| Turnover Rules do not apply to them |
We have all heard "the teams that win at the end of the season are the teams with the least amount of turnovers" and I think it is fair to say that it is true. But wouldn't it be interesting to know which sport lays the greatest importance on controlling the ball. To figure this out we used numbers from basketball and football, both at the professional and collegiate level.
NBA
The team with the best turnover margin in the NBA is the Atlanta Hawks, who are able to turn the ball over 3.1 times less than their opponents in each game. When it comes to winning however they are only 10th in the league with a .561 winning percentage. The second winningest team in the NBA, the San Antonio Spurs, actually have a negative turnover margin while the Miami Heat, currently on a 23 game winning streak, are +.8. The Bobcats, who are worst in the league when it comes to winning, are actually in the positives when it comes to turnovers. The slope for the trend line is 2.9 which places the NBA second when it comes to turnovers equaling victory.
NFL
Atlanta and Denver tied for best winning percentage in the NFL despite the Broncos having a negative (-.2). Another team that broke the stereotype was the Indianapolis Colts who had the seventh best winning percentage (.688) even though they lost the ball an average (-.7) more than they got it. Philadelphia's bad season, 4-12, can easily be attributed to their league worst -1.5 turnover margin. No team had a winning percentage below .500 and a turnover margin greater than .5. The NFL's slope was 2.45 which is just behind the NBA and places it at third among the leagues covered.
College Basketball
Obviously the most amount of data is to be found in College Basketball as their is over 340 teams. Gonzaaga had the highest winning percentage at .938 also had a great turnover margin (2.4). The only teams with winning percentages over .800 that had negative turnover margins were Kansas (-.8), Bucknell (-.6, terrible conference), St. Marys (-.4), and Weber State (-1.6). Louisiana Tech had a great turnover margin at 5.2 and finished with a WP of .806. Grambling State, who failed to win a game all year had a -7.8 turnover margin, to no ones surprise. NCAA basketball has a slope of 5.09 which puts it firmly in first place.
College Football
Ohio State was perfect last year but weren't able to play in the BCS due to sanctions. They weren't amazing when it comes to turn over margin either only at .2. Florida State was sixth when it came to winning percentage but had a negative -.6 TO margin. Chamion Alabama TO margin was 1.2 while the team they defeated, Notre Dame, was .8. Southern Methodist was the only team with a WP below .200 to have a positive TO margin. College football had a slope of just one making turnovers mean the least. This is probably due to teams playing in shitty conferences and such.
