Dynamically Scheduling NFL Games to Reduce Strength of Schedule Variability
Department, Center, or Institute
Mathematics
Secondary Department, Center, or Institute
Economics
Presentation Format
Department Organized Oral Session
Presentation Type
On-campus research
Description
The NFL schedules games where some matchups are based on the previous year’s results. Since team composition changes from year to year, this scheduling policy sometimes benefits teams unfairly, allowing some an easier path to the playoffs than others. Thus, strength of schedules vary between teams and arguments have to be made why some teams make the playoffs and others do not. We propose methods to produce an NFL schedule that combines some of its traditional elements with dynamically-scheduled games aimed at optimizing different objectives, such as reducing the variability of teams’ strengths of schedules or minimizing the number of pairwise comparisons needed to differentiate team quality.
Department Organized Oral Session Title
Mathematics Summer Research Experiences
Moderator/Professor
Liz Bouzarth, Mathematics
Session Number
1
Start Date and Time
4-9-2019 9:45 AM
Location
Riley Hall 107
Recommended Citation
Cromer, Andrew and Fravel, Jamie, "Dynamically Scheduling NFL Games to Reduce Strength of Schedule Variability" (2019). Furman Engaged!. 381.
https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furmanengaged/2019/all/381
Dynamically Scheduling NFL Games to Reduce Strength of Schedule Variability
Riley Hall 107
The NFL schedules games where some matchups are based on the previous year’s results. Since team composition changes from year to year, this scheduling policy sometimes benefits teams unfairly, allowing some an easier path to the playoffs than others. Thus, strength of schedules vary between teams and arguments have to be made why some teams make the playoffs and others do not. We propose methods to produce an NFL schedule that combines some of its traditional elements with dynamically-scheduled games aimed at optimizing different objectives, such as reducing the variability of teams’ strengths of schedules or minimizing the number of pairwise comparisons needed to differentiate team quality.