Master of Science in Business Analytics
Master of Science in Business Analytics
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2021-2022
An Investigation of Professional Football Teams’ Most Unexplored Areas; Draft and Special Teams
Student Team
Erinn Dockins, Nandita Chauhan, Rajesh Kumar Bandela, Huiqi Wang, Raymond Yee
Faculty Advisors
Dr. Mehrdad Koohikamali, Dr. Mohammad Salehan
Abstract
The purpose of this research is twofold: first to perform a market evaluation of the Los Angeles Rams Football team; second, to investigate special teams and draft players' contribution to big plays in the NFL. To take a deeper look into the draft players, a regression model was implemented to understand a player's characteristics that could predict a career Approximate Value of a player. Then, different models were utilized to gain a more in depth insight into the special teams function. A classification model was utilized to predict players involved in big plays into slow and fast categories. A regression model was deployed to understand what attributes from surrounding players such as distance can predict how many big plays a player has. Lastly, a hotspot analysis was applied to the LA Rams’ big plays to visually understand where on the field big plays are most prevalent. The research is concluded with findings, recommendations, and future steps.
Keywords
NFL, Draft, Special Teams, Football, Approximate Value, Hotspot Analysis