Miami Hurricanes Poised to Join College Football Elite

MIAMI GARDENS, FL - NOVEMBER 05: Head coach Mark Richt of the Miami Hurricanes looks on during the second half of the game against the Pittsburgh Panthers at Hard Rock Stadium on November 5, 2016 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images)
MIAMI GARDENS, FL - NOVEMBER 05: Head coach Mark Richt of the Miami Hurricanes looks on during the second half of the game against the Pittsburgh Panthers at Hard Rock Stadium on November 5, 2016 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images) /
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The reason margin of victory is important is simple. Games decided by just a few points tend to have one play that goes the way of one team over the other. One play in a close game has a larger impact on the winner of the game.

Defeating your opponent by larger margins shows more relative strength over a large enough sample size. Adding the points scored by a team and allowed by a team to show the differential allows one to calculate a Simple Rating System score, which is a simple means of showing relative strength for each team.

The Results

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In 2016, Miami’s defense held eight of their ten P5 opponents under their average performance in yards per play. Offensively they exceeded the average performance of an offense against their opponents in seven of ten games.

For the season the Miami Hurricanes performed 0.45 standard deviations above the mean defensively, and 0.20 standard deviations above the mean offensively when compared to their opponents’ performance.

In 2015, Miami’s defense outperformed the average yards per play performance in only five of ten games. The offense performed above average in six of their ten contests.

For the season Miami performed 0.24 standard deviations below the mean defensively, and 0.07 standard deviations below the mean offensively when compared to their opponents’ performance.

Next: Defense