Below are some of the common questions we get from our visitors.

Question: Why does your data only go back to 2001?

Answer: See the About the Numbers section for a detailed explanation for why our data set only goes back to 2001.

Question: How do you come up with the CBTN Rating for coaches?

Answer: See the About the CBTN Ratings section for a detailed explanation for how we came up with our proprietary CBTN Rating for each coach.

Question: How do you calculate the record against the top 25?

Answer: We use the AP Top 25 ranking at the time of the game (TOG). We feel that this provides a far better measure of the importance of the game that day, and not based on the rank at the end of the season.

Question: How does CBTN handle interim coaches?

Answer: We do not attribute wins and losses to head coaches that did not start the season as the head coach. Additionally, if the coach leaves in the middle of the season, he is still responsible for games played by that team. It simply is not fair to the interim coach to be tagged with the wins and losses in this situation.

Question: I noticed that this site tracks rivalry games. Which ones specifically?

Answer: Every team has a rival to some degree or another. At a high level, we tried to capture only the most notable and significant rivalries that exist in college football today. To that end, here is a complete list of the CBTN Rivalries we are tracking.

Question: I think I found an error with your data. What should I do?

Answer: The majority of our data has been double checked for accuracy. However, since much of our data has been hand entered, mistakes can happen. Please email our staff at team@coachesbythenumbers.com.

Question: Why are there two Offensive or Defensive Coordinators for some schools?

Answer: Some schools have Co-Offensive or Co-Defensive Coordinators. In these instances, both coaches are ranked using the same set of data. We understand that one co-coordinator may be doing more or making a larger impact, but there is no way to statistically determine this, so both coaches will be rated the same for the given year (s) they are a co-coordinator.

Question: Where does your information and data come from?

Answer: Our information comes from a wide variety of sources. We double check the veracity of our information and data in as many ways as possible to ensure we are giving our audience accurate and updated information. As with any data set, there could be errors. Please refer to the question above regarding what to do if you find an error in our data set.

Question: What is the Fulmer Cup Award?

Answer: From Wikipedia: The Fulmer Cup is a tongue-in-cheek award given each year in the United States to the Division I FBS college football program whose players collectively have the worst criminal record.

The Fulmer cup was conceived in 2006 by sports blogger Orson Swindle, a fan of football rival Florida, and named for then-University of Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer. While Fulmer was coach, the Tennessee team had over 20 players arrested for criminal activity in a 16 month period from 2004 through 2005.

Question: How does CBTN assess talent level of teams?

Answer: Talent level is determined by the program’s average recruiting rank (per Scout.com) over the 4 year span leading up to the year the game was played. Equivalent talent is defined as having an average recruiting rank difference within 10 ranking spots of an opponent. Superior talent is the situation where the average recruiting rank is great than 10 ranking spots of an opponent. Inferior talent is the situation where the average recruiting rank is less than 10 rankings spots of an opponent.

Question: What is Win Distribution for a coach?

Answer: A few of our rankings pertain to Win Distribution. If a coach has 10 wins, and 5 of them came against Non-Conference opponents, then his win distribution for Non-Conference opponents is 5 out of 10, or 50%. These rankings indicate the sources (by percentage) of a coach’s wins.