As we enter what is sure to be a wild November in college football, we’re down to 11 Power 5 teams that are undefeated or have one loss. They’re the top 11 in the new College Football Playoff committee rankings. And five of them feature defenses that rank among the top 10 in stop rate.
What is stop rate? It’s a basic measurement of success: the percentage of a defense’s drives that end in punts, turnovers or a turnover on downs. This simple metric can offer a more accurate reflection of a defense’s effectiveness in today’s faster-tempo college football than yards per game or points per game. We’re now in Year 7 of tracking this statistic (here are the final standings for 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017) along with every defense’s points per drive average.
This week, Florida State made the move up to No. 8 in our updated stop rate standings after a 24-7 road win at Pitt, and Louisville has climbed to No. 9 after its 34-3 rout of Virginia Tech.
The Seminoles are getting stops on 76 percent of their drives against FBS competition and have really been playing at a high level on defense ever since their overtime win at Clemson and idle week. In the five games since then, this unit has allowed just five touchdowns and five field goals over a total of 60 drives.
Louisville deserves a ton of credit, too, for how it has responded since its inexplicable 38-21 loss to Pitt. The Cardinals dropped to 28th in the stop rate standings after that one but got right back on track with just three total points allowed over 20 drives against Duke and Virginia Tech to raise its stop rate back up to 75.5 percent.
Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State continue to hold down the top three spots in the stop rate standings heading into the Wolverines’ pivotal road trip to Happy Valley on Saturday. Nobody has figured out how to score 14 or more points against Michigan this season. In the past five seasons, 2021 Georgia was the only other team that has pulled off a nine-game streak of allowing 14 points or less. Michigan is going for 10 in a row on Saturday.
Here’s how those top 11 teams in the new CFP rankings compare in terms of stop rate this week. We’ve also included the offensive version of stop rate: score rate! That’s the percentage of offensive drives against FBS defenses that have ended with points. Only two teams — Michigan and Florida State — currently rank in the top 10 in both metrics.
CFP
Team
Stop Rate
Rk
Score Rate
Rk
1
82.5%
2
46.8%
23
2
74.7%
12
61.4%
2
3
87.4%
1
58.9%
4
4
76%
8
51.4%
10
5
67%
40
56.1%
5
6
71.3%
24
59.1%
3
7
72.7%
17
50.5%
15
8
72.1%
20
45.6%
27
9
65.2%
52
50.5%
12
10
81.9%
3
50.5%
13
11
75.5%
9
45.2%
32
How are the rest of the defenses across the country performing in stop rate? Here are the full FBS-only stop rate standings entering Week 11.
Note: All data is courtesy of TruMedia and Pro Football Focus.
Rk
Defense
G
Drives
Stop Rate
Pts/Drive
1
9
95
87.4%
0.63
2
8
80
82.5%
0.91
3
8
94
81.9%
1.06
4
9
115
78.3%
1.01
5
8
90
76.7%
1.28
6
8
98
76.5%
1.39
7
8
92
76.1%
1.41
8
9
104
76%
1.28
9
8
94
75.5%
1.49
10
8
88
75%
1.44
11
8
95
74.7%
1.25
12
8
87
74.7%
1.52
13
8
75
74.7%
1.55
14
8
106
74.5%
1.55
15
9
108
74.1%
1.51
16
9
108
73.1%
1.47
17
9
121
72.7%
1.63
17
9
110
72.7%
1.44
19
8
80
72.5%
1.54
20
9
104
72.1%
1.54
21
8
103
71.8%
1.55
22
9
106
71.7%
1.52
23
8
84
71.4%
1.48
24
8
87
71.3%
1.49
25
8
93
71%
1.61
26
8
89
70.8%
1.74
27
8
87
70.1%
1.66
28
8
96
69.8%
1.52
29
8
89
69.7%
1.73
30
8
102
69.6%
1.71
31
9
108
69.4%
1.52
32
9
99
68.7%
1.66
33
9
102
68.6%
1.86
34
8
89
68.5%
1.87
35
9
95
68.4%
1.81
36
9
104
68.3%
1.95
37
8
89
67.4%
1.83
38
8
95
67.4%
1.61
39
7
79
67.1%
2.16
40
9
103
67%
2.01
41
8
102
66.7%
2.02
42
8
101
66.3%
1.99
43
8
89
66.3%
1.97
44
8
94
66%
2.03
45
8
82
65.9%
1.95
46
8
84
65.5%
2.08
47
8
98
65.3%
2.04
47
9
98
65.3%
1.99
47
8
98
65.3%
1.93
50
8
95
65.3%
1.82
50
8
95
65.3%
2.06
52
8
92
65.2%
2.09
53
8
85
64.7%
2.18
54
8
99
64.6%
2.15
55
8
90
64.4%
2.17
56
8
84
64.3%
2.13
57
8
92
64.1%
2.08
58
8
97
63.9%
2.14
59
8
91
63.7%
1.92
60
8
90
63.3%
2.32
61
8
98
63.3%
2.31
62
9
106
63.2%
2.06
63
8
95
63.2%
2.02
64
8
86
62.8%
2.21
65
8
102
62.7%
2.37
66
8
99
62.6%
2.20
67
8
96
62.5%
2.18
68
8
93
62.4%
2.26
69
8
95
62.1%
2.15
70
8
89
61.8%
2.07
71
8
104
61.5%
2.23
72
8
96
61.5%
2.23
73
8
88
61.4%
2.25
74
8
98
61.2%
2.42
75
8
92
60.9%
2.24
76
8
93
60.2%
2.32
77
8
95
60%
2.44
77
8
95
60%
2.19
77
8
90
60%
2.56
80
8
89
59.6%
2.18
81
9
112
58.9%
2.45
82
8
90
58.9%
2.33
83
8
102
58.8%
2.56
84
9
111
58.6%
2.62
85
9
94
58.5%
2.61
86
8
96
58.3%
2.60
87
9
103
58.3%
2.57
88
8
91
58.2%
2.44
89
8
86
58.1%
2.41
89
8
86
58.1%
2.37
89
8
86
58.1%
2.29
89
8
86
58.1%
2.27
93
8
93
58.1%
2.90
94
8
81
58%
2.84
95
10
126
57.9%
2.63
96
8
92
57.6%
2.48
97
8
87
57.5%
2.45
98
8
103
57.3%
2.38
99
9
98
57.1%
2.76
99
8
91
57.1%
2.59
99
8
105
57.1%
2.81
102
8
93
57%
2.37
102
8
93
57%
2.67
102
8
93
57%
2.46
105
9
102
56.9%
2.30
106
8
100
56%
2.69
107
8
88
55.7%
2.59
107
8
88
55.7%
2.64
109
8
97
55.7%
2.66
110
8
87
55.2%
2.61
110
8
87
55.2%
2.80
112
8
93
54.8%
2.62
113
8
88
54.5%
2.85
113
9
99
54.5%
2.78
115
8
100
54%
2.56
116
8
102
53.9%
2.94
117
8
98
53.1%
2.57
117
8
98
53.1%
3.17
119
8
89
52.8%
3.04
120
8
86
52.3%
2.76
121
8
92
52.2%
2.65
122
8
94
52.1%
2.68
123
8
83
51.8%
2.71
124
8
95
51.6%
3.07
125
8
91
50.5%
2.64
126
9
105
50.5%
2.84
127
8
94
50%
2.83
127
8
92
50%
3.14
129
9
97
48.5%
3.14
130
9
100
48%
3.25
131
8
95
46.3%
3.47
132
8
93
46.2%
3.29
133
8
81
38.3%
3.52
GO DEEPER
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(Photo: Justin Berl / Getty Images)
2023-11-08 17:49:52
#College #football #stop #rate #standings #CFP #rankings #top #stack #defense
