Sports Metric of the Week: The Southeastern Conference’s College Football Dominance

College football bowl season is in full swing. Muddled in with an abundance of mediocre bowl games with obscure sponsors, four teams will compete in the newly formed four-team college football playoff. These teams include Clemson (representing the ACC), Alabama (SEC), Michigan State (Big 10), and Oklahoma (Big 12). Alabama is the odds-on favorite and is expected to continue a …

Sports Metric of the Week: The Historically Bad Philadelphia 76ers

The 2015-2016 NBA regular season has featured both the best and worst regular season starts in league history. While the Golden State Warriors have dominated en route to a 26-1 start, the mightily struggling Philadelphia 76ers have won just one game in their first 29 contests. On pace to finish the season 3-79, this year’s 76er team is trending towards …

Sports Metric of the Week: Predicting the 2015 Heisman Trophy Winner

All NCAA Football conference championships concluded this past weekend, meaning the regular season has come to an end, and the sport will now transition to an array of bowl games beginning on December 19th. Prior to the commencement of college football’s postseason, the sport will crown the 2015 Heisman Trophy Winner, one of the most prestigious individual honors in all …

Sports Metric of the Week: Thanksgiving Day Football

Along with turkey, the Macy’s Day Parade in New York City, and spending time with family, football is a staple on Thanksgiving Day. The tradition of playing football on Turkey Day can be dated all the way back to the 1800’s. Nowadays, the NFL schedules three games to be played each year on Thanksgiving. Four of America’s most popular teams …

Sports Metric of the Week: Did Jake Arrieta Deserve the 2015 NL Cy Young Award?

On Wednesday of last week, Cubs starter Jake Arrieta was awarded the 2015 National League Cy Young Award. In one of the tightest races in recent memory, Arrieta won the award over two of the Dodgers’ aces: Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw. Arrieta turned in one of the most dominating 2nd half performances by a starter in MLB history, posting …

Sports Metric of the Week: NFL Extra Point No Longer a ‘Gimme’

This past offseason the NFL implemented a rule change that required extra points following touchdowns to be snapped from the 15-yard line rather than the 2-yard line. Over time, NFL kickers became so accurate that an extra point was considered a ‘gimme’ – with kickers converting over 99% of the time. This new modification has made the historically dull extra …

Sports Metric of the Week: Did the Golden State Warriors Get Lucky?

The Golden State Warriors have emerged from Western Conference bottom-dweller to NBA champions in a rapid ascension to the top of the sport. With the new season underway, the Warriors are off to a blistering 7-0 start by outscoring their opponents by 20+ points per game, including a victory over their in-state rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers, this past Wednesday …

Sports Metric of the Week: Thursday Night NFL Point Differentials

You might recall that in 2014 there were many complaints that Thursday Night NFL games were not competitive enough, with a huge point differential between the winning and losing teams. In fact, during the first five weeks of the 2014/2015 season, the point differential averaged a massive 29 points.By the end of Week 8, the average for the 2014/2015 season …

Sports Metric of the Week: World Series Championships

The winner of Game 1 of the World Series title has a HUGE likelihood of winning it all. As you can see below, Game 1 winners have won 70 of the 110 World Series titles overall or 63.6%. Recently, the results have been even more convincing. In the last 18 World Series, the winner of Game 1, has won the …