AGS Poll Historical Data

[Professor Chaos]

So I've been messing around with this off and on since the beginning of the year putting together a few Power BI reports to slice and dice the historical AGS poll data going back to 2005. I believe the poll started in 2004 but I can't find any more than half the season's worth of poll results for 2004 so I just started with 2005. Big thanks to superman7515 for compiling all the poll results from 2005-2015 into Google sheets which made my data entry a lot easier.

Anyway, I was hoping to upload the entire dashboard to PowerBI.com and share it with a standard AGS login so folks could slice and dice the data themselves but I can only share with a work/school account and I'm not posting those credentials on the FCSD board. :)

So in lieu of that I just put together a few top 10-25 lists that I thought were interesting. This is all as of the current poll (week 8 2018).

# of weeks ranked (in the top 25)


Rank
School
# of weeks


1
North Dakota State
170


1
Northern Iowa
170


3
Montana
168


4
New Hampshire
165


5
James Madison
164


6
Eastern Washington
151


7
Richmond
132


8
South Dakota State
128


9
McNeese
125


10
Cal Poly
121


11
Montana State
119


12
Youngstown State
117


13
Villanova
115


14
Appalachian State
112


14
Wofford
112


16
Jacksonville State
111


17
Sam Houston State
107


18
Illinois State
104


19
Southern Illinois
99


20
Delaware
96


20
William & Mary
96


22
Central Arkansas
93


23
Furman
83


24
Massachusetts
76


25
Eastern Illinois
75




Max # of consecutive weeks ranked in the top 25 (all-time)


Rank
School
# of weeks


1
North Dakota State
114


2
Appalachian State
110


3
Northern Iowa
106


4
Montana
104


5
New Hampshire
76


6
Southern Illinois
75


7
South Dakota State
70


8
Jacksonville State
68


9
Montana State
59


10
Eastern Washington
56


10
James Madison
56


12
Chattanooga
51


12
Massachusetts
51


14
McNeese
49


14
Sam Houston State
49


16
Richmond
48


16
Wofford
48


18
Villanova
47


19
William & Mary
46


20
Coastal Carolina
44


21
Fordham
43


22
Youngstown State
40


23
South Carolina State
39


24
Cal Poly
36


25
Elon
35


25
Furman
35


25
Hampton
35




# of consecutive weeks ranked in the top 25 (currently active)


Rank
School
# of weeks


1
North Dakota State
114


2
South Dakota State
70


3
Jacksonville State
68


4
James Madison
56


5
Eastern Washington
37


6
Central Arkansas
33


7
Wofford
27


8
Weber State
25


9
Elon
19


10
McNeese
18





# of weeks ranked at #1


School
# of weeks


North Dakota State
64


James Madison
26


Appalachian State
21


New Hampshire
13


Richmond
12


Eastern Washington
11


Northern Iowa
9


Jacksonville State
8


Georgia Southern
7


Villanova
6


Western Kentucky
5


Delaware
4


Southern Illinois
2


Furman
1


Illinois State
1


Montana
1


Montana State
1


Sam Houston State
1


William & Mary
1




# of weeks ranked in the top 10


Rank
School
# of weeks


1
North Dakota State
145


2
James Madison
109


3
Montana
103


4
Eastern Washington
99


4
Northern Iowa
95


6
Appalachian State
93


7
New Hampshire
85


8
Richmond
72


9
Jacksonville State
70


10
Sam Houston State
69


11
Wofford
68


12
Villanova
64


13
South Dakota State
57


14
Montana State
51


15
Illinois State
49


15
Southern Illinois
49


17
McNeese
48


17
Cal Poly
46


19
Massachusetts
41


20
Youngstown State
40


21
William & Mary
36


22
Coastal Carolina
33


22
Georgia Southern
33


24
Delaware
31


25
Furman
25




I'll keep this updated as time goes on and things change. I thought it was ironic that I got it put together right as NDSU was set to pass App St for most consecutive appearances and right as the top 4 schools in overall appearances were so closely bunched together (could throw JMU in there too at #5 but within striking distance). :D

[Professor Chaos]

I'm admittedly a data nerd but I think this is pretty damn cool so I probably find it more interesting than most do but if anyone is interested I can share out the .pbix file with you and you can download it and open it with the Power BI Desktop application (which is a free download (https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/)) and play with the interactivity of it.

You can view historical data overall:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1951/29961794637_f6b8f171ff_c.jpg

And then filter it by conference:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1919/43086251420_40c87e359f_c.jpg

And by a single school:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1907/29961794357_1a75c28e73_c.jpg

I also put together a view where you can pull up one or more weekly polls:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1903/43086251040_3d0518407e_c.jpg

And you can filter that by conference too:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1917/29961794067_4e267aa4bf_c.jpg


And there's plenty of other cool ways you can slice and dice the data. Anyway, like I said if you're also a data nerd interested in playing around with it yourself PM me and I can share the pbix file with you.

[grizband]

As a fellow data nerd, thanks for sharing! I'll send you a pm!

Brings back memories of seeing Montana so high in the poll every week; however, I'm very surprised we've only been ranked #1 for one week.

[Professor Chaos]

As a fellow data nerd, thanks for sharing! I'll send you a pm!

Brings back memories of seeing Montana so high in the poll every week; however, I'm very surprised we've only been ranked #1 for one week.
Yeah, I thought that was surprising also. If we went back another 5 years those "weeks at #1" would've gone up for Montana I bet but that was before the days of the AGS Poll. Consequently Montana had been at #2 in 18 AGS Polls, #3 in 17, #4 in 16, and #5 in 10. Those 62 appearances in the top 5 are 3rd only to NDSU (120) and App St (64).

[grizband]

Yeah, I thought that was surprising also. If we went back another 5 years those "weeks at #1" would've gone up for Montana I bet but that was before the days of the AGS Poll. Consequently Montana had been at #2 in 18 AGS Polls, #3 in 17, #4 in 16, and #5 in 10. Those 62 appearances in the top 5 are 3rd only to NDSU (120) and App St (64).
Very true, AGS did not exist during Montana's last championship reign. Hopefully we are headed back in the right direction. Also, for selfish reasons, I wish App State and Georgia Southern were still FCS; powerhouse clashes could happen even more often in the playoffs.

[caribbeanhen]

great work PC,


But I just want a website that is easy to navigate and see FCS teams schedule and results...... shouldnt have to click 6 times to drill down to find it.......or should we

Im almost ready to start writing the results on a chalkboard or something

[Reign of Terrier]

Good stuff!

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

[superman7515]

I’m pretty sure I have all of 2004’s polls if you’re interested, I just lost my site privileges a couple of years ago when Ursus’ religious leader was doing some behind the scenes work and I haven’t been able to edit the sheets in years.

[Professor Chaos]

I’m pretty sure I have all of 2004’s polls if you’re interested, I just lost my site privileges a couple of years ago when Ursus’ religious leader was doing some behind the scenes work and I haven’t been able to edit the sheets in years.
Yeah, that would be great if you do have them. I also noticed that the 2005 Final poll was missing a #16, a #22, and a #25 and I wasn't able to find the original thread in the archives. If you have those I'd update those too.

[Professor Chaos]

great work PC,


But I just want a website that is easy to navigate and see FCS teams schedule and results...... shouldnt have to click 6 times to drill down to find it.......or should we

Im almost ready to start writing the results on a chalkboard or something
I think I mentioned it in another thread but there is still an FCS Teams page on ESPN that appears to be hidden from the site navigation but is available here: http://www.espn.com/college-football/teams/_/group/81

Someone also mentioned Yahoo.com as having a pretty good and easy to navigate interface for FCS teams: https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/teams/ (you have to click on "Championship Subdivision" in the upper middle part of the page to bring up FCS teams)

[Derby City Duke]

Yeah, that would be great if you do have them. I also noticed that the 2005 Final poll was missing a #16, a #22, and a #25 and I wasn't able to find the original thread in the archives. If you have those I'd update those too.

If it would help, we were #1 at the end of the 2004 season probably...xthumbsupx xpeacex

[caribbeanhen]

I think I mentioned it in another thread but there is still an FCS Teams page on ESPN that appears to be hidden from the site navigation but is available here: http://www.espn.com/college-football/teams/_/group/81

Someone also mentioned Yahoo.com as having a pretty good and easy to navigate interface for FCS teams: https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/teams/ (you have to click on "Championship Subdivision" in the upper middle part of the page to bring up FCS teams)

I did mention Yahoo but it was more like the lesser of the evils

[superman7515]

Yeah, that would be great if you do have them. I also noticed that the 2005 Final poll was missing a #16, a #22, and a #25 and I wasn't able to find the original thread in the archives. If you have those I'd update those too.

#16 Lafayette Leopards
#22 Colgate Raiders
#25 South Carolina Bulldogs

I'll have to get you the full 2004 when I get home, too much to type out, haha.

[Professor Chaos]

#16 Lafayette Leopards
#22 Colgate Raiders
#25 South Carolina Bulldogs

I'll have to get you the full 2004 when I get home, too much to type out, haha.
No worries. Thanks!

[caribbeanhen]

I think I mentioned it in another thread but there is still an FCS Teams page on ESPN that appears to be hidden from the site navigation but is available here: http://www.espn.com/college-football/teams/_/group/81

Someone also mentioned Yahoo.com as having a pretty good and easy to navigate interface for FCS teams: https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/teams/ (you have to click on "Championship Subdivision" in the upper middle part of the page to bring up FCS teams)

Stats FCS is now better than anything I've found for seeing game results....... and other goodies all on one page.....

For example, check out the Bison

http://www.fcs.football/cfb/teamstats.asp?report=teamhome&team=0309

[ST_Lawson]

Got a question for some of you other "data" guys. I used to use the NCAA's website...they had a page you could get to where you could put in a team and it'd show you how they rank in the FCS across every stat, who the leader is in the conference and in the FCS, and then below that, they had individual player stats and where they ranked in the conference and FCS. Now that they've redesigned the page, I can't seem to find that data anywhere. It used to be incredibly useful for me to just scan through and see where teams happened to be, for example, in the top 10 for yards allowed and turnovers gained, but maybe only in the middle of the FCS for offensive things.
They also had the ability to export a pdf of the data as well, which looked like this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0v0z2tafvtip5n0/WIUvsNAU_Stats.pdf?dl=0

In the new site, I can view a ranking of each team and individual stat...like this: https://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fcs/current/individual/453
But what I'm looking for is the stat ranking for each stat for a specific team. They also had the ability to directly compare stat rankings of multiple teams, which was nice.

Is that still available anywhere? Either on the NCAA site or another site?

The STATS pages that you mentioned does have a small amount of that data, but doesn't come anywhere close to the full depth of the stats available.

[Professor Chaos]

Got a question for some of you other "data" guys. I used to use the NCAA's website...they had a page you could get to where you could put in a team and it'd show you how they rank in the FCS across every stat, who the leader is in the conference and in the FCS, and then below that, they had individual player stats and where they ranked in the conference and FCS. Now that they've redesigned the page, I can't seem to find that data anywhere. It used to be incredibly useful for me to just scan through and see where teams happened to be, for example, in the top 10 for yards allowed and turnovers gained, but maybe only in the middle of the FCS for offensive things.
They also had the ability to export a pdf of the data as well, which looked like this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0v0z2tafvtip5n0/WIUvsNAU_Stats.pdf?dl=0

In the new site, I can view a ranking of each team and individual stat...like this: https://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fcs/current/individual/453
But what I'm looking for is the stat ranking for each stat for a specific team. They also had the ability to directly compare stat rankings of multiple teams, which was nice.

Is that still available anywhere? Either on the NCAA site or another site?

The STATS pages that you mentioned does have a small amount of that data, but doesn't come anywhere close to the full depth of the stats available.
I'm working on something that you may find useful here Lawson. I'm building a Power BI model that hooks into the NCAA.com stats pages so I can compare teams across any number of stat categories. I've still got a lot of fine-tuning to do in order to make it a little more readable and easier to slice and dice but I think it's that and more of what you're for.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1961/45469964882_1a036176da_c.jpg

I can PM with the files you'll need to use it once I get it done. It probably won't be for at least a week since I'm going to wait until next week to add more stat categories to make sure everything is hooked in right and I don't get duplicate data once the NCAA.com stats pages update.

[ST_Lawson]

I'm working on something that you may find useful here Lawson. I'm building a Power BI model that hooks into the NCAA.com stats pages so I can compare teams across any number of stat categories. I've still got a lot of fine-tuning to do in order to make it a little more readable and easier to slice and dice but I think it's that and more of what you're for.

I can PM with the files you'll need to use it once I get it done. It probably won't be for at least a week since I'm going to wait until next week to add more stat categories to make sure everything is hooked in right and I don't get duplicate data once the NCAA.com stats pages update.

That would be awesome, thanks. I've never used Power BI before, but it looks like the basic desktop version is free. Is that all I'd need to be able to view the files/data?

[grizband]

I'm working on something that you may find useful here Lawson. I'm building a Power BI model that hooks into the NCAA.com stats pages so I can compare teams across any number of stat categories. I've still got a lot of fine-tuning to do in order to make it a little more readable and easier to slice and dice but I think it's that and more of what you're for.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1961/45469964882_1a036176da_c.jpg

I can PM with the files you'll need to use it once I get it done. It probably won't be for at least a week since I'm going to wait until next week to add more stat categories to make sure everything is hooked in right and I don't get duplicate data once the NCAA.com stats pages update.
As a stat guy who is a little naive when it comes to some database things, what is a powerbi? I might be interested in these files as well, as long as I don't need special programs (that I can't easily obtain) to run the information.

[ST_Lawson]

As a stat guy who is a little naive when it comes to some database things, what is a powerbi? I might be interested in these files as well, as long as I don't need special programs (that I can't easily obtain) to run the information.

Data visualization suite: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/

[Professor Chaos]

As a stat guy who is a little naive when it comes to some database things, what is a powerbi? I might be interested in these files as well, as long as I don't need special programs (that I can't easily obtain) to run the information.
Basically all you need is the Power BI Desktop application (which is a free download): https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/

If you have a Power BI Pro license through either your work or school I can share the reports with you that way as well but that costs $10 per month.

[Go...gate]

This is great! Many thanks!

[Sycamore62]

is there an easy way to find total carries rankings?

[Professor Chaos]

is there an easy way to find total carries rankings?
By team? I don't have the rushing offense numbers in there yet but when I do (hopefully next week) I'll be able to do that. For now the best you can do, as far as I know, is eyeball it on the NCAA rushing offense site or copy/import the data into a spreadsheet: https://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fcs/current/team/23

[Sycamore62]

By team? I don't have the rushing offense numbers in there yet but when I do (hopefully next week) I'll be able to do that. For now the best you can do, as far as I know, is eyeball it on the NCAA rushing offense site or copy/import the data into a spreadsheet: https://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fcs/current/team/23

number of carries came up about our RB that got hurt. I was wondering how he compared for total carries vs other stat leaders

[Professor Chaos]

number of carries came up about our RB that got hurt. I was wondering how he compared for total carries vs other stat leaders
Individual rushing leader are here: https://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fcs/current/individual/469

Looks like Keys was about 5th nationally at 158 carries on the year (one of the players currently above him is YSU's Tevin McCaster).

[Sycamore62]

thank you, its too bad the columns arent clickable

[ST_Lawson]

thank you, its too bad the columns arent clickable

Just FYI, you can use Google Drive/Google Spreadsheets to make it sortable. In a new spreadsheet, make the first field (A1) have this:
=IMPORTHTML("https://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fcs/current/individual/469","table")

It imports the first table it sees on the page into the spreadsheet. If you select all the text, copy it, then do a "paste special->paste values only" from that content into a new tab, then you can filter, sort, search, etc. Only downside is that it only brings in the first 50 (although if you clicked to page 2, did the same thing replacing the url with the page 2 url and stuck it down at the first empty field after the #50 player, you'd get the next 50).

Anyway, top 5 for number of carries are:



Joe Protheroe

Cal Poly


Ryan Fulse

Wagner


Tevin McCaster

Youngstown St.


Taeyler Porter

Ark.-Pine Bluff


Ja'Quan Keys

Indiana St.



Keys was #1 in TDs and #2 in total rushing yards.

[ST_Lawson]

And it looks like the NCAA got their site updated a bit more, because the stat data pages I was looking for...they're back: http://stats.ncaa.org/rankings?academic_year=2019&division=12.0&sport_code=MFB

[Professor Chaos]

Stuck inside while it's blizzarding out so did some playing around with my AGS Poll historical data Power BI report that I thought I'd share.

As of the final 2019 poll here are some all-time (and current) leaders.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49403656968_bd9c9a9646_o.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49404331007_8eae8c8138_o.jpg


I also put together a rank trending graph... below is the top 5 teams in weeks ranked all-time and below that is the top 5 active top 25 streak leaders (I've got data all the way through the start of 2005 but could only show roughly the last 4 years in a screen cap).

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49404131181_108b51311b_o.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49403656843_0c3bd1d16a_o.jpg


And here are snapshots for each conference:



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49403657058_71dd30be44_o.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49403657038_6956f379e7_o.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49404331072_3985deaa6d_o.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49404331042_b6c0f7560a_o.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49404131376_c918da60ae_o.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49404330927_e4b513f4b0_o.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49404131296_601d6e0e89_o.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49403656948_565f37e769_o.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49404131276_b3683f561c_o.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49404131256_a7de367a7f_o.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49404131216_1ef3984c47_o.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49404330812_32a285dc60_o.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49403656868_23b5da8b43_o.jpg



If you're not a data nerd and are wondering what the hell is wrong with me I'm sorry I just can't explain it. Anyway, if anyone is interested in some more "ooh" and "ahs" visualizations let me know. It's easy for me to slice and dice the data up more and do additional comparisons.

[Derby City Duke]

This is pretty amazing stuff. Would love to know your techniques/tools for data mining that allowed you to build these tools.

Interesting that JMU has never been ranked #22

[Grizzlies82]

Damn straight "a data nerd".

Thank you for compiling this. It will fill my winter going through it. :)

[Professor Chaos]

This is pretty amazing stuff. Would love to know your techniques/tools for data mining that allowed you to build these tools.

Interesting that JMU has never been ranked #22
I just have the data stored in an Excel spreadsheet. It was a pain initially to get everything put in there but now I just put it in each week after the poll release. I use Power BI Desktop to build the visualizations so I can just refresh the data after I put a new week's worth in there and things update automatically. It's a pretty neat tool once you get used to using it... if you've done work with Excel pivot tables then Power BI is pretty easy to learn since it's just like that but on steroids. You can download the authoring tool (Power BI Desktop) for free but then sharing anything online (so you can interact with it in a web browser without having anything installed on your machine) requires a monthly subscription.

[TheKingpin28]

Stuck inside while it's blizzarding out so did some playing around with my AGS Poll historical data Power BI report that I thought I'd share.

As of the final 2019 poll here are some all-time (and current) leaders.

...

If you're not a data nerd and are wondering what the hell is wrong with me I'm sorry I just can't explain it. Anyway, if anyone is interested in some more "ooh" and "ahs" visualizations let me know. It's easy for me to slice and dice the data up more and do additional comparisons.


You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Professor Chaos again.

I tried

[uni88]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Professor Chaos again.

I tried

I got him, not that this effort doesn't deserve a lot more!

PC starting out strong as MVP and FCS Board Poster of the Year!

[grizband]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Professor Chaos again.

I tried


I got him, not that this effort doesn't deserve a lot more!

PC starting out strong as MVP and FCS Board Poster of the Year!
I got him too!

[dewey]

Dewey

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200119/60c70c7d6e95a2ad079f8cd27bda3b99.jpg

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

[TheKingpin28]

I got him too!I love data and stats and that was some next level data.

Sent from my SM-J727V using Tapatalk

[TheKingpin28]

I got him, not that this effort doesn't deserve a lot more!

PC starting out strong as MVP and FCS Board Poster of the Year!He's trying to get that leg up on everyone else

Sent from my SM-J727V using Tapatalk

[Chalupa Batman]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Professor Chaos again.

I tried


Dewey

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200119/60c70c7d6e95a2ad079f8cd27bda3b99.jpg

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

Ditto. Great stuff PC!

[Derby City Duke]

I got him!

[paward]

Wow this is some good stuff. Good to see our name "Richmond" represented well!

[Professor Chaos]

It's been a couple years since I did this so I figured I'd update it. I got the 2004 poll data during this past season and adding in the spring and fall polls for 2021 so I now have all 18 years (and 253 releases) of the AGS Poll to add into this.

Here's some data on the overall AGS Poll and then a snapshot for each conference as of the end of the 2021 fall season.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51820363148_8e891ab054_o.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51820967740_8ba2c69a01_o.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51819302657_fe40109e7c_c.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51820967930_782dde0c92_c.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51819302602_c42115bf49_c.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51820967875_519c2435ff_c.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51820593199_66fc74fc4d_c.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51820363238_02b1b76117_c.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51820363203_67dcdebede_c.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51820363188_23a7bbb6c1_c.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51819302542_673a217bda_c.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51819302527_d8a5298ee2_c.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51819302517_643c49b444_z.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51820593114_e6f0fa1638_c.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51820248646_6376556164_c.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51820967745_536e9458c8_z.jpg



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51820248596_d338f48447_c.jpg

[ElCid]

Nice work Professor. Thanks much.

[Professor Chaos]

Realized I forgot to refresh the data to include the fall 2021 final poll (dammit!) and I don't really want to go through the effort of re-screen capping everything so add 1 more tic accordingly to the 25 teams that appeared in the poll released this past Monday. :)

[Sader87]

Appreciate the work Professor.....just wanted to say that HC was a near perennial Top 25 from 1982-1991...often Top 5 then.

[Gil Dobie]

Great stuff PC

[POD Knows]

When was UND ranked #1 in the AGS poll?

[Professor Chaos]

When was UND ranked #1 in the AGS poll?
Spring 2021 (the "*" season ;))

[POD Knows]

Spring 2021 (the "*" season ;))
Just messing with you. I think I ranked them #1*