Who's the Best? Ranking Methods in Sports

About this event

Dr. Meredith Shea tackles the all important question: Who's the Best?

How do sports leagues determine a champion? This question may seem straightforward at first--and is for leagues like the Premier League--but is surprisingly complicated when we take a closer look. What happens when each team in a league plays a different subset of competitors like in the NFL? How do we fairly decide at-large tournament selection in NCAA sports, which typically have 300+ teams? In this talk we will examine different sports rating systems as they increase in complexity: from Massey Ratings to souped up Elo Models. We will ask how the models work, how they differ, and what they miss, ultimately trying to answer the unanswerable question: who's the best?

All are welcome to attend this lecture.