This idea was blatantly stolen from Bird. The stats are from CFBStats. The math was done by Microsoft Excel. So I did very little work here. What can I say? Laziness is next to Godliness.
After the jump you'll find three tables. The first two look at offensive and defensive turnover rates in league games in 2008. The numbers are pretty simple, total plays are divided by total turnovers to get plays per turnover. A high number is good on offense and a low number is good on defense.
The last table shows turnover rate differential. It's offensive turnover rate minus defensive turnover rate. A higher number is good here as well.
Here are the offensive numbers. Again, these are league games only.
School | Plays | TOs | PPTO |
NC State | 487 | 5 | 97.4 |
Wake Forest | 538 | 8 | 67.3 |
Maryland | 522 | 13 | 40.2 |
Virginia Tech | 600 | 15 | 40.0 |
Duke | 517 | 16 | 32.3 |
Miami | 515 | 18 | 28.6 |
North Carolina | 513 | 18 | 28.5 |
Florida State | 538 | 19 | 28.3 |
Georgia Tech | 495 | 18 | 27.5 |
Clemson | 516 | 19 | 27.2 |
Virginia | 526 | 20 | 26.3 |
Boston College | 637 | 26 | 24.5 |
League | 6404 | 195 | 32.8 |
And the defensive numbers.
School | Plays | TOs | PPTO |
Virginia Tech | 514 | 23 | 22.2 |
Wake Forests | 527 | 22 | 24.0 |
Florida State | 490 | 18 | 27.2 |
Georgia Tech | 507 | 18 | 28.2 |
Boston College | 570 | 19 | 30.0 |
Duke | 563 | 18 | 31.3 |
NC State | 536 | 17 | 31.5 |
Virginia | 545 | 16 | 34.1 |
Clemson | 524 | 14 | 37.4 |
North Carolina | 564 | 13 | 43.4 |
Miami | 533 | 10 | 53.3 |
Maryland | 531 | 7 | 75.9 |
League | 6404 | 195 | 32.8 |
Both tables pretty much follow the final ranking based on total turnovers. Finally, turnover rate differential.
School | Off TO | Def TO | TO Diff |
NC State | 97.4 | 31.5 | 65.9 |
Wake Forest | 67.3 | 24.0 | 43.3 |
Virginia Tech | 40.0 | 22.3 | 17.7 |
Florida State | 28.3 | 27.2 | 1.1 |
Duke | 32.3 | 31.3 | 1.0 |
Georgia Tech | 27.5 | 28.2 | -0.7 |
Boston College | 24.4 | 30.0 | -5.5 |
Virginia | 26.3 | 34.1 | -7.8 |
Clemson | 27.2 | 37.4 | -10.2 |
North Carolina | 28.5 | 43.4 | -14.9 |
Miami | 28.6 | 53.3 | -24.7 |
Maryland | 40.2 | 75.9 | -35.7 |
League | 32.8 | 32.8 | 0.0 |
This one varies a little bit, mainly with North Carolina. The Tar Heels were No. 4 in the ACC with a 0.46 TO/game margin. However, when using turnover rate the Heels drop to No. 10. No other team varies anywhere near that much.
Turnover rate doesn't differ greatly from turnovers per game. However, I still think turnovers per play is a better judge of how well a team protects the ball or forces turnovers rather than turnovers per game.