The Big Data Bowl: Where Data Scientists Compete to Revolutionize Football Analytics

The Big Data Bowl: Where Football and Analytics Collide

Every year, shortly after the Super Bowl, America’s best college football players head to Indianapolis. It’s a rite of spring, like the migration of birds. Their destination is the Combine, a weeklong event where National Football League teams evaluate the talent to determine whom they’ll select during the upcoming NFL draft.

But in a convention center ballroom not far from the stadium, another “combine” is taking place. Here the marquee event is not the 40-yard dash but the six-minute research presentation. The competitors are not sports stars but data scientists who’ve come for the final round of the Big Data Bowl. Launched by the NFL in 2018, this competition challenges teams of researchers to apply analytics and AI tools to football data.

Over the last several years, analytics have enabled NFL teams to evaluate players in ways not possible before — for example, assessing a defender’s ability to create tackling opportunities, not just completed tackles. Coaches use the metrics to streamline game preparation. And fans, as well as bettors and bookmakers, crave the insights offered by what the NFL calls Next Gen Stats.

The Big Data Bowl is not just a competition; it’s a gateway to a career in football analytics. About 40 participants have been hired by some 20 teams, while others have joined companies that provide data and services to NFL teams and other sports teams. The competition has grown in popularity, with more than 300 entries in 2024’s Big Data Bowl, which were narrowed down to five finalist teams invited to Indianapolis.

The theme for this year’s competition was tackling, and the winning team, comprised of Katherine Dai, Matthew Chang, Daniel Jiang, and Harvey Cheng, used decision trees to improve predictions of tackles and identify near misses. Their innovative approach earned them the top prize of $25,000.

The Big Data Bowl is not just about crunching numbers; it’s about gaining insights that have real football meaning. As analytics continue to revolutionize the NFL, the Big Data Bowl remains at the forefront of this data-driven evolution, showcasing the intersection of football and analytics in a way that is both exciting and impactful.