2024 Big Data Bowl

In October 2023, the NFL announced the sixth annual Big Data Bowl would commence and be focused on tackling. For those unfamiliar, the Big Data Bowl is a contest that anyone can participate in but contestants usually have a background in Data Analysis, Mathematics, Data Science, or Machine Learning.

Leveraging Next Gen Stats, this season's Big Data Bowl calls on professional and upcoming data analysts to examine tackling performance across the NFL. Applicants will have access to Next Gen Stats data from Weeks 1-9 of the 2022 NFL season analyzing the location, speed and acceleration of all 22 players on the field, along with the location of the football during a given play. Other Pro Football Focus (PFF) scouting data and advanced statistics such as expected points and win probability will also be included. Source

As a fun side project, I decided that I would compile a repository of all of the contestants - doing my best to map each credited author's LinkedIn, Twitter, Github, Email, and any other online presence they might have (such as a personal website or blog). This project will be valuable to any company who hires for the skillsets mentioned above and is especially relevant for any company hiring in the Sports Analytics domain. Having a list of demonstrably qualified candidates (albeit to varying degrees) will save companies time by simplifying the mundane and difficult process of identifying relevant candidates for prospective job openings. The experience of Big Data Bowl contestants ranges widely from people who hold PhD's with years of professional experience, to university students, to amateurs who are simply passionate about the game of football.

I gathered as much information as I can find about each contestant and put it all together in this Shiny app. I even got some love from my guy Tej Seth!

This year saw the highest levels of participation in the contest's history with contestants submitting projects from all over the world! It's truly remarkable to witness in real-time the growing interest that is taking form from fans with this specialized skillset. I would expect this trend to continue next year and beyond as NFL front offices and coaching staffs are becoming more and more comfortable trusting the suggestions provided through the lens of analytics.

I'll note that I wasn't able to source each data point for every entrant but I did my best, and considering that all I had to work from was a link to a Git repository or a name (and sometimes not even that!), I'm going to give myself the grace to pat myself on the back. The project is a work in progress and I hope to extend its contents to include all prior Big Data Bowl contests dating back to 2016.