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Back In My Day, Top 25 Teams Used To Play Each Other

Mar 2, 2010, 9:20 PM UTC

â†µâ†µRemember when things like Miami-Notre Dame used to happen? If you’reâ†µ35 or older, the answer is probably “yes.” If you’re younger, those daysâ†µare increasingly fuzzy. You know in your heart that the amount ofâ†µfootball top teams play against each other has declined dramatically.â†µHell, as recently as 1997 Michigan’s non-conference schedule wasâ†µColorado, Notre Dame, and Baylor. Baylor is just Baylor, but that’sâ†µthree BCS opponents. The only team doing that sort of scheduling anymoreâ†µis USC, and that’s largely because fickle Los Angeles fans aren’t goingâ†µto shell out for the San Jose States of the world. â†µ

â†µâ†µNow thanks to Brian Fremeau, freelance statistical guy and Football Outsiders contributor,â†µyou can take that knowledge out of your heart and put it on aâ†µspirograph. Fremeau has analyzed the number of games between top 25â†µteams in the years 1989 and 2009 and comes to an unsurprisingâ†µconclusion:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥The AP final top-25 was significantly more connected in 1989 thanâ†µâ‡¥2009. Only nine ranked teams played at least four games against otherâ†µâ‡¥ranked teams last season; in 1989, 18 ranked teams did so. Twenty yearsâ†µâ‡¥ago, the AP top-10 either played or shared a common opponent with anâ†µâ‡¥average of 17 other ranked teams. In 2009, the AP top-10 either playedâ†µâ‡¥or shared a common opponent with an average of only 12.6 other rankedâ†µâ‡¥teams.â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥In twenty years, the frequency of games played between top-25â†µâ‡¥teams has been nearly cut in half.â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µHowever obvious that may be, at least it’s good to know there areâ†µnumbers to back up your crotchety-old-man-complaining about what it wasâ†µlike back in your day. In your day, crotchety old person of 35 or more,â†µit was actually better. Also, the post comes with some sweet dataâ†µvisualizations. â†µ

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â†µFremeau suggests one of the main culprits is conference expansion,â†µwhich seriously limits the ability of independent teams to act asâ†µbridges between conferences. There are a few others: games against I-AAâ†µteams have also doubled, and I-A has added 14 teams, none of them anyâ†µgood, in the interim. When you've got so many more options for easy winsâ†µand the incentives are all aligned towards those wins, the results writeâ†µthemselves. â†µ

â†µâ†µThere are plenty of ways to fix this: ban I-AA games, force teams toâ†µplay at least five true road games a season, banish teams that have no business inâ†µI-A back to where they belong. Since the men in charge regard thisâ†µchange as a feature, not a bug, none of them will be undertaken. As youâ†µwere. â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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