What causes victory in an SEC game?

An SEC game is full of action. There are smashing hits, big plays, momentum-turning interceptions, and best of all, touchdowns. However, my dad and I want to find what matters most in an SEC game -- or what leads to victory. Is it turnovers or rushing yards? First downs or total yards? Passing yards or points? At first, all of these seemed equally important. But my dad and I used something called correlation to find out which one mattered most.


First, let's describe what we mean by victory. We decided to use the difference in points as a measure of victory, which is Team A points minus Team B points. Each game has a winner, but if that team wins by 30 points, then you know it was a more solid victory.


Second, let's list all of the things that might lead to victory (or "bigger margin of" victory):

• Offensive Points
• First downs
• Rushing Yards
• Passings Yards
• Total Yards
• Total Yards difference (Team A minus B)
• Turnovers

Third, I had to actually collect the data. I decided to pick some good teams from the SEC and find out what happened in each statistical category after each game when they played one another last year. I picked Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, and Tennessee. These teams played a total of 12 games against one another, but not every team played every other. After I collected all the data from ESPN.com into an Excel spreadsheet, I saw what happened in each statistical category for each game.


Before I looked more closely at the numbers, I thought total yards difference would matter the most for victory. I was surprised to find out about the results, I hope you will too... (see my next post for the results!)