Mythbusters: Bison Effect Version

[GreenfieldBison]

Of course you can. Don't overanalyze it or you will just seek out the math that justifies your opinion. You can manipulate the equation to press ANY agenda. For instance, I have clear mathematical evidence that shows the Jackrabbits sucked last year, suck this year, and will suck forever.

Please publish...

[stevdock]

Spin off from the Davis thread. I was wondering what the actual numbers are. Yes Davis did lose to Montana, but those sad sacks at UN_ did beat SHSU after playing the Bison. What is the truth to this? Is there a pattern of teams losing their next game, or is it selective memory, we remember the teams losing but forget about the teams that win?

Current records of opponents by year of their next game after playing NDSU, known on Bisonville as "The Bison Effect". I went back to 2010, the start of the playoff era. Thanks for making me waste an hour of my Sunday morning digging this shit up.

2010 7-4
2011 6-4
2012 3-8
2013 5-5
2014 5-5
2015 5-5
2016 8-2
2017 3-7
2018 6-4
2019 3-1

Overall record of teams following a Bison game: 51-45

But you can make stats look anyway you want, so why not add in the next game played for every game? Montana St, Colgate, SDSU and EWU all lost their next game after their playoff loss to us, and only 3 of them were against P5 teams . Also add in Southern Illinois as regular season finale was their end to the season and they lost their opener. So 2018 I don't see a 6-4 record, I see a 6-9 record

[IndyBison]

I think there's a lot more to that record than meets the eye as you definitely need to look at who these teams play the week after NDSU plays them. First example I could think of was Butler as they played Indiana Wesleyan the next week, which is an NAIA school. Or in other words chances are a team they should beat, but still had to go to overtime to get it done. How many conferences games were followed up with a Missouri State or Indiana State (most years), etc where a good team could kind of sleep walk through the game and get the win? I think the Bison Effect is definitely in full effect, the stats just didn't back it up at first look as expected.

Plus stats can be a terrible thing to look at when you get them yourself because you can make them look however you want to justify what you want them to say.

Butler was definitely not expected to beat Indiana Wesleyan. The Pioneer League is fairly equivalent with D3 teams as they don't provide athletic scholarships for football. They are generally better schools and with the D1 aspect of other sports can use that to recruit a little better player, but they are essentially very good D3 teams.

In most areas NAIA is slightly above D3 because of the ability to offer some athletic scholarships. In our area that is definitely true. The conference IWU plays in (MSFA) is the MVFC of NAIA. They have 3 of the top 6 teams and 5 of the top 20. They have had a team in 9 of the last 15 national championship games (and 6 of the last 7 prior to last year winning 5 of them). And teams like Taylor and IWU (the two teams Butler played after NDSU) aren't in that top 20 group, but they would likely win our local D3 conference. Butler is very similar to those middle MSFA teams so they are usually very competitive. It's still pretty good college football, but it's not at the level of the top of the MVFC.

[HerdBot]

A 51-45 record is hardly quality. That's barely above 500