I listened to a Saban interview where he clearly said "stats are for losers, final score is for winners".....and coming from someone who has studied statistics, football "statistics" are not statistics.....they are AVERAGES of NON-EQUIVALENT measurables.PlayerRep said:brewskis said:Statistics in football are only really meaningful when looking at the very top-tier teams. In fact, the use of the word "statistics" in football is an insult to the science of statistics. All we are doing is arguing about some random-ass AVERAGES that are used in an attempt to polish a turd. Anyone who considers sample sizes, SOS, standard deviations, and "garbage time" knows that the degree of accuracy is jack-shit.
In >75% of cases, you can't compare averages from one team to another team and say that one is more superior, let alone holds an advantage. Even when comparing averages, the difference is usually insignificant.
Why don't you call the Alabama coach and straighten him out? Statistics and metrics are very useful in sports, and they are very useful in business. Only an idiot would ignore all stats. On the other hand, I agree that stats often don't prove a particular point. They just are what they are. For example, third down conversion percentage is what it is. I think it's a meaningful and generally very meaningful stat, but it's only one of scores of stats. Most of the time I don't use stats to make or try to prove any point. I just post them. Sometimes, I use them to counter someone else's point.
Additionally.....I said in my response that "statistics" CAN be meaningful when looking at TOP-TIER teams, such as Bama. But for middle-tier teams....it's just numbers, and numbers are very different than statistics.