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

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Apr 9th, 9:45 AM

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.