Document Type
Thesis
First Faculty Advisor
Dr. Alicia Lamere
Keywords
statistics; tanking in sports; NBA; NFL
Publisher
Bryant University
Rights Management
CC-BY-NC-ND
Abstract
Professional sports teams are adored nationwide for their talents and the pride they bring to their city for their efforts. However, not all teams take this responsibility seriously and will lose on purpose, or tank, to gain a higher draft pick in the future. Although the long-term goals of tanking are to help the organization, many people take issue with athletes not putting in their best efforts in every game. Teams in both the NBA and NFL are guilty of tanking to gain better draft picks but not all have found success in this process. This leads to important questions such as: "Does fan response dictate the decision to tank?" "Does tanking affect revenue of teams?", and "Is there any statistical evidence to show that tanking will result in future success for these teams?". By taking a statistical approach, teams can weigh the potential outcomes of tanking, and if it is something they should consider late in the season. Tanking is a major issue across all sports, and it is important to understand the social as well as statistical outcomes of tanking a season.
Included in
Applied Mathematics Commons, Applied Statistics Commons, Sociology Commons, Sports Studies Commons
