Harvard Sports Analysis Collective

Each year, the NFL decision makers gather in Indianapolis to watch players cavort about in spandex.  Even though all the players participating have appeared in dozens of college games and hundreds of plays, scouts (and fans) insist on hard “data” to determine their value.  The most widely reported test during the combine is the 40 […]

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Originally appeared in the Harvard Independent
I should love Bobby Abreu.
At least I should according to Ed Wade, the GM of the Houston Astros. Wade told the New York Times that the former all-star is “a sabermetrician’s dream, from the standpoint of what he produces statistically.” Fortunately, Wade is not my most trusted source for baseball […]

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Rondo’s Triple 14.
Rajon Rondo’s triple double Wed night in Boston’s comeback win
over Dallas involved 19 points, 15 rebounds, and 14 assists.  His
“max-min” of 14 (14 maximizes the minimum category) means he
actually actually had a “triple 14″.

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In Super Bowl XXXVI, New England kicker Adam Vinatieri’s 48-yard field goal attempt sailed through the uprights, clinching a world championship for the Patriots. Nearly eleven years before Vinatieri’s kick, Scott Norwood’s 47-yard field goal attempt in Super Bowl XXV famously missed “wide right” and earned the Buffalo Bills their first of four straight Super […]

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In the 2008 NFL season, several teams had success with multi-back rushing systems. The Giants used the combination of Earth (Brandon Jacobs), Wind (Derrick Ward), and Fire (Ahmad Bradshaw). The Panthers used DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart. The Titans used Smash (LenDale White) and Dash (Chris Johnson). All three of these teams ranked in the […]

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I just came across a nice little article, Analytics in Football, https://www.technologyreview.com/computing/20132/page1/  It is from February last year but I still encourage you to check it out.  There is also a link to a football analytics book, which looks interesting and which I plan to check out.  http://thefootballscientist.com/scientific_football/Details/Scientific_Football_2007
The article also says the following, something that […]

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