Have you heard about NFL Big Data Bowl?

Have you heard about NFL Big Data Bowl?

If not, and you are interested in NFL and in sports analytics in general, you should. Big Data Bowl is an annual competition to prove your sports analytics skills and the gateway to land a job in the industry.  

From the Big Data Bowl site: To date, more than 50 Big Data Bowl participants have been hired in data and analytics roles in sports.

Each year there is a main subject and participants need to create reports, insights and analysis around that topic that can be translated into real decisions by team, coaches or players.

The topic this year is "create metrics that assign value to elements of tackling." Participants have access to data provided by Next Gen Stats, that includes the location, speed, and acceleration of all 22 players on the field, along with football location.

What's for you? Well, there are money prizes. Being in the top five guarantees you $12500. If you win, you get even more.   But apart form that, you get to present the results in front of a jury. This is the actual prize. You get to be known, you get the opportunity to make a network , people will take you into consideration and the evidence is the quote above. "more than 50 Big Data Bowl participants have been hired in data and analytics roles in sports.".

If you high caliber job, you will be doing what you love but also, you will make much more than the $12500.

How to participate? All instructions and details are hosted here Unfortunately it's a bit late for this year but you can start preparing for the next one. Learn how to participate, check previous year's finalists work, play with the data and get used to it. You have a full year to catch up with everyone else.

I personally learnt about this a few years ago by following @StatsByLopez.

Here are the finalists from last year.

I recommend taking a look to many of them.  Some are more complex than others but all are clear. I recommend the following: * Evaluate linemen using Player Impact Distribution * STRAIN: Sacks, Tackles, Rushing, Aggression Index