D2 Championship History

Chart of offensive and defensive points per possession of the national champion and runner-up from 2014 to 2025.

I had some fun grabbing points per possession stats on offense and defense for the NCAA D2 National Champions and runners-up from 2014 to 2025 minus the year canceled for COVID. I pulled the stats from Synergy with national rank in the stat to compare how our team stacked up and see what similarities may be found. In the chart you will find the average for points per possession and their ranking over the course of that time.

What was interesting is that the ranking for offense was rather high over the course of the time. The points per possession averaged out at 1.059 and a rank of 10.3. What was interesting is that only 3 times was the offensive rank higher 7. Defensively the ranks were much lower with a range of 21 to as high as 150. During the years of 2014 to 2025 only 3 times did a team with a high offensive rank lose in the national championship game. In those 3 instances the rankings were very close and the team with the higher defensive ranking won twice.

The national champion averaged a record of 34 and 2 over the course of the year range.

When trying to determine patterns, what stood out was that only once from 2014-2025 did the national champion have an offensive points per possession under 1.000, and the national champion only once had a defensive points per possession over .900.Obviously when you have quality numbers you have a chance to win. The reason for looking at the numbers was to try and figure out where the standard needs to be set to give yourself a chance to win big.