through games of 1/9/2012

The Fremeau Efficiency Index (FEI) considers each of the nearly 20,000 possessions every season in major college football. All drives are filtered to eliminate first-half clock-kills and end-of-game garbage drives and scores. A scoring rate analysis of the remaining possessions then determines the baseline possession efficiency expectations against which each team is measured. A team is rewarded for playing well against good teams, win or lose, and is punished more severely for playing poorly against bad teams than it is rewarded for playing well against bad teams.

• DFEI: Defensive FEI, the opponent-adjusted efficiency of the given team's defense.
• DE: Defensive Efficiency, the raw unadjusted efficiency of the given team's defense, a measure of the actual drive success of its opponents against expected drive success based on field position.
• FD: First Down rate, the percentage of opponent offensive drives that result in at least one first down or touchdown.
• AY: Available Yards, yards earned by the opponent offense divided by the total number of yards available based on starting field position.
• Ex: Explosive Drives, the percentage of each opponent offense's drives that average at least 10 yards per play.
• Me: Methodical Drives, the percentage of each opponent offense's drives that run 10 or more plays.
• Va: Value Drives, the percentage of each opponent offense's drives beginning on their own side of the field that reach at least the team's 30-yard line.
• DSOS: Defensive Strength of Schedule, the likelihood that an elite defense (two standard deviations better than average) would have an above-average DE rating against each of the offenses faced.

Overall FEI ratings and FEI splits for Offense, Defense and Special Teams can be found using the drop-down menus provided above. Program FEI (five-year weighted) ratings and other supplemental drive-based data can be found here.