How Well Do the Big Ten Favorites Stack Up?

It seems to be the opinion of some that the Big Ten has three contenders this year. Of course that remains to be seen, but it is a good time to stack these teams up and see what they look like side by side.

What makes this comparison both logical and accurate is the low amount of starters these three teams lost in 2009. With most of the key players coming back in 2010 we can assume production to be similar with some improvement.

Ohio State, Iowa and Wisconsin are the three teams compared here. This is due to them being the three highest ranked Big 10 teams in 2010. There are two fairly easy points to see from this analysis. The Big Ten will be close this year. The Big Ten does not compare well to other BCS Conferences offensively.

I did find it interesting that the Big Ten is again on line with the SEC in most defensive statistics. The SEC still has quite an advantage offensively.

All statistics for this comparison will be from the national NCAA database.

 All rankings are national rankings in the 120 FBS Schools.

Statistic	Ohio State	Iowa	Wisconsin
Total Offense	68th	89th	30th
Total Offense Yds.	4797 total yds.	4372 total yds.	5220 total yds.
Rushing Offense	18th	99th	15th
Rushing Yds.	2540 total yds.	1485 total yds.	2650 total yds.
Passing Offense	103rd	55th	66th
Passing Yds.	2257 total yds.	2887 total yds.	2770 total yds.
Scoring Offense	49th	86th	25th
Scoring Average	29 ppg	23.15 ppg	31.77 ppg
Passing Efficiency	60th	83rd	29th
Efficiency Score	127.98	121.96	141.01
Red Zone Offense	84th	41st	3rd
Time of Possession	21st	29th	1st
Avg. T.O.P.	31.30 min.	30.59 min.	33.55 min.
Turnovers Lost	28th	99th	68th
Total Turnovers	18	28	24
Sacks Allowed	24 total	29 total	23 total
Punt Returns	71st	78th	82nd
Avg. Punt Return	7.98 yds.	7.5yds	7.29 yds.
Kick Returns	45th	38th	106th
Avg. Kick Return	22.34 yds	22.95 yds.	19.21 yds.
Total Defense	5th	10th	17th
Avg. Yds. Allowed	262.31 yds.	276.54 yds.	305.69 yds.
Scoring Defense	5th	8th	33rd
Avg. Pts. Allowed	12.54 pts.	15.38 pts.	21.77 pts.
Rushing Defense	7th	34th	5th
Avg Yds. Allowed	90.77 yds.	123.62 yds.	88.23 yds.
Passing Defense	13th	4th	55th
Avg. Yds. Allowed	171.54 yds.	152.92 yds.	217.46
Turnovers Gained	35 total	30 total	27 total
Tackles For Loss	48th	59th	15th
Total TFL	78 total	74 total	92 total

If you found this interesting and want to compare some, I did another piece on the SEC Western Division that is similar. You can find it here.