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Week 5 Advanced Statistics: The Big 12 Conference

I needed something mindless to do while the kids rested in the hotel room, so I put together something I've been wanting to do for a while: a look at the entire conference according to the advanced statistics from FootballOutsiders.com.

USA TODAY Sports

Below, I've created a table that will eventually hold all of the pertinent information about the Big 12 and its teams. You'll probably notice straightaway that a good portion of the table is blank; that is by design. Offensive/defensive FEI and the subcategories beneath them have not yet begun to update for 2013, so we don't have those available. Once we do, their spots on the chart will be filled. I'm not sure if Brian Fremeau intends to include his new "yards per stop" metric as a regular feature on FO, so I didn't make a spot for it in the chart. If he does, I'll make room for it in the future. Especially if Baylor continues to dominate the metric as it is currently doing (seriously, click that link).

So here's the chart. Again, all numbers are courtesy of the metrics at FootballOutsiders.com


Baylor Oklahoma Oklahoma State TCU Texas Tech Texas Kansas State Iowa State West Virginia Kansas
OVERALL:
F+/ S&P+ / FEI
6 / 5 / 21 8 / 13 / 4 11 / 9 / 16 29 / 36 / 24 36 / 55 / 23 54 / 37 / 68 61 / 63 / 62 62 / 92/ 43 77 / 49 / 96 107 / 115 / 98
O/D Categories Baylor O Baylor D OU O OU D OSU O OSU D TCU O TCU D TT O TT D UT O UT D KSU O KSU D ISU O ISU D WVU O WVU D KU O KU D
2013 F/+ Special Teams
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
2013 FEI Rk --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
2013 S&P+ Rk 1 (5) 67 (11) 27 14 15 11

70

18 62 45 19 70 63 65 79 85 55 41 119 79
2013 FPA --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
2013 FD Rk

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
2013 AY Rk

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
2013 Ex Rk

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
2013 Me Rk

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
2013 Va Rk

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
2013 Success Rate
1 (1) 10 (15) 52 11 7 16 87 21 76 37 58 87 26 84 88 106 80 17 98 59
2013 Points Per Play
1 (1) 31 (26) 52 19 29 11 89 56 59 25 41 94 31 47 103 75 71 57 105 27
2013 Rushing S&P+ Rk 4 (4) 2 (4) 29 27 11 16 71 46 103 35 59 106 52 94 80 96 57 61 83 88
2013 Passing S&P+ Rk 1 (1) 69 (104) 79 12 35 19 94 38 54 30 37 67 16 34 102 88 82 31 108 11
2013 Std. Downs S&P+ Rk 1 (1) 10 (10) 84 14 19 5 94 16 108 46 33 91 20 71 97 85 67 48 114 41
Run-Pass Ratio
(Std. Downs)
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
2013 Pass. Downs S&P+ Rk 1 (3) 47 (51) 18 29 17 46 64 102 10 14 84 87 62 43 94 90 85 34 81 33
Run-Pass Ratio
(Pass. Downs)
--- --- --- --- --- ---

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

There are a few things that jump out at me from this table, organized left-to-right by school according to the overall F/+ ranking at this moment. In the future, should the teams change overall ranking, I'll change the order.

From a Baylor perspective, everything looks about as you'd expect. Our defensive S&P+ ranking fell this week for reasons that are unclear, but the individual categories beneath it all improved. Our run defense looks extremely strong so far this season, and our pass defense probably isn't as bad as you expected. The offense is every bit as amazing as you thought, and more.

For everyone else, I was most surprised by the strength of the defenses from our neighbors to the immediate north, both of whom have strong teams overall. They, along with Baylor, form a clear upper echelon by these metrics for our conference, with TCU and Tech in the second tier (depending on where you draw the lines), followed by Texas, Kansas State, and West Virginia. UT is rocking a very "Baylor 2012" profile right now, with a good-to-great offense and extremely bad defense. Switch their awful run defense to an awful pass defense and it would be just about perfect as far as comparisons go. That they already have 2 losses with Baylor, OU, and OSU all left to play, in addition to TCU and Tech, and you have a serious problem.

Take a look at the numbers and let me know what you think. The point isn't to say definitively How Things Are at this point so much as to provide a base for movement in the future. With conference play kicking off for most teams either this week or next (and having already begun for the others), I figured now was as good a time as any.