Well Looky Here: Alabama Crimson Tide NCAA No. 1 in Passer Rating Differential

The Alabama Crimson Tide is the No. 1 team in major college football in Passer Rating Differential, the Mother of All Stats in the NFL.

We know from studies done by various college bloggers that our stats work at the college level, too. College teams, much like pro teams, generally win when they dominate the battle of passing efficiency.

The Tide is a 10-point favorite over Notre Dame. It certainly makes sense based upon PRD: the Irish are merely No. 29 in Passer Rating Differential.

Worth noting, however, that Notre Dame beat three teams in the PRD Top 20: Pittsburgh (No. 11), Oklahoma (No. 13) and USC (No. 17).

Alabama played three teams in the Top 30: they beat Georgia (No. 5) and LSU (No. 27), but lost to Texas A&M (No. 18). The Tide also padded its schedule against teams like Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic and Western Carolina, a 1-10 FCS team.

The NCAA uses a different passer rating formula than the NFL, yielding higher numbers. We didn't really have the ability to quickly recalculate all the numbers using the NFL formula. Still, it paints an interesting picture.

Here's the Top 30 in Passer Rating Differential in college football this year (OPR = Offensive Passer Rating; DPR = Defensive Passer Rating; PRD = Passer Rating Differential).

Team	OPR	DPR	PRD
Alabama	172.1	101.56	70.54
Florida St.	155.24	97.37	57.87
Fresno St.	152.71	100.8	51.91
San Jose St.	170.26	118.98	51.28
Georgia	170.21	119.67	50.54
Arizona St.	155.69	105.4	50.29
Utah St.	153.21	104.44	48.77
Oregon	159.76	111	48.76
Northern Ill.	151.71	105.89	45.82
Nebraska	140.85	96.64	44.21
Pittsburgh	155.87	112.71	43.16
Florida	133.46	91.6	41.86
Oklahoma	145.74	104.4	41.34
Vanderbilt	140.69	99.75	40.94
Boise St.	141.8	101.4	40.4
Clemson	165.46	132.41	33.05
Southern California	155.82	123.11	32.71
Texas A&M	151.77	120.92	30.85
South Carolina	150.71	120.26	30.45
Kansas St.	154.35	124.04	30.31
North Carolina	150.29	120.85	29.44
Cincinnati	143.19	114.17	29.02
Oregon St.	140.36	112.61	27.75
Louisville	154.83	127.37	27.46
UCF	145.79	119.76	26.03
Texas Tech	154.86	129.83	25.03
LSU	128.29	103.39	24.9
Wisconsin	136.41	112.6	23.81
Notre Dame	129.11	105.44	23.67
Oklahoma St.	148.98	125.36	23.62

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