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CHARTING THE IRISH
POINTS PER DRIVE
In college basketball, using points per possession to measure offensive success is more accurate than
points per game. Points per contest is affected by pace — fast teams naturally score more points and
slow teams less — whereas points per possession examines how efficient you are, regardless of tempo.
The same principle applies to the much less referenced points per drive in college football. For example,
Navy and its clock-chewing option offense averaged 69.2 plays per game in 2015, per TeamRankings.com,
compared to 85.1 for Baylor and their much more up-tempo spread.
The Bears ranked No. 1 nationally with 48.1 points per game, and the Midshipmen checked in at No. 22
with 36.8. When removing tempo from the equation, though, Navy led the country with 3.70 points per
drive, per BCFToys.com, while Baylor ranked fifth with 3.24.
Notre Dame checked in at 13th nationally in points per drive in 2015, averaging 2.93 points per posses-
sion after filtering out first-half clock kills and end-of-game garbage drives and scores.
RANKING THE IRISH AND THEIR 2016 OPPONENTS
School 2015 Pts./Drive (national rank) 2015 Pts./Game (national rank)
1. Navy 3.70 (1st) 36.8 (22nd)
2. Stanford 3.59 (3rd) 37.8 (18th)
3. Notre Dame 2.93 (13th) 34.2 (34th)
4. USC 2.76 (18th) 33.9 (37th)
5. Michigan State 2.67 (24th) 29.8 (T-60th)
6. NC State 2.47 (41st) 33.2 (42nd)
7. Miami 2.07 (68th) 27.8 (T-71st)
8. Nevada 2.04 (70th) 26.2 (86th)
9. Army 2.00 (73rd) 22.1 (109th)
10. Texas 1.95 (78th) 26.4 (83rd)
11. Duke 1.93 (80th) 31.5 (48th)
12. Virginia Tech 1.91 (83rd) 31.0 (53rd)
13. Syracuse 1.84 (89th) 27.3 (77th)
