🔔 New preprint w/ Catalina Medina
❓ We ran a quasi-experiment in an introductory stats course to see if giving students a choice of real data context on homework actually has impact
📄 Engaging students with statistics through choice of real data context on homework
🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2603.04541
👍 Our recs based on our findings are
1️⃣ use real data with authentic contexts,
2️⃣ select contexts students care about
3️⃣ incorporate variety across data contexts
4️⃣ consider choice as a pedagogical tool.
A screenshot of an RStudio window. On the left-hand side is a new pain called Posit Assistant. The Posit Assistant had recently run code making a lat-lon plot of Washington state, colored by whether the point had been marked as forested or not.
Today we're releasing AI for RStudio. It's really, really good—I'd encourage you to point it at the messiest data sources you have and see what it can do.
www.simonpcouch.com/blog/2026-03...
BREAKING: Teamworks to Acquire Pro Football Focus
www.wideleft.football/p/breaking-t...
Teamworks—which calls itself as "The Operating System for Sports"—is closing in on acquiring Pro Football Focus per
@arif.bsky.social
. PFF's valuation in the deal is between $130M-$140M.
Cris Collinsworth purchased PFF for $6M in 2014. www.wideleft.football/p/breaking-t...
The list of why I should switch to Positron keeps getting longer.
Summary: Peak BBCOR same for all 3 bats but shifted to inside for Torpedos. Simple shift for Torpedo-1 but wider sweet spot for Torpedo-2. See baseball.physics.illinois.edu/ppt/Nathan-T... for my @saberseminar.bsky.social talk. This is an on-going study with additional research in progress.
ICYMI 🧵1st results of the Torpedo bat study by Lloyd Smith, @drussellpsu.bsky.social, and me. Measurements done at WSU Sports Science Lab and PSU. Will be presented at ISEA Conference in June. BBCOR, a surrogate for exit velocity, measured for 1 Standard and 2 Torpedo bats via high-speed impact.
So far, overturned ABS Challenges...
ABS Challenge report so far:
- Fielders challenging 113 to 56 for batters (or only 33% challenges are by batters)
- Fielders got 61-113 overturned (54%), earning 0.15 runs per overturn, 0.08 per challenge
- Batters 27-56 (48%), earning 0.20 runs per overturn, 0.10 per challenge
The Defense Rests: A Tribute to Bill Mazeroski (1936–2026) blogs.fangraphs.com/the-defense-...
Just published in JOSS: 'SC2Tools: StarCraft II Toolset and Dataset API' https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.08889
Got to join the Wharton Moneyball podcast yesterday to talk about the state of the NBA and why @deanolytics.bsky.social belongs in the basketball hall of fame. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
Cade is the best, you always want to hear him on the draft.
Ron is at least medium.
Appreciate anyone sharing with media that plan to be in town for the draft! @sethwalder.bsky.social @minakimes.bsky.social @benjaminsolak.bsky.social @billbarnwell.com @dannyheifetz.bsky.social
Very excited to host Cade Massy when the #NFLDraft is in Pittsburgh this year! If you're able to make it to Pittsburgh that week, then join us for FREE to see Cade's talk on the 'The Loser's Curse'! w/ virtual option for students #sportsanalytics
This came out.
Visual storytelling using Net Points.
~~ nflverse data update ~~
2025 participation data is now live thanks to @ftnfantasy.com and @realfrankbrank.bsky.social.
Access
with nflreadr nflreadr.nflverse.com/reference/lo...
or
with nflreadpy
nflreadpy.nflverse.com/api/load_fun...
i have to wait 5 minutes before hitting no again?!!
I loved this idea. And so (with Bryan's blessing)...
darnold-meter.com
Strongly recommend this (www.vicetv.com/en_us/video/...) - I'm going to continue telling #statistics, #datascience, & #sportsanalytics educators to create sports betting courses! I'm 3 weeks in w/ my class, which has students bet w/ my fake #rstats #Shiny sportsbook app for homework
We're now taking applications for #CMSACamp 2026! Application deadline is Feb 27th - please share with rising juniors and seniors! #sportsanalytics #statistics #datascience www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sta...
awesome, just preordered it!
We demonstrate that higher variability in snap timing is beneficial for the passing game, as it relates to facing less havoc created by the opposing defence. We also obtain a quarterback leaderboard based on our snap timing variability measure, and Patrick Mahomes stands out 🐐
Using a Bayesian multilevel model with heterogeneous variances, we provide an assessment of National Football League (NFL) quarterbacks and their ability to synchronize the timing of the ball snap with pre-snap movement from their teammates.
🆕A multilevel model with heterogeneous variances for snap timing in the National Football League
🏈Nguyen and Yurko snap into the passing lanes
doi.org/10.1093/jrss...
My paper (coauthored w/ @stat-ron.bsky.social) on modeling variability in QB snap timing using #BigDataBowl data is published in JRSSA.
academic.oup.com/jrsssa/advan...
you should fix the axes so that the units are the same (i.e., make 0.1 along the x-axis the same actual length as 0.1 along the y-axis)
We are 2 DAYS away from the #CMSAC in-person registration deadline! cmsaconference.com with the full schedule available here: cmsaconference.com/schedule-1 including this year's #ReproducibleResearch competition finalists! www.cmsaconference.com/research-com... #sportsanalytics #datascience
