Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Heisman Data and charts

Although Sam Bradford has been confirmed as the 73rd heisman trophy winner, my dad and I wanted to see if he deserved the trophy based on raw data. First, lets show you are data table:



As you can see in the data, Bradford dominated in passing yards and total touchdowns, while Tebow and McCoy were about tied in rushing yards while Bradford was left in the dust in that category. McCoy's completion percentage is very noticeable and remarkable, but I don't think it has much of an impact. McCoy did make some great passes, but half of his completions came from short yardage/high pertcentage passes.


How does the data look on a chart? Unfortunately, as you can see below, an absolute comparison is hard to evaluate, because the passing yards number is hundreds of times larger than the other numbers.

To make the comparison clearer, we modified each variable. Instead of using absolute values, we decided to put the data in percentages. For example, Tebow's passing yards % is 56, because his 2515 yards are just over half of the maximum, Bradford's 4464. Take a look at Chart TDM1 ...

On this chart, The Heisman candidates were placed on the x-axis while performance percentages were put on the y-axis. Chart TDM2 differs because the 5 QB categories are placed on the x- axis instead of the heisman candidates. Which one do you think is easier?



In our opinion, TDM1 is an easier chart. However, we thought there was one more way to graph this data. Behold... TDM3!



The question to you is, Who should have won the Heisman? Chart TDM3 says Tebow. My dad and I still believe Bradford was the best choice this year. Chart 3 adds up each category as if they were equally important. We disagree. Passing yards and TDs are - we think - most important.
Next up: who will be the ultimate Heisman QB? Once we assemble all the data, we may even be able to tell which category mattered most to the voters.

What we like about college football

Me and my dad are big fans of the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines. This may sound funny, I understand that Michigan and Ohio State are arch rivals and they have battled each other annually for decades. However, I am the bigger Wolverines fan and my dad likes the Buckeyes more. We will also be writing about standings and teams, mostly from the Big Ten, and we will have opinions on big games and recruiting. Enjoy!!!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Welcome to TD Math

Our second post is actually our official welcome to readers. Touchdown Math is dedicated to putting interesting college football statistics online, as well as our analysis and opinions of the great game of college football.

The main tools we will use include spreadsheet data, charts, and our writing skills.

We hope you enjoy it, especially if you like math.

Yours truly,
Sean and Tim K

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Bradford wins Heisman

Sam Bradford became the 73rd Heisman Trophy winner this weekend. The quarterback from Oklahoma passed for a staggering 4,464 yards and 48 touchdowns and had only 6 interceptions. Bradford beat Texas Quarterback Colt McCoy by 122 points and beat Florida Quarterback Tim Tebow by 151 points in the Heisman voting. Bradford is also the second sophomore in college football history to win the Heisman and the fifth Oklahoma Sooner to win the award. However, Tim Tebow will be out for redemtion, for his Gator's team will play Bradford's Sooners in the BCS championship game on Jan. 8.