“Is Conference A better/tougher/stronger/etc than Conference B?” is the wrong question.

I wrote about 100 games that brought college football to its current state, from Grantland Rice's poetry, to offensive innovations, to postseason controversies, to all-time upsets, to television spectacles, to realignment, to the epic endings that keep us coming back. www.espn.com/college-foot...

100 games that explain college football in 2026

TV, realignment, stars and legends, postseason quarrels. Those themes have set up epic games and made the current sport.

espn.com

England’s going to get so many first place votes in next season’s AP preseason poll.

It’s February 2nd again.

Andrew Hammond@ahamm.bsky.social · 3w ago

Son begins to run the family business

I'd really like to know what the difference between these two passes defensed was and why the 1975 Lions scorer decided to point it out.

Is it more weird that Cal and Clemson are part of the same conference, or that they only play two common conference opponents this year, or that Notre Dame has more common ACC opponents with each of them without being a conference member?

Just finished “Bottom of the 33rd” by @danbarry58.bsky.social and I officially have a new all-time favorite sports book, what a delightful read.

Everybody starts somewhere ... and prior season data is as useful a baseline as ever? 2026 FEI projections are now posted: bcftoys.com/2026-pfei

Every team ratings page on the site has been updated to include 2025 ratings. They’re all linked from the home page: bcftoys.com

Everybody starts somewhere ... and prior season data is as useful a baseline as ever? 2026 FEI projections are now posted: bcftoys.com/2026-pfei

I'm blown away! Are you blown?

Andy Kirk@visualisingdata.com · last mo.

People of Bluesky, may I present to you 'The Seinfeld Chronicles: Digital Edition' seinfeld.visualisingdata.com

The Seinfeld Chronicles: Digital Edition. This rebooted project visually, digitally, and sonically presents an entirely unnecessary data-driven exploration of every episode of Seinfeld. Launching midnight (UTC) Thu 25 June for newsletter subscribers and then to everyone else on Fri 26 at midday.

FEI preseason projections will continue to ignore roster and coaching change factors. Priors only.

⬣⬣⬣ WORLD CUP VIZ ⬣⬣⬣ Luke Benz (@recspecs730.bsky.social) made a model to measure the strengths of the teams in the Men's 2026 World Cup and I made viz from one million sims that shows the chances and the pathways for each team through the tournament. This thread updates (at least) daily.

A lovely reflection on how information artifacts are experienced: "Physical maps gather readers. They make looking social. They reward pointing, leaning, walking, and talking. They make scale felt before it is understood. They let time occupy space."

RJ Andrews@infowetrust.com · 2mo ago

“This map was not an image. It was an event.”—my latest for Chartography: www.chartography.net/p/a-voyage-i...

This detail is particularly funny

The B1G, ACC, and unfortunately Pete Bevacqua are going to try to convince you 24 teams is good for the sport. Why this dilutes the stakes of the regular season, gives "access" that's false hope, and how P4 programs already are in the mix: spreadsheetsandtailgates.substack.com/p/a-24-team-...

A 24-Team College Football Playoff Solves a Problem That Doesn't Exist

Athletic directors and conference commissioners love the idea of expansion revenue and are selling fans false hope bigger is better for the sport

spreadsheetsandtailgates.substack.com

“Breaking the NCAA Tournament”

Matt Norlander@norlander.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Breaking: The NCAA Tournament is expanding for the men and the women to 76 team beginning in 2027, sources told CBS Sports, unless something extremely unexpected and drastic occurs in the next week to prevent it. (Don't bank on it.) This story will update soon. www.cbssports.com/college-bask...

There’s a clear exponential curve between roster talent and NFL Draft picks. Good teams produce draft picks. Elite teams flood the draft.

It's a small thing but I love when kenpom updates and highlights the teams in the field.

Need a notation on this @neilpaine.bsky.social chart indicating precisely when @stevengodfrey.bsky.social and @celebrityhottub.bsky.social recorded the pod that turned things around... datawrapper.dwcdn.net/cGAE4/4/?utm...

The Sabres' playoff odds have grown steadily since December

Daily odds to make the 2025-26 NHL playoffs for the Buffalo Sabres, according to the Neil's Substack Elo forecast model

datawrapper.dwcdn.net

FUN and TRICKY "blind resume" game. I went stone cold in the Hard category, then got hot down the Expert stretch.

ObjectivelyDrew@objectivelydrew.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Expert tier is a gauntlet. #cbb Easy: 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢 5/5 Medium: 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢 5/5 Hard: 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢 5/5 Expert: 🟢🔴🔴🔴🟢 2/5 objectivelydrew.github.io/blind-resume

Really enjoyed this pair of articles on The Book and the evolving game theory that influences college football coach decision making.

Seth Emerson@sethemerson.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Last year, more teams went for it on fourth down than have in at least the last 20 years. And more teams went for it in their own territory - and more people are playing THIRD down as if they're going to go for it. Much of all this goes back to The Book. The story: www.nytimes.com/athletic/708...

This Is March (when I begin to pay attention to smart people and good visual explainers of a sport I give some real attention to only one month out of the year)

Evan Miyakawa@evanmiya.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Which teams have overachieved relative to their roster? This graph compares the quality of each team's resume to their preseason roster grade at EvanMiya.com. Teams above the middle gray area have significantly out-performed their roster talent👇

Starting field position study based on 300k+ non-garbage offensive drives in FBS games since 2007

Starting field position study based on 300k+ non-garbage offensive drives in FBS games since 2007

SPORTS DATA DORK QUESTION I am looking for a website(s) where I can potentially scrape simple W-L records by season for a variety of smaller college sports (soccer, volleyball, lax, etc). no advanced stats, just wins and losses. sports reference isn't an option. other ideas? Here's why I want 'em:

Every visualization sheds light on the chart designer’s priorities about what to include and what to omit. I wrote a bit about the choices I made with this one here: bcftoys.com/whiteboard/p...

possession flow — BCF Toys

Building on the drive summary plot design introduced a few weeks ago and inspired by last week’s look into historic handmade possession diagrams , this week I’m pulling a few elements together ...

bcftoys.com

Brian Fremeau@bcfremeau.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Building on some #dataviz ideas I've been kicking around the last few weeks, I pulled a few elements together into an overall game possession and drive summary visualization template: bcftoys.com/whiteboard/p... #Indiana #Miami #CFP