The Twelve Days Before The College Football Playoff. Day 3: ACC vs. Big Ten Conference
Game number two of the 2016-17 College Football Playoff will be the #2 Clemson Tigers (12-1), a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), vs. the #3 Ohio State Buckeyes (11-1), a member of the Big Ten Conference, at 7 p.m. Eastern Time on December 31st in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. The game will be played at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, and can be seen televised on ESPN.
The ACC has a three-to-one lead over the Big Ten in the season series. Here are the results of those games and all home teams are mentioned last:
Saturday, September 10th: North Carolina 48, Illinois 23
Saturday, September 10th: Penn State 39, Pittsburgh 42
Saturday, September 17th: Duke 13, Northwestern 24
Saturday, September 24th: Wake Forest 33, Indiana 28
Now that we know who played in these games, we need to analyze how these teams played against each other within their respective conferences. After we see the final scores to those games, we will look at how they fared (or the team they competed versus fared) against either Clemson or Ohio State:
ACC
Saturday, September 10th: Wake Forest 24, Duke 14
Saturday, September 24th: Pittsburgh 36, North Carolina 37
Thursday, November 10th: #17 North Carolina 27, Duke 28
Saturday, November 19th: Duke 14, Pittsburgh 56
Big Ten
Saturday, October 22nd: Indiana 14, Northwestern 24
Saturday, November 12th: #10 Penn State 45, Indiana 31
Saturday, November 26th: Illinois 21, Northwestern 42
And here’s how Clemson and Ohio State competed against the above-mentioned teams in games within their respective conferences:
Clemson
Saturday, November 12th: Pittsburgh 43, #2 Clemson 42
The Panthers had 464 total yards while the Tigers had 630 total yards. Pittsburgh had just one turnover while three turnovers led to Clemson’s detriment.
Saturday, November 19th: #4 Clemson 35, Wake Forest 13
Clemson had 456 total yards of offense while Wake Forest had just under 200 total yards of offense at 197. The Tigers had one turnover while the Demon Deacons didn’t turn the ball over at all.
Ohio State
Saturday, October 8th: Indiana 17, #2 Ohio State 38
Indiana had 281 total yards while Ohio State had 383 total yards. The Hoosiers and Buckeyes both turned the ball over twice.
Saturday, October 22nd: #2 Ohio State 21, Penn State 24
The Buckeyes had 413 total yards while the Nittany Lions had just 276 total yards. Ohio State had zero turnovers while Penn State had just one.
Saturday, October 29th: Northwestern 20, #6 Ohio State 24
The Wildcats had 406 total yards while the Buckeyes had 431 total yards. Northwestern had one turnover while Ohio State had zero.
Clemson and Ohio State both lost to teams from the state of Pennsylvania. Out of the 16 games mentioned in this story so far, the winning team had more total yards in eleven out of the sixteen games mentioned here.
The average scoring and total yards statistics for the 16 games mentioned above are as follows:
Average Points Scored: Clemson 38.5, Duke 17.25, Illinois 22, Indiana 22.5, North Carolina 37.33, Northwestern 27.5, Ohio State 27.67, Penn State 36, Pittsburgh 44.25 and Wake Forest 23.33
Average Points Against: Clemson 28, Duke 32.75, Illinois 45, Indiana 35, North Carolina 29, Northwestern 18, Ohio State 20.33, Penn State 31.33, Pittsburgh 33, and Wake Forest 23.67
Average Point Differential: Clemson +10.5, Duke -15.5, Illinois -23, Indiana -12.5, North Carolina +8.33, Northwestern 9.5, Ohio State +7.33, Penn State +4.67, Pittsburgh +11.25, and Wake Forest -2.33
Average Total Yards Differential: Clemson +212.5, Duke -39.75, Illinois -59, Indiana +48.75, North Carolina +46.33, Northwestern -10.75, Ohio State +88, Penn State -69.33, Pittsburgh +0.75, and Wake Forest -166
Both Clemson and Ohio State have positive numbers for average point differential and average total yards differential.
We also need to pay attention to what Clemson and Ohio State have done over the entire season and not just two or three games.
Clemson’s average offense is 505.7 total yards per game. The Tigers average defense is 313.9 total yards per game. The average differential is +191.8 total yards per game.
Ohio State’s average offense is 479.5 total yards per game. The Buckeyes average defense is 282.3 total yards per game. The average differential is +197.2 total yards per game.
The nonfactor-factor, the Big 12 Conference, has one win over the ACC this season while the Big 12 has two losses vs. Big Ten teams so far:
ACC vs. Big 12
Saturday, September 17th: Pittsburgh 38, Oklahoma State 45
Big Ten vs. Big 12
Saturday, September 17th: Ohio State 45, Oklahoma 24
Saturday, September 10th: Iowa State 3, #16 Iowa 42
There will be three bowl games between the ACC and the Big Ten Conference before the College Football Playoff games on December 31st:
December 26th: Quick Lane Bowl: Maryland Terrapins (6-6) vs. Boston College Eagles (6-6), 2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan.
December 28th: New Era Pinstripe Bowl: #23 Pittsburgh Panthers (8-4) vs. Northwestern Wildcats (6-6), 2 p.m. ET, ESPN, Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York.
December 30th: Capital One Orange Bowl: #11 Florida State Seminoles (9-3) vs. #6 Michigan Wolverines (10-2), 8 p.m. ET, ESPN, Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida.
Tomorrow’s story (Thursday) and the three days after that will focus on the potential conference head-to-head matchups in the National Championship Game. Then we will do previews for each team in the College Football Playoff over a four-day period. And on Day 12, I will predict who will win the two College Football Playoff Semifinal games (and maybe the National Championship Game). That is what will happen unless I decide to blow everything up and analyze the College Football Playoff in a whole new way.
