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🏅Part 2: Does Football Spending = Playoff Success?
Part two of our College Football Playoff breakdown
Hey there,
Surprise! We’ve got a Friday edition.
Last All-Access edition we dared to ask the question: Can you simply spend your way into a national championship? Looking at the CFP’s six smallest spenders, we came in contact with some data that confirmed, as well as countered, our hypothesis. Today we’re looking at the six biggest spenders in the CFP – and whether their odds are better than the six teams we talked about last time.
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— Cole, Justin and Collin
A Little Recap…
Here’s a recap of what we talked about last edition:
The #12 spender was Boise State, a deep longshot to win it all, and likely only in this position because of their singular superstar running back, who’s been one of the best players in the nation. They confirm the spending = CFP success odds theory.
The #11 spender was SMU – a bit of an interesting case, as their funding has increased rapidly over the last year, just out of the purview of the data set. Nevertheless, they also confirm the spending = CFP success odds theory.
The #10 spender was Indiana. The Hoosiers benefited from an easier schedule, but their lackluster funding also supports the prevailing theory.
The #9 spender was Oregon – a complete shakeup to the theory. Oregon is the favorite to win the entire CFP, and so it’s hard to see the correlation between their #9 institutional funding and their #1 odds of winning. After some discussion, we can only guess this is due to an influx of NIL cash that doesn’t appear within the DoE’s data set.
The #8 spender was Arizona State, who’s odds reflect those of a long-shot contender. Their success is similar to Boise State’s – riding the abilities of an elite RB and benefitting from a weaker conference schedule. They return our attention to the spending = CFP success odds theory.
The #7 spender, Tennessee, further confirms our suspicions: Middle of the road in football spending, and middle of the road in CFP odds. Aside from Oregon, our theory about the correlation between spending and playoff success odds seems to line up swimmingly.
