[DC 86]

It's not a particularly great year for APY. If CMac gets to 2500 APY, that won't break the top 30 all time for a season. If he hadn't missed a game and got to say 2750 APY, he would be just outside the top 10 best seasons of all time. It's an interesting list, with a bunch of stars and a bunch of no-names. Barry Sanders and Marcus Allen are the only ones near the top of the list who ever won that H-thingy award.

There are two factors that distort historical APY:

1. Seasons used to be 11 games + a bowl game (potentially), now there are 12 games + a conference championship game (potentially) + a bowl game (potentially). Also, bowl games were previously not included in NCAA season or career statistics.

2. The 2012 change in kickoff rules (kickoffs from the 35 instead of the 30, touchbacks brought out to the 25 instead of the 20) has had a major effect. In 2011 the touchback rate was 15%. Since then it has ranged between 34% and 39% in every season. Obviously kickoff return yardage is a big component of APY and opportunities have been severely depressed following the rule change, although higher rates of scoring have mitigated this somewhat.

So CM's total last year is even more impressive given the reduction of returnable kickoffs, although the raw total is boosted by additional games (on a per game basis he was well behind Barry Sanders' incredible 1988 season).

[DC 86]

It's not a particularly great year for APY. If CMac gets to 2500 APY, that won't break the top 30 all time for a season. If he hadn't missed a game and got to say 2750 APY, he would be just outside the top 10 best seasons of all time. It's an interesting list, with a bunch of stars and a bunch of no-names. Barry Sanders and Marcus Allen are the only ones near the top of the list who ever won that H-thingy award.

There are two factors that distort historical APY:

1. Seasons used to be 11 games + a bowl game (potentially), now there are 12 games + a conference championship game (potentially) + a bowl game (potentially). Also, bowl games were previously not included in NCAA season or career statistics.

2. The 2012 change in kickoff rules (kickoffs from the 35 instead of the 30, touchbacks brought out to the 25 instead of the 20) has had a major effect. In 2011 the touchback rate was 15%. Since then it has ranged between 34% and 39% in every season. Obviously kickoff return yardage is a big component of APY and opportunities have been severely depressed following the rule change, although higher rates of scoring have mitigated this somewhat.

So CM's total last year is even more impressive given the reduction of returnable kickoffs, although the raw total is boosted by additional games (on a per game basis he was well behind Barry Sanders' incredible 1988 season).