Okay, so I wanted to figure out the 2024 NFL strength of schedule, and let me tell you, it was a bit of a journey. Here’s how I went about it:
First Steps: Finding the Data
First things first, I needed the actual schedules for each team. I figured the Official Source would be best. so I started by visiting some websites that were provided to me。
I made a note of every opponent for each team. I figured that listing these out was gonna be useful.
Calculating the Strength of Schedule
Next, I needed to figure out the win-loss records of each of those opponents from the previous season (2023, in this case).
I went back and looked at the 2023 NFL standings. Lots of numbers, lots of teams… it took a bit of time, but I copied down the wins and losses for each team.
Now for the actual calculation. Strength of schedule is basically the combined win percentage of all your opponents. So, here’s what I did:
- For each team, I added up the total wins of all their 2024 opponents (using those 2023 records I just found).
- I also added up the total losses of all those opponents.
- Then, I divided the total wins by the total games (wins + losses). This gave me a winning percentage.
I did this for every team. It was long. It took me ages. Spreadsheets were involved. There might have been some mild cursing.
Putting It All Together: Ranking the Teams
After all that calculating, I finally had a strength of schedule percentage for each team. Now I could rank them! I sorted the percentages from highest (toughest schedule) to lowest (easiest schedule).
I made a simple list, showing which teams have the hardest road ahead in 2024, and which ones might have it a bit easier. Based on paper, anyway – you never really know what’s gonna happen in the NFL!
It was a good chunk of work, but hey, now I’ve got my own personalized strength of schedule rankings. Pretty cool, and I actually understand how it all works now!