Sports Analytics
Stat 306
Brad Hartlaub
Spring 2021
R links
Online resources for review and new methods
Weekly Agendas
- February 2
- February 9 - Football (expected points, kickers, player performance, team performance, play-by-play, play calling)
- February 16 - Please sign up via Gdoc for summaries of football articles
- February 23 - NBA and NCAA Basketball
- Special Guest, Alexander Powell (AP), Head of Quantitative Analysis & Development, Hornets Sports & Entertainment
- March 2 - no classes - this class will be held on Tuesday, May 11
- March 9
- Basketball project progress reports and peer review/suggestions
- Activity - NCAA team selection competition for March Madness
- March 16
- Basketball project update and lab session
- Activity - Bracket prediction competition for March Madness
- March 23 - Basketball project final presentations
- March 30
- April 6 - Individual group meetings during class time
- April 13 - Presentations for Project #3 (10 to 12 minutes)
- April 20 - Individual group meetings during class time
- April 27 - Presentations for Project #4 (no more than 10 minutes)
- May 4 - Individual meetings about final project
- May 11 - Iindividual meetings about final project
- May 14 - Final Projects (including data files, R code, and a pdf version of your paper) must be uploaded to your Google Drive folder by 6:30 PM
- Other topics, if time permits
- Olympic performance and records
- Baseball (expacted runs, player performance, and pitcher statistics)
- Golf
- Hockey (shot metrics, expected goals, goalie stats, power play, etc.)
- Soccer (expected goals, shot analytics, predicting future performance, etc.)
- Power rankings (NFL Elo ratings, NBA Elo history, Bradley-Terry model, BPI, FPI, etc.)
- Referee analytics (call reversals, bias, etc.)
- Records
- Stein's paradox
Weekly Assignments
- HW #1 - due on Tuesday, February 9
- The impact of injuries in sports - Post at least one article on CTE, concussions, or other injuries and the impact they have had on the sport of interest to you. Your pdf version of the article should be copied into a folder on Google drive. Each student will briefly summarize their article next week.
- Read the Football articles posted in our Google Drive folder Stat306-S2021\!Football and be prepared to discuss them on February 9
- Your first group project will involve football (NFL or NCAA) so yo may want to begin searching for articles, identifying data sources, and formulating your questions.
- HW #2 - due on Tuesday, February 16
- Post at least one football article to our Google Drive folder Stat306\!Football\Student Suggested Articles - ideally the article will be peer-reviewed and published in a professional journal. You may select articles related to player perfomance, team performance, officiating, team ranking, NFL combine predictions, draft selection, salary cap issues, home field advantage, etc.
- Prepare a graph for the ugliest graph competition next week. As you read the sports related literature you will see plenty of ugly and misleading graphs. You may work with a partner on this assignment, but your goal is to create what you think is the ugliest graph related to football. We will vote on the "winner" next week in class. Be creative and have some fun as you also work on your first major project, which should not include ugly or misleading graphs.
- Project Update Presentations - Prepare a Gdoc or Gslide presentation so that your peers can provide feedback and suggestions. At a minimum, your presentation should include a formal statement of your problem, data sources, and premliminary comments about statistical methods and models that will be used for your analysis.
- HW #3 - due on Tuesday, February 23
- Post at least one basketball article to our Google Drive folder Stat306\!Basketball\Student Suggested Articles - ideally the article will be peer-reviewed and published in a professional journal. The article may deal with any aspect of basketball at any level. That is, you can focus on the NBA, NCAA, DIII, or any other level of the game.
- Final project presentations for football projects - Gslides, PPT, or PDF must be shared along with Rcode and data files
- HW #4 - due on Friday, February 26
- Your final written papers (approximately 10-15 pages) on the football project. Please incorporate the feedback from your peers.
- HW #5 - due on Tuesday, March 9
- Post at least one journal article (sport of your choice) to a Student Suggested Articles folder on Google Drive. Ideally, this article should be peer-reviewed and published in a professional journal.
- Project Update Presentations - Prepare a Gdoc or Gslide presentation so that your peers can provide feedback and suggestions. At a minimum, your presentation should include a formal statement of your problem, data sources, and premliminary comments about statistical methods and models that will be used for your analysis.
- HW #6 - due on Sunday, March 14 (before the selection show begins) - your list of 68 teams for the NCAA tournament
- HW #7 - due on Tuesday, March 16
- Post at least one journal article (sport of your choice) to a Student Suggested Articles folder on Google Drive. Ideally, this article should be peer-reviewed and published in a professional journal.
- HW #8 - due on Thursday, March 18 before the first game starts
- Complete your bracket for the NCAA March Madness Competition
- HW #9 - due on Tuesday, March 29
- Your final written papers (approximately 10-15 pages) and a one page executive summary on basketball projects. Please incorporate the feedback from your peers. You will receive feedback from an expert (AP) on your executive summaries.
- HW #10 - due on Tuesday, March 29
- Post at least one journal article (sport of your choice) to a Student Suggested Articles folder on Google Drive. This article must be peer-reviewed and published in a professional journal. Finally, you may NOT duplicate any articles that have already been posted so please check our growing bibliography carefully.
- HW #11 - due on Tuesday, April 6
- Post at least one journal article (sport of your choice) to a Student Suggested Articles folder on Google Drive. This article must be peer-reviewed and published in a professional journal. Finally, you may NOT duplicate any articles that have already been posted so please check our growing bibliography carefully.
- Be prepared to discuss your progress on project #3.
- HW #12 - due on Tuesday, April 13
- Post at least one journal article (sport of your choice) to a Student Suggested Articles folder on Google Drive. This article must be peer-reviewed and published in a professional journal. Finally, you may NOT duplicate any articles that have already been posted so please check our growing bibliography carefully.
- HW #13 - due on Tuesday, April 20
- Short articles, 3 to 7 pages for a general audience, are due.
- Post at least one journal article (sport of your choice) to a Student Suggested Articles folder on Google Drive. This article must be peer-reviewed and published in a professional journal. Finally, you may NOT duplicate any articles that have already been posted so please check our growing bibliography carefully.
- HW #14 - due on Tuesday, May 4
- Short articles, 3 to 7 pages for a general audience, are due.
- Post at least one journal article (sport of your choice) to a Student Suggested Articles folder on Google Drive. This article must be peer-reviewed and published in a professional journal. Finally, you may NOT duplicate any articles that have already been posted so please check our growing bibliography carefully.
Data Sources
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Football
- General
- Golf
- Hockey
Interesting Articles
Interesting Links