Following the Whitewater Winter Bash at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (UWW) on December 4th, there are no more scheduled tournaments for the remainder of the 2016 calendar year. This has certainly been an active year in the NCDA, with many brand new teams, even more tournaments, and overall, tons of dodgeball. As a result, I wanted to take the time to highlight some of the league leaders in some interesting stats (or at least what I thought was interesting) over the course of this season. With that being said, let’s take a look at some of these “key” stats.
Best Records
Al Davis said it best, “Just win, baby.”
Here are the top 5 teams by win-percentage this season:
| School | Win % | Overall |
| WKU | 0.875 | 7-1 |
| GVSU | 0.8667 | 13-2-1 |
| JMU | 0.8333 | 5-1-1 |
| UWP | 0.8333 | 5-1 |
| Towson | 0.7857 | 11-3 |
Top 5 teams by total wins:
*VCU was also tied with MSU and UK at 10 wins but was left out due to lower win-percentage
| School | Total Wins | Total Games |
| GVSU | 13 | 15 |
| Towson | 11 | 14 |
| Kent | 11 | 16 |
| UK | 10 | 13 |
| MSU | 10 | 13 |
Top 5 teams by longest win streaks this season:
| School | Win Streak | Total Games |
| MSU | 9 | 13 |
| GVSU+ | 8 | 15 |
| Kent | 7 | 16 |
| Towson | 7 | 14 |
| UK+ | 7 | 13 |
+ Denotes an active streak
Highest Scoring
Keeping it in the football family with this quote from John Madden, “Usually the team with the most points wins the game!”
Here are the top 5 teams by total points scored this year:
| School | Points Scored | PPG |
| UK | 51 | 3.92 |
| Towson | 48 | 3.43 |
| GVSU | 46 | 3.07 |
| VCU | 46 | 2.71 |
| Kent | 36 | 2.25 |
Top 5 by points per game (PPG):
| School | PPG | Total Games |
| UNG | 4.80 | 5 |
| UWP | 4.67 | 6 |
| WKU | 4.00 | 8 |
| UK | 3.92 | 13 |
| Towson | 3.43 | 14 |
Least Scored On
Let’s keep the football sayings going, “Defense wins championships.” Here are the top 5 teams that have given up the least amount of points per game this season so far:
| School | Points Allowed | PPG |
| GVSU | 14 | 0.93 |
| JMU | 6 | 1 |
| UWP | 7 | 1.17 |
| Towson | 17 | 1.21 |
| WKU | 10 | 1.25 |
“Most Experience”
Here is the top 5 teams by total games played, and subsequently tournaments as well:
*Only Varsity matches were counted (excludes scrimmages, JV matches, and 6 v. 6 matches)
**Doubleheaders were included as tournaments
| School | Total Games | Total Tournaments |
| BGSU | 18 | 6 |
| VCU | 17 | 6 |
| Kent | 16 | 5 |
| GVSU | 15 | 6 |
| Towson | 14 | 5 |
Top 5 by total full points played:
| School | Points Played | Total Games |
| VCU | 81 | 17 |
| BGSU | 75 | 18 |
| UK | 68 | 13 |
| Kent | 66 | 16 |
| Towson | 65 | 14 |
Top 5 by total overtime games:
*GVSU, Kent, and Akron all tied with 3 overtime games and 2 overtime wins
| School | Overtime Games | Overtime Wins |
| CMU | 5 | 1 |
| Ohio | 5 | 0 |
| SVSU | 4 | 2 |
| MSU | 3 | 3 |
| BGSU | 3 | 3 |
In terms of looking at stats across the entire league, there is a lot of data to show the growth from last year into this year. For example, during the 2015-16 season, there were 19 overtime games total during the regular season, and 23 overall including Nationals. There have been 20 overtime games already from the first semester alone, and there is sure to be plenty more in the next. This is an indication that teams and games are becoming more and more competitive, which is great for the league.
There have also been 119 officially recorded matches this semester (including forfeits). By this point last year, there were only 89 total matches played, which speaks volumes about the growth of individual teams, and the efforts from the Director of League Expansion, Jacob Leski. We now have 28 officially registered teams in the league that have a recorded varsity match this season, up from 22 last season. These new teams include: University of North Georgia, Georgia Southern University, Northern Illinois University, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, University of Pittsburgh, and returning member University of Miami (OH). There are still some new schools looking to play their first official matches this year such as Virginia Tech and the U.S. Naval Academy.
On the scoring front, there has been a slight increase in scoring from last year to this year as well. To this point last season, games averaged 4.03 full points. That number has gone up to 4.70. Whether this number is statistically significant or not has yet to be determined, but it is an interesting observation nonetheless. This could possibly be impacted by the change of the blocking rule in the offseason, or just overall improved quality of teams.
In my personal opinion, this has already been the best semester during my 2.5 years in the NCDA. There are more teams than ever before, more teams that are willing to travel and get better, and overall, more excitement and energy than I’ve seen since I started playing. I have no doubt in my mind that it will only continue to get better, and I look forward to continuing to see the progress made in the NCDA.