When college football begins at the end of August with the University of Florida and the University of Miami facing off, it will mark the beginning of a new era, thanks to ESPN and PlayStation. The two brands will be partnering for a historic collaboration during the upcoming season that will change the way fans watch and interact with college football.
Announced on Monday, ESPN and PlayStation will be utilizing a Player Impact Rating System during the 2019-2020 season. This metric, which is touted as the first of its kind, will evaluate the impact of every player in college football in relation to their position, and it will provide a score from 0-100 that can be used in all of the college football game and studio coverage. Although these players won’t be graded in a vacuum. The skill of their teammates will also be a factor.
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“We were able to create a brand new metric that gives our analysts and fans a unique way to look at the impact of a player through the results of the team or other players on the field at the time,” said Matt Morris, ESPN associate director of sports analytics. “The Player Impact Rating is a more in-depth, comprehensive plus/minus rating specifically for college football.”
While the NFL has a system that follows similar lines, it is primarily used as a method for updating the ratings in the Madden series of video games. There has not been a college-focused game since NCAA Football 14, and that is unlikely to change in the near future despite PlayStation being the gaming sponsor for college football.
These new Player Impact Ratings, however, will be considerably different than those used to update video games. According to the press release, everything will be taking into consideration when assigning the player grades each week. The performance on the field will be the primary factor, but the number of snaps played will also be used to create the rating.
Additionally, ESPN will factor in the difficulty of the opponent each week. High-powered college teams are notorious for playing foes early in the season that are described as “cupcakes” in order to start the year out with some high-scoring victories. These games will be taken into account and matchups with Tennessee Tech or Liberty will not count quite like those against Alabama or Clemson.
Whether this creates an entirely new level of fandom for the sport remains to be seen, but ESPN will be able to take pride in being the first company to provide these in-depth ratings each week.
