Yes, the College Football Playoff Championship Game is just around the corner, but with the remainder of the bowl games under our belt I thought it would be interesting to look at some fun statistics. For instance, how many games had 100 or more points scored in them or how many cooked up over 1,000 yards of offense? Let’s take a quick look at where this bowl season took us statistically.
There were two bowl games that generated over 100 points. The GoDaddy.com Bowl was the last bowl game of the season, pre-championship game and ended up being the highest scoring. Toledo and Arkansas State combined for 107 points and 1,009 yards of total offense. Meanwhile close behind was the Miami Beach Bowl that put up 103 points, albeit into overtime before Memphis subdued BYU. Surprisingly, this game was witnessed by less than 21,000 fans.
After we put those games aside, what kind of yardage did we get for our money this season? Well, Western Kentucky and Central Michigan in the Popeye’s Bahamas Bowl put on a game for the ages with over 1,254 yards of total offense and 97 points. I am sure that the thirty four points put up by Central Michigan in the fourth quarter has to be close to an NCAA record for most points scored in the fourth quarter of a bowl game. Texas A&M and West Virginia, to no one’s surprise also poured out 1,001 yards of offense in the Liberty Bowl. The two teams also combined for 82 points.
Where this really gets interesting is when you look at two of the premier bowl games and see what kind of numbers the games produced. Take for instance the Cotton Bowl which featured Big 12 co-champion Baylor against defensive minded Michigan State. Let’s try over 1,125 yards of offense where Bryce Petty passed for 550 yards, and lost. This was one of the more interesting collapses of the bowl season, from a purely comeback point of view for the Spartans.
Now the Rose Bowl was a genuine beat down of epic proportions. Florida State couldn’t give the ball away enough times and Oregon was more than happy to capitalize on each and every miscue. To their credit though FSU was a part of over 1,167 yards of total offense, the Seminoles crunching 528 of those decent numbers. The Ducks just waddled all over the Seminoles misery.
This was the largest contingent of bowl games ever and the representation proves those numbers out. 76 teams representing 36 states took part in 38 bowls and it is interesting to see how each state fared at the end. The largest group was from Texas and California with each state having six universities participate. California went 4-2 {.666} in bowl games and Texas compiled a tidy 3-3 record for an even .500.
Florida and North Carolina both had paltry 1-3 records {.250} and got their wins from unexpected sources. The Gators got outplayed but subdued mistake prone East Carolina and N.C. State completed a wonderful comeback season under coach Dave Doeren and defeated UCF. Therefore the lone win was over the other state, just to add something goofy to the statistic.
Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina all came out unbeaten at 2-0, while Mississippi and Illinois burned out at 0-2. Ohio, with four teams was a wonderful 3-1 and Ohio State is going to the championship game. Meanwhile down in Alabama, the state is in shock as this is probably the first 0-3 record this crazy football state has ever received.
If you were a Tigers fan, your teams went 3-2. Clemson, Missouri and Memphis all came out winners. Auburn and LSU not so much. Bulldogs were 2-2, with Georgia and Louisiana Tech carrying the banner. Cardinal, birds or trees finished 1-1, while Wildcats whimpered in at 0-2. Huskies didn’t fare much better at 0-2, while the Wolfpack was 1-1 along with the 1-1 Broncos, and 1-1 Cougars. Thankfully either the Ducks or Bucks will be 2-0 after Monday night.
Yes, everyone bashed the SEC and it’s supposed collapse over the bowl season. Their 7-5 record probably doesn’t excite too many people, but please note that the SEC East was a perfect 5-0 during that run.
The mid-majors had seven games against power five conferences and came up on the losing end with a 3-4 mark. The biggest hat would be the prime time game when Boise State beat Arizona. In total, mid-major teams finished 12-13 in the bowls this year.
Rutgers and Maryland were new members of the Big Ten. Both schools went to bowl games and split wins and losses. Rutgers took down North Carolina in the Quick Lane Bowl while Maryland fell pretty convincingly to Stanford out in California for the Foster Farms Bowl. Newcomer to the ACC Louisville was a part of the SEC East sweep as the Georgia Bulldogs beat the Cardinals easily.
1,631,192 fans passed through the turnstiles (an average of 42,926 per game) and witnessed a plethora of wishbones, I-formations, power sweeps and hail marys. Hope you all enjoyed it!
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