Infographic Series Part 1: Most Dominant NFL Teams 2012
With the three most recent Super Bowls ranking as the top three most viewed programs in US history (Super Bowl XLVI was watched by 111.3 people), football, and especially the Super Bowl, continues to grow in popularity.
A lot of the time, popularity in the national zeitgeist is due to factors of inclusivity.
M*A*S*H (Novel,1968; Movie, 1970 (One of the top grossing movies of the early 1970s and the #56 movie of AFI’s top 100 movies; TV Show 1972-1983, the finale of which is now the 4th most watched domestic US telecast of all time) had smart writing, great casts, and spoke to multiple generations that had been impacted by the Korean and Viet Nam wars. American Idol (2002- present) emerged at the event horizon of easy access to internet mass exposure and embodied the American dream that “anyone can make it, if you try”.
However, at least at a regional level, the Super Bowl is one of the most exclusive events there is.
When you boil it down, over to 1/3 of the entire population of the U.S. is tuned in to watch a competition between 2 cities. In the case of Super Bowl XLVII, (most likely) over 112 million people will watch a game in which really only ~8.3 million people (populations of San Francisco, Baltimore and surrounding counties give or take) have a vested interest in the outcome.
But what about the rest of us? What about the other 30 markets and surrounding regions that don’t have a dog in this fight, other than “Well, I hope my conference wins”?
That line of questioning, and the fact that San Diego is a decidedly mediocre football town as of late, led us to create the NFL Power Rankings team dominance score to find the most dominant nfl teams of 2012.
What if you could rate a team not by their wins or losses, or the distance they traveled in the playoffs, but by their dominance of a season? Does that change the perception of a season? What if you could meet your buddy who is a fan of a rival team and, even though they might have won more games, your team had the more dominant season? That would give you bragging rights for and entire off season! It might not be a whole lot, but for the rest of us whose teams aren’t in the big game, sometimes its all we’ve got.
First the NFL Power Rankings dominance score formula:
Now let’s see who the NFL Power Rankings most dominant NFL teams 2012 are:
So what do you think? Based on the NFL Power Rankings Dominance formula, the #5 and #11 most dominant teams of the season are playing for all the glory…which, based on our research is not all that uncommon (the ’07 Giants were #12 in the dominance chart going into the Super Bowl against the #1 ranked Patriots).
The outcome of the Super Bowl won’t unseat the Patriots and Broncos as this years most dominant teams. But with only Baltimore or San Francisco getting a feather in their cap, this NFL Power Ranking dominance formula can maybe give some of the rest of us a little solace during the long, cold off season.
*Update* Final 2012 post Superbowl rankings:
Now, a single season is pretty straight forward, most of the results are simply the season average multiplied by the aggregate point differential, but things start to get a little more interesting when you take a look at a longer time line.
Check out the most dominant NFL teams since 1980.