<a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5002974" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5002974</a><p>seems like a nice starting point for thinking about projects<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5005707" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5005707</a> you could see if Bill Walsh actually knew what he was talking about
Can't attend but here's a free idea for you all.<p>Can someone make a weird sports rule dictionary/feed that looks for those strange rules. So when i go to whattheheckjusthappenedsports.com It takes a look at all the games happening in realtime and explains to me like a 6 year old what a balk is, and what its outcome is on the game.<p>"If you're watching the Cardinals/Jays game securingsincity that was a balk which is X, and that has Y impact on the game."<p>Would work well for those strange replay rules in the NFL and now MLB. Hell even Michael Vick could have used it a few years ago when he didn't know games could end in a tie.
while you got me brainstorming, could of years ago I tried to see if having a higher pass/run ratio led to a higher yards per play,<p>found that it didn't<p>part of that seems to be that good offenses get leads and then run the ball, dragging back down the pass/run ratio (inverse goes as well, crappy offenses spend the 4th quarter chucking it)<p>you could try rerun the experiment just using 1st quarter stats, see if that changes it<p>or just stats when the score was within 7 points
you could look into play sequencing<p>is a pass more successful if the prior play was a run? last 2, 3, 4, ...n plays were runs? if x of the last y plays were runs<p>same thing situationally, pass on 3rd & 3, if the last n 3rd and 3 were runs, etc