NFL Primetime: Modeling Career Trajectories of NFL Receivers

Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - 15:00 to 15:50
427 Thackeray Hall
Speaker Information
Darin Ngau
Undergraduate Student
University of Pittsburgh

Abstract or Additional Information

In 1956, M. King Hubbert was able to accurately model and predict that the US oil production would peak in 1970. Hubbert was also able to predict the decline of production to within 10 percent in the subsequent years from 1974 through 1994. Today, this is known as Hubbert's Peak Oil Theory.
 
In this seminar, we will talk about how the same principles of Hubbert's Peak Oil Theory can be applied to model the careers and “peak” performance trajectories of NFL wide receivers. We will discuss the importance of performance modeling in the NFL and the growing future of mathematics in sports in general.