But that was only the top 10. With that adds a variable, which is playoff games. The top-ranked teams all played in the playoffs, and we wondered if the difference in games would be similar, or different, with teams that didn't play in the playoffs, or played only a little.
Here's what we discovered with the teams ranked 11-25.
And if we included 7s tournaments:
So the trend is similar—but D1A teams have a few more total gamedays than the NCR D1 teams. Interesting, there's a large group of NCR D1 teams that had exactly the same split, with eight 15s games and four 7s tournaments.
What this shows, however, is that there are some D1A teams that don't play in the playoffs that play more games during that playoff window. In addition, with CRAA's expanded playoffs—a round of 16 plus the Challenger tier. So overall D1A has a total of 24 playoff games, while NCR has 11 (four Round of 16 games, four Quarterfinal games, two semifinals, and a final).
That 13-game difference does close the gap a little.
Anyway, we thought we'd expand on the comparison and it does retain the assertion that D1A teams play more 15s, and, overall, plays more even if you count 7s. But if you do count 7s, the different is small.
