Miami Hurricanes Poised to Join College Football Elite

Methodology

To examine if Miami is returning to the power elite in college football only data from games involving Power-5 (P5) conference opponents was used. The reasons for doing so are that these teams will be on a similar playing field from a resource and talent standpoint.

Including games against teams from outside the P5 conferences can provide a much more uneven data set from which to draw from.

Within this data set, the calculation of the standard deviation for yards per play above and below the mean both offensively and defensively was used. The calculation of the standard deviation for yards per rush and yards per pass was additionally examined.

As a means of providing context into the data, the calculation of the standard deviations for Miami’s opponents in their games against P5 opponents (removing the game versus Miami) was used. While the records between 2015 and 2016 may be similar, the numbers show one team was clearly superior to the other.

The second means used for evaluation was whether the Miami Hurricanes is on the path towards a return to prominence is in the area of the margin of victory. Games that are decided by single digits tend to show more variance on a year-to-year basis. A larger margin of victory tends to be sustainable when it comes to winning football games.