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Associate Professor of Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics Michael Schuckers gave a talk on a statistical analysis of the National Football League Draft from 1991 to 2001, at the International Indian Statistical Association Conference, held in Raleigh, NC.

Schuckers' abstract states, "Each year the National Football League allocates newly eligible players among its 30 teams via a draft. This paper presents an evaluation of how well each of the league's teams have done from 1991 to 2001. To arrive at our assessment, we derive a non-parametric regression based alternative to the PVC based upon past player performance. This assessment is done based upon data for each of the ?rst 255 players selected in the National Football Leagues annual draft from 1991 to 2001. Using LOESS regression, we evaluate how each draft pick did relative to what would be expected at that selection number. Thus, we can evaluate if there are teams that systematically out- perform or underperform give the draft selections that they made. We present results on individual players as well as results for each team."

The talk is based on a paper that will appear in an upcoming edition of the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports.

More: Michael Schuckers' Web site

Posted: April 25, 2011; updated May 5, 2011