, I know that there's a benchmark that baseball has set that I don't think football will ever touch. The sports are too different in terms of the data that is available. "I'm convinced that more and more can be done with football, and more will be done in the next generation of people." Blue & Gold Illustrated: Which stats are you pleased the selection committee is using and where do you think they are falling short with that? Fremeau: "It's too early to tell in my mind what stats they're using besides something measuring strength of opponent. They're clearly looking at the loss column as a significant data point. I'm not surprised by that, it's certainly understandable and that speaks to the most deserving type of rankings. "Even though their goal is to pick the four best teams, it's coupled with the teams that ought to be there, which isn't necessarily best." Blue & Gold Illustrated: Can you give an example of a statistic you use? Fremeau: "There's a stat I'm using now at Football Outsiders that I'm calling degree of difficulty. I have my own ratings, which are based on drive efficiency, opponent adjustments, etc. The degree of difficulty is taking a step away from that efficiency met- ric and saying, 'What is the quality of your record against the strength of your schedule?' "I think the committee is doing something like that. A 7-0 start against a certain schedule versus a 7-1 start versus another schedule versus a 6-2 start versus another schedule is I think where they're zeroing in on." Blue & Gold Illustrated: Is there ever a conflict between your two jobs or people calling you biased because you work at Notre Dame? Fremeau: "I think I'm more known as a Notre Dame fan than that I have a day job in South Bend. I guess from time to time that criticism could open itself up, but to be honest the data I'm publishing about Notre Dame is harsher on the Irish than my emotions would suggest. It's rare when I have the Irish overrated relative to the consensus and often- times I appear to have them underrated." — Andrew Owens Five Questions With … COLLEGE FOOTBALL STATISTICAL ANALYST BRIAN FREMEAU Fremeau joined Football- Out siders.com as a sta- tistical analyst in 2007. PHOTO COURTESY BRUCE FREMEAU