College Football Stat Leaders

2018 Big Ten Defensive PPA Leaders

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

Seasons Covered

2004-2025

Current Leader

Michigan (0.004)

Best Season

Michigan 2004 (-0.146)

Scope

Big Ten • 2018

Browse Metrics

Crawl sibling stat pages without leaving the shared leaderboard template.

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 2018 leaderboard, the visible range runs 0.004 to 0.094, with Michigan setting the pace.

Big Ten Context

Big Ten teams have claimed 100% of the yearly leaderboard wins in this filtered dataset, and Ohio State is the latest winner at -0.014.

Spread At The Top

The gap from No. 1 Michigan to No. 5 Wisconsin is 0.091, 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 -0.014 in 2025, a swing of 0.003. Michigan's current mark of 0.004 sits above the all-time average leader benchmark of 0.018 held by Ohio State.

Leaderboard

Top 14 rows for the current route scope.

1MichiganBig Ten Conference20180.004
2Michigan StateBig Ten Conference20180.014
3IowaBig Ten Conference20180.015
4Penn StateBig Ten Conference20180.061
5WisconsinBig Ten Conference20180.094
6NorthwesternBig Ten Conference20180.101
7Ohio StateBig Ten Conference20180.112
8MarylandBig Ten Conference20180.114
9NebraskaBig Ten Conference20180.165
10RutgersBig Ten Conference20180.173
11MinnesotaBig Ten Conference20180.182
12IndianaBig Ten Conference20180.197
13PurdueBig Ten Conference20180.205
14IllinoisBig Ten Conference20180.330

Trend Chart

Yearly winning values for the current filter scope.

Historical Leaderboard

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

RankTeamSeasonsAverageBest Season
1Ohio State2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 20040.0182004 (-0.104)
2Iowa2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 20040.0312004 (-0.134)
3Penn State2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 20040.0332014 (-0.045)
4Wisconsin2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 20040.0372006 (-0.095)
5Michigan2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 20040.0382004 (-0.146)
6Michigan State2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 20040.0732012 (-0.080)
7Oregon2025, 20240.0762025 (0.041)
8Northwestern2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 20040.0842004 (-0.047)
9Washington2025, 20240.0942025 (0.057)
10Illinois2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 20040.1122022 (-0.038)
11Indiana2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 20040.1142004 (-0.021)
12Minnesota2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 20040.1152004 (0.014)
13Nebraska2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 20110.1282012 (-0.013)
14Purdue2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 20040.1302004 (-0.048)
15Maryland2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 20140.1522022 (0.076)
16USC2025, 20240.1602025 (0.149)
17Rutgers2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 20140.2032023 (0.116)
18UCLA2025, 20240.2122024 (0.163)

Frequently Asked Questions

Who leads the Big Ten defensive ppa leaderboard in 2018?

Michigan ranks first at 0.004 in 2018.

Which Big Ten program has the best long-term defensive ppa profile?

Ohio State owns the strongest all-time average at 0.018 across 22 tracked seasons in this conference scope.

How does the Big Ten race compare with the recent trend?

Ohio State is the most recent yearly winner in this conference scope, so the route combines the current leaderboard with a recent trend line instead of showing only one season snapshot.