Alright folks, let me tell you about this little project I tackled. The question was: average rb height college. Seemed simple enough, right? Well, buckle up, ’cause it wasn’t as straightforward as I initially thought.
First thing I did? I hit the web, naturally. I figured some sports site or college database would have this info readily available. Started Googling variations of “college running back height,” “average height RB college football,” you name it. I spent a good hour just sifting through articles about specific players, team rosters, and some really vague blog posts. Found bits and pieces, but nothing concrete that screamed “average height.”
Next up, I tried to get smarter about it. I thought, “Okay, I need data. Raw, unadulterated data.” I started digging around official college football websites, like the NCAA and individual conference sites (Big Ten, SEC, Pac-12, the whole shebang). Man, those sites are a maze! Finding consistent roster info across different schools and conferences was a pain. Some schools list heights in feet and inches, others just in inches. Some have up-to-date rosters, others look like they haven’t been updated since 2010. Frustrating!
So, here’s where I got a bit more manual. I picked a few “powerhouse” conferences – the ones I figured would have the most comprehensive and accessible data. I went team by team, painstakingly copying down the listed heights of every running back I could find. I chucked all this info into a spreadsheet. Let me tell you, after about 20 teams, my eyes were starting to cross.
Once I had a decent chunk of data – I’m talking several hundred running backs from maybe 3-4 conferences – I finally got to the fun part: crunching the numbers. Excel to the rescue! I used the AVERAGE function to calculate the average height. I also played around with the data a bit, looking at the median height and the range of heights. Just wanted to get a feel for the distribution.
Now, I’m not gonna lie and say my data is perfect. It’s definitely not exhaustive. There’s probably some bias in there because I only focused on a few conferences. And who knows how accurate those listed heights even are? Players probably exaggerate sometimes, right? But, based on my research, I came up with an approximate average height for college running backs. I’d ballpark it somewhere around 5’10” or 5’11”. Of course, there’s plenty of variation, with some shorter, shiftier guys and some taller, more powerful backs.
What did I learn?
- Getting good data is hard.
- Official websites aren’t always your friend.
- Spreadsheets are your best friend.
Anyway, that’s the story of my quest for the average height of a college running back. It wasn’t glamorous, but hey, I learned something! Maybe next time, I’ll try to scrape data from a website using Python. That might be a little less mind-numbing. Until then, happy stat-crunching!
