Is there really more parity in the NFL....

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

For the last complete season in the

NFL 2010
The best team (NEP) had a W-L% of .875 the worst team had .125 (Carolina) : difference .650

MLB 2010
Best (Philly) .630 -- worst .346 (Houston): difference .284

NBA 10-11
Best (Bulls) .756 -- worst .207 (Minn) difference .549

NHL 10-11 (they don't do W-L % persay, but

Best was Van at 54-19 117 points which could be considered a W-L of .740
Worst Edmon 25-45 62 points which could be considered .357
difference .383

Seems like baseball than hockey have the most parity....with Basketball and Football having the least.

 

[Observer]

Did you just claim to come to a statistical conclusion by cherry-picking only the extreme values of the data set?

 

[RIpats88]

I think theres parity in the NFL in the fact that your team can be a doormat one year and in a couple years be a playoff team.

look at the Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49r's, Bengals.....I wouldve laughed if anyone told me those teams would be good this year and the Eagles would be horrid

 

[Ron Sellers]

When I think of the parity in the NFL (and the league's desire for parity) I think of a few things. First, rules being set up to put teams on an equal playing field: a hard salary cap, true free agency, and the draft in inverse order of standings. These things all work to make it very difficult for a team to dominate for a long time, and help to make it possible for a bad team to become good relatively quickly.

The second thing I think of is a narrow difference between a good team and a bad team. There's really no such thing as an automatic win, as we see not only multiple upsets every week, but also huge upsets over the course of every season.

Third, the net result is a very large portion of the league's teams being within a game or two of .500. This is smart business for the NFL because it results in about 75% of the league's teams being in contention for a playoff spot for almost the entire season, which keeps interest in those fan bases high.

For fifteen straight years there have been at least five teams make the playoffs that did not make the post season the previous year. I know that there are studies that show baseball has more annual change in champions over the last ten or twenty years than football does, but it does not have the wholesale shift of good to bad that the NFL does in my opinion. Also because draftees can come in and contribute right away as opposed to playing in the minor leagues for several years like most do in MLB and the NHL, an NFL team can turn things around more rapidly.

So overall I would say that yes, there is more parity in the NFL than there is in the three other major pro sports.

 

[Betterthanmost]

For the last complete season in the

NFL 2010
The best team (NEP) had a W-L% of .875 the worst team had .125 (Carolina) : difference .650

MLB 2010
Best (Philly) .630 -- worst .346 (Houston): difference .284

NBA 10-11
Best (Bulls) .756 -- worst .207 (Minn) difference .549

NHL 10-11 (they don't do W-L % persay, but

Best was Van at 54-19 117 points which could be considered a W-L of .740
Worst Edmon 25-45 62 points which could be considered .357
difference .383

Seems like baseball than hockey have the most parity....with Basketball and Football having the least.

Developmental Statistics.

 

[ALP]

didn't realize we had so many statistics die hards on the forum

 

[Kontradiction]

Did you just claim to come to a statistical conclusion by cherry-picking only the extreme values of the data set?

I think he did.

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

Did you just claim to come to a statistical conclusion by cherry-picking only the extreme values of the data set?

Not really. Being the point is that the very best NFL team has considerable greater superior over the worst NFL team than the very best MLB team has over the worst MLB team.

 

[RIpats88]

I think basketball has to be the worst with parity. before the season starts you can basically name the playoff teams....and the bottom 8playoff teams are usually such a step below the top 8 you know who generally are going to lose in the 1st round.

 

[mvrabel50]

tough to compare 16 games to 162 games.

 

[sbpatfan]

That's some fine 5th grade statistic work right there.

 

[TBradyOwnsYou]

Ok, first I guess I'll explain that parity in the NFL is generally referred to as the year to year change over, not the difference between the top and bottom teams in a single season. Second, well, no, no second. Just understand the first thing, then think about it, then you should be able to figure out why you're incorrect.

 

[denverpatsfan]

Packers will be 16-10 or 15-1 at the worst this season.
I would say that there is no parity in 2011.

 

[lamafist]

Not really. Being the point is that the very best NFL team has considerable greater superior over the worst NFL team than the very best MLB team has over the worst MLB team.

That's not really the case.

First of all, there's the difference between a 16 game season and a 162 game season. Even with total parity in all leagues -- i.e. as if every game were decided by a coin toss -- you would expect a greater differential between top teams after 16 iterations that would gradually normalize by 162.

Also, baseball has a structural irregularity built into it -- the overall quality of the team on the field varies greatly from game to game depending on the starting pitcher. That really screws with how you define the "better team" in baseball. One team can be better constructed to win more regular season games -- deep bullpen, comparatively strong 3, 4, 5 starters -- than another that is built to win once it gets to the postseason -- two aces and relatively weak 3, 4 and 5 starters, and a shallower bullpen with one or two lights-out relievers.

 

[BradyFTW!]

For the last complete season in the

NFL 2010
The best team (NEP) had a W-L% of .875 the worst team had .125 (Carolina) : difference .650

MLB 2010
Best (Philly) .630 -- worst .346 (Houston): difference .284

NBA 10-11
Best (Bulls) .756 -- worst .207 (Minn) difference .549

NHL 10-11 (they don't do W-L % persay, but

Best was Van at 54-19 117 points which could be considered a W-L of .740
Worst Edmon 25-45 62 points which could be considered .357
difference .383

Seems like baseball than hockey have the most parity....with Basketball and Football having the least.

Law of Large Numbers in action, for starters. If there were 160 football games per season, you wouldn't see anyone winning 140 of them.

Parity doesn't really mean "the difference between the two most extreme outliers", anyways.

 

[dsr]

In football, both teams play their best team every game. In baseball, they don't.

If the Packers had to play 160 games with 5 different quarterbacks in the rotation, they wouldn't be sitting at 90-0 right now.