College football teams are on pace to go for it on fourth down rather than punt or attempt a field goal more often than in any in the past 10 seasons and probably ever. Teams also are converting at the highest rate.

Through Week 11, the average number of fourth-down conversion attempts per game (both teams) is 3.64, according to Sportradar. That’s up 7.7% compared with the same point last season. The conversion rate is 54.9%, up from 54%.

The burgeoning influence of analytics since the early 2010s has led to more aggressive in-game decisions. In situations where a team traditionally would punt, extensive data analysis showed that the reward of going for it on fourth down at times was greater than the risk.

The NCAA record book does not include year-by-year trends for fourth-down convers

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