99 Stats Until Kickoff (#71) Six Stats you may not know about… Super Bowl cities, states
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From May 30 and every day until September 5… the start of the 2013 NFL season… Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ will publish “99 Stats Until Kickoff” a daily dose of NFL stats that will get you ready for the 2013 NFL season.)
Super Bowl XLVIII will be played at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. It will be the first Super Bowl hosted in New Jersey. Here’s a look at Super Bowl host cities and states.
1. By hosting last year’s game, New Orleans is now tied with Miami as the cities that have hosted the most Super Bowls with 10. The other cities to host three or more times are Pasadena (5), Tampa (4) and San Diego (3). The state of Florida has hosted 15 Super Bowls followed by California with 11 and Louisiana with 10.
2. The NFC is 7-4 in Super Bowl games in California… the AFC is 10-5 in Florida-hosted Super Bowls… the two conferences have each won five games in 10 that have been hosted in Louisiana… the NFC is 20-12 in Super Bowls outside of Florida… The NFC is 5-0 in Super Bowls played in either Minnesota, Georgia or Arizona.
3. The NFC has won six of the last seven Super Bowls played in California… the AFC has won five of the last six Super Bowls held in Florida… the NFC has won three of the last five Super Bowl games played in Louisiana.
4. In 17 of the 47 Super Bowls, the final score was a margin of eight points or less. Seven of those 17 games were played in Florida.
5. In 18 of the 47 Super Bowls, the two teams combined for 50 or more points. Seven of those games were played in California. The highest scoring Super Bowl was Super Bowl XXIX when San Francisco and San Diego combined for 75 points. That game was played in Miami.
6. How well have teams done in specific time zones? Glad you asked. The NFC is 8-11 in Super Bowl games played in the Eastern Standard Time; the NFC is 8-7 in Central Standard Time Super Bowl games; the NFC is 2-0 in games played in Mountain Standard Time; and the NFC is 7-4 in games played in Pacific Standard Time. This year’s game in New Jersey will be played in an Eastern Standard Time zone city.
“99 Stats Before Kickoff” (Stats you need to know before the start of the 2013 NFL season) is available from e-book publisher Smashwords. Go to www.smashwords.com to download a copy, including a pdf version which can be viewed on your home computer. Cost is $2.99.
Greatest upsets in the last two weeks of the NCAA basketball tournament
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Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a sports statistics blog published multiple times weekly focusing on stats that go beyond the numbers.
Now that we’re down to the last two weeks of the college basketball season, let’s take a look at the upsets that have shaped the final rounds of the tourney. The criteria I’m using is to look at the seeds of each team and the biggest difference in those seed numbers by teams that were ranked lower than the team they defeated. There are three Sweet Sixteen match-ups on Thursday and Friday that could join the upsets listed below if the lower seeds can win: Xavier (#10 seed) vs. Baylor (#3), North Carolina (#1) vs. Ohio (#13), and Kansas (#1) vs. North Carolina State (#11).
Here are the greatest upsets in the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four and Championship Game in the NCAA tournament since 1979 when all teams were seeded in the brackets. (To qualify for the list the team that won had to have been seeded five spots or more lower than the team they defeated.)
SWEET SIXTEEN, seed difference, year, teams
9 1986: LSU (#11 seed) defeated Georgia Tech (#2 seed)
7 1987: LSU (#10 seed) defeated DePaul (#3 seed)
7 1991 Temple (#10 seed) defeated Oklahoma (#3 seed)
7 2002: Kent State (#10 seed) defeated Pittsburgh (#3 seed)
7 2008: Davidson (#10 seed) over Wisconsin (#3 seed)
5 1979: Penn (#9 seed) over Syracuse (#4 seed)
ELITE EIGHT, seed difference, year, teams
10 1986: LSU (#11 seed) defeated Kentucky (#1 seed)
10 2006: George Mason (#11 seed) defeated Connecticut (#1 seed)
10 2011: VCU (#11 seed) defeated Kansas (#1 seed)
6 1985: Villanova (#8 seed) defeated North Carolina (#2 seed)
6 2011: Butler (#8 seed) defeated Florida (#2 seed)
5 1983: North Carolina State (#6 seed) defeated Virginia (#1 seed)
5 1987: Providence (#6 seed) defeated Georgetown (#1 seed)
5 1992: Michigan (#6 seed) defeated Ohio State (#1 seed)
FINAL FOUR, seed difference, year, teams
6 1985: Villanova (#8 seed) defeated Memphis State (#2 seed)
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, seed difference, year, teams
7 1985: Villanova (#8 seed) defeated Georgetown (#1 seed)
5 1983: North Carolina State (#6 seed) defeated Houston (#1 seed)
5 1988: Kansas (#6 seed) defeated Oklahoma (#1 seed)
Sweet Sixteen teams: The usual suspects with a dose of Cinderella
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a sports statistics blog published multiple times weekly focusing on stats that go beyond the numbers.
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The first week of the NCAA men’s Div. I basketball tournament is in the books and we have our Sweet Sixteen contingent. All four number 1 seeds advanced, as did a pair of #2 seeds, a pair of #3 seeds and three #4 seeds. Back in 1985, the NCAA went to a 64-team field for this tournament. Since that year, 61.6% of the teams making it to the Sweet Sixteen were teams that started the tourney as a #1, #2, #3 or #4 seed. Another way of looking at this stat is that in the past 28 years of the tournament, 172 teams that were a #5 seed or lower made it to the Sweet Sixteen, an average of just over six teams per tournament (this year there are five teams seeded lower than a #4 seed still in the tourney).
Here’s a quick look at how many of each seed made it to the round of 16 in the tournament since 1985.
#1 seed…98 teams #2 seed…72 teams #3 seed…57 teams #4 seed…49 teams
#5 seed…39 teams #6 seed…38 teams #7 seed…19 teams #8 seed…10 teams
#9 seed…4 teams #10 seed…21 teams #11 seed…15 teams #12 seed…19 teams
#13 seed…5 teams #14 seed…2 teams #15 seed…0 teams #16 seed…0 teams
Here’s a few interesting notes about the seeds of the Sweet Sixteen teams from 1985 through 2012.
* #1 seeds: At least three of the number 1 seeds have made it to the round of 16 every year since 2005. At least three #1 seeds have made the Sweet Sixteen in 26 of the 28 tournaments; at least two #1 seeds has made the Sweet Sixteen every year.
* #2 seeds: At least two #2 seeds have made the Sweet Sixteen every year since 2001.
* #3 seeds: The only year that there was no #3 seed in the Sweet Sixteen was 1997.
* #4 seeds: Three #4 seeds in the Sweet Sixteen this year is the most since 2000 when three #4 seeds made it to the round of 16.
* #5 seeds: No #5 seed made the Sweet Sixteen this year breaking a streak of 19 straight tournaments that a #5 seed has been in the final 16.
* #6 seeds: This is only the second year in the past five that a #6 seed has made it to the round of 16.
* #7 seeds: #7 Florida this year is the first #7 in the Sweet Sixteen since 2008.
* #8 seeds: Only two #8 seeds have made it to the Sweet Sixteen in the last 10 years.
* #9 seeds: Only two #9 seeds have made it to the Sweet Sixteen in the last 18 years.
* #10 seeds: Three #10 seeds made the final 16 in 1999.
* #11 seeds: A #11 seed has made the Sweet Sixteen three straight years.
* #12 seeds: At least one #12 seed has made the Sweet Sixteen in eight of the last 12 tournaments.
* #13 seeds: #13 Ohio this year is the first #13 seed in the Sweet Sixteen since 2007.
SIX STATS you might not know about… Super Bowl host cities, states
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“SIX STATS…” is a bonus feature of Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ and is published every Friday.
Super Bowl XLVI will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. It will be the first Super Bowl in Indianapolis and the state of Indiana. Here’s a “SIX STATS…” look at Super Bowl host cities and states.
1. Miami is the city that has hosted the most Super Bowls with 10. They are followed by New Orleans with nine. The other cities to host three or more times are Pasadena (5), Tampa (4) and San Diego (3). The state of Florida has hosted 15 Super Bowls followed by California with 11 and Louisiana with nine.
2. The NFC is 7-4 in Super Bowl games in California… the AFC is 10-5 in Florida-hosted Super Bowls… the NFC is 5-4 in Louisiana… the NFC is 19-11 in Super Bowls outside of Florida… The NFC is 5-0 in Super Bowls played in either Minnesota, Georgia or Arizona.
3. The NFC has won six of the last seven Super Bowls played in California… the AFC has won five of the last six Super Bowls held in Florida… the NFC has won three of the last four Super Bowl games played in Louisiana.
4. In 15 of the 45 Super Bowls, the final score was a margin of eight points or less. Seven of those 15 games were played in Florida.
5. In 17 of the 45 Super Bowls, the two teams combined for 50 or more points. Seven of those games were played in California. The highest scoring Super Bowl was Super Bowl XXIX when San Francisco and San Diego combined for 75 points. That game was played in Miami.
6. How well have teams done in specific time zones? Glad you asked. The NFC is 8-11 in Super Bowl games played in the Eastern Standard Time; the NFC is 7-6 in Central Standard Time Super Bowl games; the NFC is 2-0 in games played in Mountain Standard Time; and the NFC is 7-4 in games played in Pacific Standard Time. This year’s game in Indianapolis will be played in an Eastern Standard Time zone city.
Brewers end “division leader on September 1” drought
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Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a biweekly blog published every Wednesday and Sunday with a bonus posting “SIX STATS…” published every Friday.
Prior to the beginning of the 2011 MLB season, six teams had never led their division on September 1 since 1994 when baseball went to three divisions in each league. The six: Toronto, Kansas City, Florida, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Colorado. The Milwaukee Brewers, however, will wake up tomorrow, September 1, and find themselves in the unfamiliar leader slot in the NL Central with one month remaining in the 2011 season.
In the 102 races since 1994 (17 years times six divisions), 82 (80.4%) of the teams that led their division on the morning of September 1 went on to win the division that year. Ironically, last year three teams that had the division lead the morning of September 1 did not win the title, the first time three September 1 leaders failed to win the division in a season since that first year of six divisions.
(WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG FOR A TRIVIA QUESTION: Can you name the three teams that led their division on September 1 last season but did not win the title? Answer at the end of the blog.)
Here’s a look at how far division leaders were ahead of their closest pursuer on September 1 and if they won the division that year. Based on the numbers below we see that of the 56 teams that had a lead of five or more games on September 1, 55 of those won the title that year. The only blemish was in 1995 when the California Angels had a 7.5 game lead in the AL West on September 1 but lost out to the Seattle Mariners for the AL West crown.
Sept. 1 leader games ahead in standings Times Titles
0.5, 1 or 1.5 games ahead 16 10
2 or 2.5 games ahead 9 2
3 or 3.5 games ahead 10 6
4 or 4.5 games ahead 10 8
5 or 5.5 games ahead 10 10
6 or 6.5 games ahead 8 8
7 or 7.5 games ahead 11 10
8 or 8.5 games ahead 6 6
9 or 9.5 games ahead 0 0
10 or more games ahead 21 21
(Note: In one division race, 2007 NL West, two teams (Arizona and San Diego) were tied for the lead on Sept. 1. Arizona won the division.)
TRIVIA ANSWER: The three teams that had division leads last year on September 1 but did not win the title were the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres.
Did you know: Of the 30 teams that had a division lead of three games or less on September 1 since 1994, 16 did not win the division that season.
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