College Football Stat Leaders

2020 Defensive PPA Leaders

Source-provided CFBD Predicted Points Added allowed per defensive play.

Seasons Covered

2004-2025

Current Leader

San Diego State (0.001)

Best Season

Texas State 2004 (-0.213)

Scope

All Conferences • 2020

Browse Metrics

Crawl sibling stat pages without leaving the shared leaderboard template.

Total Yards Per Game Passing Yards Per Game Rushing Yards Per Game Points Per Game Offensive PPA Defensive PPA Turnover Margin Havoc Rate

Season Selector

All-Time 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004

Conference Selector

All Conferences ACC American Big 12 Big Ten Conference USA MAC Mountain West Pac-12 SEC Sun Belt

What The Numbers Say

Route-specific context pulled from the current leaderboard, winner trend, and historical baseline.

How Defensive PPA Reads

Defensive PPA is CFBD's source-provided scoring-value metric allowed by a defense, so lower numbers are better because they indicate opponents created less value per play. On this 2020 leaderboard, the visible range runs 0.001 to 0.027, with San Diego State setting the pace.

Conference Context

American Athletic Conference places 2 of the current top 5 teams, while Mid-American Conference owns the most recent yearly winner slot in the trend table.

Spread At The Top

The gap from No. 1 San Diego State to No. 5 Iowa is 0.026, which shows how tightly packed the top of this leaderboard is.

Recent Trend And Baseline

The yearly winning mark improved from -0.010 in 2024 to -0.078 in 2025, a swing of 0.067. San Diego State's current mark of 0.001 sits below the all-time average leader benchmark of -0.009 held by Alabama.

Leaderboard

Top 25 rows for the current route scope.


1	San Diego State	Mountain West Conference	2020	0.001
2	Cincinnati	American Athletic Conference	2020	0.010
3	Wisconsin	Big Ten Conference	2020	0.016
4	Tulsa	American Athletic Conference	2020	0.026
5	Iowa	Big Ten Conference	2020	0.027
6	Northwestern	Big Ten Conference	2020	0.027
7	Army	NCAA Division I FBS independent schools	2020	0.034
8	Marshall	Conference USA	2020	0.038
9	Clemson	Atlantic Coast Conference	2020	0.050
10	Wyoming	Mountain West Conference	2020	0.057
11	Utah	Pac-12 Conference	2020	0.061
12	BYU	NCAA Division I FBS independent schools	2020	0.064
13	West Virginia	Big 12 Conference	2020	0.064
14	UAB	Conference USA	2020	0.066
15	Alabama	Southeastern Conference	2020	0.070
16	Rice	Conference USA	2020	0.070
17	Florida Atlantic	Conference USA	2020	0.070
18	App State	Sun Belt Conference	2020	0.078
19	Oklahoma State	Big 12 Conference	2020	0.086
20	Oklahoma	Big 12 Conference	2020	0.087
21	TCU	Big 12 Conference	2020	0.088
22	Buffalo	Mid-American Conference	2020	0.094
23	Georgia Southern	Sun Belt Conference	2020	0.095
24	Toledo	Mid-American Conference	2020	0.100
25	Pittsburgh	Atlantic Coast Conference	2020	0.101

Trend Chart

Yearly winning values for the current filter scope.

Yearly Winners

Season	Team	Conference at time	Value
2025	Toledo	Mid-American Conference	-0.078
2024	Ohio State	Big Ten Conference	-0.010
2023	Penn State	Big Ten Conference	-0.014
2022	Marshall	Sun Belt Conference	-0.043
2021	Georgia	Southeastern Conference	-0.046
2020	San Diego State	Mountain West Conference	0.001
2019	Ohio State	Big Ten Conference	-0.011
2018	Mississippi State	Southeastern Conference	-0.053
2017	James Madison	Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference	-0.069
2016	Alabama	Southeastern Conference	-0.102
2015	Boston College	Atlantic Coast Conference	-0.086
2014	Penn State	Big Ten Conference	-0.045
2013	Georgia Southern	Southern Conference	-0.086
2012	Michigan State	Big Ten Conference	-0.080
2011	Alabama	Southeastern Conference	-0.137
2010	Georgia Southern	Southern Conference	-0.080
2009	Texas	Big 12 Conference	-0.099
2008	USC	Pacific-10 Conference	-0.106
2007	Oregon State	Pac-12 Conference	-0.113
2006	Western Kentucky	Missouri Valley Football Conference	-0.168
2005	UL Monroe	Sun Belt Conference	-0.184
2004	Texas State	Southland Conference	-0.213

Historical Leaderboard

Average across seasons for each team in the current filter scope.

Rank	Team	Seasons	Average	Best Season
1	Alabama	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	-0.009	2004 (-0.177)
2	Clemson	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.011	2004 (-0.065)
3	Ohio State	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.018	2004 (-0.104)
4	Iowa	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.031	2004 (-0.134)
5	Penn State	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.033	2014 (-0.045)
6	Georgia	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.036	2004 (-0.071)
7	Wisconsin	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.037	2006 (-0.095)
8	Michigan	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.038	2004 (-0.146)
9	Boise State	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.051	2004 (-0.139)
10	TCU	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.053	2008 (-0.097)
11	Utah	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.053	2004 (-0.106)
12	LSU	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.055	2004 (-0.115)
13	Florida State	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.058	2004 (-0.149)
14	Florida	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.060	2008 (-0.060)
15	Notre Dame	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.061	2004 (-0.029)
16	Virginia Tech	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.061	2004 (-0.186)
17	Miami	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.061	2004 (-0.116)
18	Oregon	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.061	2004 (-0.077)
19	Texas	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.066	2009 (-0.099)
20	Oklahoma	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.067	2004 (-0.103)
21	San Diego State	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.067	2004 (-0.047)
22	Auburn	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.069	2004 (-0.117)
23	Boston College	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.070	2008 (-0.095)
24	Pittsburgh	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.072	2004 (-0.081)
25	Michigan State	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	0.073	2012 (-0.080)

Frequently Asked Questions

Who leads college football in defensive ppa in 2020?

San Diego State ranks first at 0.001 in 2020.

Why does the 2020 defensive ppa season stand out?

The top of the 2020 leaderboard is separated by 0.026 from No. 1 to No. 5, which shows whether this season had a runaway leader or a tightly packed race.

How does the 2020 leader compare with the all-time average benchmark?

San Diego State's 2020 mark of 0.001 trails the all-time average leader benchmark of -0.009 held by Alabama.