The men’s NCAA basketball tournament is a popular sporting event often referred to as “March Madness.” Each year the NCAA committee not only selects but also seeds the tournament teams. Invariably there is much discussion about which teams were included and excluded as well as discussion...

The NBA’s age eligibility rule is controversial. To examine the on-court efficacy of the NBA’s age eligibility rule, we test the effect of age of entry on NBA career performance. Our data set comprises the 332 players selected in the first round of the NBA draft from 1989 to 2000. Using...

The following quote from Gregg Doyel in reference to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s basketball tournament appeared on CBSSports.com on March 21, 2009. “For teams with a realistic chance at winning multiple games in the NCAA tournament,…the worst seed to have is...

This paper uses conditional probability distributions to simulate batsman outcomesâthat is, runs and dismissalsâwhile a limited overs cricket match is in play. The research was motivated by the potential to assess, and reassess, the likelihood of a batsman achieving a certain score within a...

Significant work has gone into the development of team and individual statistics in the NBA; for example, the team measures of the “Four Factors.” Less work has been conducted using multivariate analyses of these metrics, including identifying possible new statistical techniques to analyze...

We present formulas for calculating wins over replacement player (WORP) for NHL goaltenders. If a team's primary objective is victory over its opponent, then a player's value may best be determined by his ability to help his team win games. Furthermore, a player's contribution to his team's wins...

We study two important aspects of the home advantage for ice hockey. First we study team and season level data to uncover systematic variation in the home advantage across teams and over time. We find no systematic variation in home advantage across teams. Secondly, we use six seasons of...

This study sought to establish the most important factors affecting the service in high-level women’s volleyball and the relative weighting of such factors on this technical part of the sport. A total of 1300 services from eight matches played in two Final Fours of the Indesit European...

We examine the question of whether or not momentum exists in an NFL football game. The concept of momentum is often cited by coaches, players, commentators and fans as a major factor in determining the outcome of the game and, consequently, in-game decision making. To examine the existence of...

This analysis revises and strengthens a study by Anderson and Pierce (2009) on referee bias in NCAA basketball. Using a logistic regression model, they determined that referees display a statistically significant tendency to even out the foul count between the two teams—every additional...