Okay, so I’ve been diving deep into the NFL 2024 schedule, trying to figure out this whole “strength of schedule” thing. It’s been a bit of a wild ride, so I figured I’d share my process and what I’ve learned so far. Bear with me, it’s a little messy, but hopefully helpful!
First Steps: Finding the Data
First things first, I needed to get my hands on the actual 2024 schedule. I started by searching the internet, and quickly realized I didn’t want to manually input every single game. That’s just crazy. So, I searched for some options to download the whole 2024 season schedule, then I found a usable and downloadable sheet.
The Manual Calculation Struggle
I started trying to calculate the strength of schedule. It sounded simple enough, right? Just take the combined win-loss record of all the opponents a team plays. I grabbed a pen and paper, and started crunching numbers for, like, one team. It took forever. I got the numbers. For one team.
I realized I needed a better way. Doing this by hand for all 32 teams was going to take me days, and I’d probably make a ton of mistakes.
Spreadsheets to the Rescue!
Then, I thought, “Spreadsheets!”. I copy the entire NFL 2024 schedule and 2023 season results. I spent a good chunk of time setting it all up. It was pretty tedious, I entered each teams win-loss records, and applied formulas to calculate the total wins and losses for all opponents.
- I listed all 32 teams.
- I listed each team’s opponents for the 2024 season.
- I added each team’s wins, losses, and ties.
- I created a formula to get the combined opponent’s win percentage.
- I added conditional formatting to highlight the toughest and easiest schedules.
Result
Finally, I could see the strength of schedule for all teams. I can see that the teams has toughest schedules based on their opponents’ 2023 records. I spent all day to find the correct data and resources, and it was cool to see it all come together! Although, i am still not a hundred percent sure if the win-loss record is the only way to see the strength of schedule.