The Importance Of Mathematics In Sports

Baseball has always been a game of numbers. Fans of the game have grown up being able to recite them by heart; Ted Williams’.406 batting average, Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak, Babe Ruth’s 714 home runs. These numbers hold a special place in the history of the game. Statistics such as batting average, wins, home runs, and runs batted in have always been there to tell us who the best players are. Your favorite player has a .300 batting average? He’s an all-star. He hit 40 home runs and batted in 120 runs? That’s a Most Valuable Player Award candidate. Your favorite team’s best pitcher won 20 games? He’s a Cy Young Award contender. These statistics have been used to evaluate player performance

Most people would assume that soccer is the fastest game played with two feet, but actually it is lacrosse. Math is used in the game of lacrosse in many ways, as an example the angle you shoot at determines where the ball goes. Also, an example of math being used would be the different shapes in the game. Like for example, the field you play on is a rectangle with different shapes and lines to determine the foul lines, shooting lines, and the half-field. Another subject of math being involved in lacrosse is the area inside the net. This is how much space there is in the net, where the ball could go.

Sports teams are switching to a variable-pricing strategy for tickets so that they can get a higher profit on games with record attendance numbers. They feel the need to do so because the marginal costs, such as construction payment and players’ salaries, did not equal to the marginal revenue, since attendance was severely dropping. To pay for the marginal cost, the sports team needed to capitalize on things that they were sure of, like increasing attendances to games between major sporting rivals.

Colleges bring an incredible amount of money by their sport teams alones. According to John Brill, a sports journalist writer, “College football and basketball generate more than the National Basketball Association, a total of more than $6 billion yearly.” The money made from these sporting events are not being used correctly which is frustrating many college athletes. The money that is being

Ticket sales, advertising, and merchandise help colleges produce hundreds of millions of dollars through college sports (Nocera and Williams). College-athletes, especially from D1 universities, are there to help the school produce money. A major part of a school’s profit is coming from the athletic department and they are even saving money too. Athletic departments are considered part of the educational system and do not need to pay taxes on sponsors, tv broadcasting, and season tickets (Eitzen). For example, March Madness is a popular event that is televised every year; some teams have even created their own broadcasting systems. Universities and coaches are supplying enough money that the athletes could receive some pay as well.

Over the past few years, college athletics has grown immensely, gaining an infinite amount of supporters with no signs of slowing down. Today, sports are no longer just sports; they are becoming a business, leaving the athletes with no profit. The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a multi-billion-dollar organization that would not exist without athletes around the country. Each year, just like the popularity, the revenues that each college makes off athletics also increase but the athletes do not receive any of the compensation despite their work and sacrifices. Throughout one year alone, a division one university’s athletic departments can bring in a revenue that ranges anywhere from $70,000,000 to $180,000,000. This revenue consists of multiple aspects; not just ticket sales. College programs also bring in millions from television and

For example, the Oregon University Athletics program alone makes $196 million a year just off of sports sales. And twenty other colleges are making over $100 million a year with the athletes still not being paid. Almost every college makes their money off sporting resources like admission, or jersey sales. But almost all of their main money source comes from ticket sales. Depending on the seat view or spot will range from about $14 to $4,250 per ticket. And if the event is a special game the cost rises, along with the team or area. And the thing is that the majority of the money coming from sports the colleges use on things not even needed. Auburn University used money from its sales on a 11,000 foot HD screen for the stadium worth 13.9 million. And many other schools used the money from sporting events for different additions to the school worth well over $50

“I aspire to be a GM for a sports team,” this comment would surprise my classmates who know me better as a musician and thespian. However, my passion for researching statistics, assessing talent, and discussing the business behind sports provides the impetus for my career choice. Possibly, I will be the next innovator to Major League Baseball, like GM Billy Beane who pioneered the use of applied statistical analysis to player evaluations and changed the whole concept of recruiting.

Over the years, the popularity and marketability of victorious teams have brought enormous sums of money to their colleges. College athletics, especially the so - called “revenue sports” of men’s basketball and football, is now a multimillion-dollar business that is marketed, packaged, and sold in the same way as other commercial products.

Math calculates what a team is going to trade for a pick, it is used to draft a specific player and the statistics that they had in college. A scout looks at the production of a player, a coach looks at the execution of a player, and then the GM looks at how much a player is worth and if they are worth a specific draft pick (Wilner 2015). There is no specific equation that can be used to determine how much a certain draft pick is worth but looking through past draft trades can only benefit a future trade. Using mathematics in the NFL Draft plays a more significant role than just an average viewer realizes. Anyone from a scout, to the coach, to the GM, to the players is affected by the NFL Draft and the choices that are made in it, that is why using math and using it the correct way it important. Math is used in every aspect of everyone’s life and affects the way people think and act, it is what makes society run

Football and basketball bring in the dough, and every other college sport survives as a result” (Text 4). Either way, the athletic departments would still have to use the money to clean and prepare the stadium, buy the gear needed along with buying the food and merchandise imperative during the game, making it almost impractical to pay the

Historically, sports franchises were privately funded. Currently, they are publicly funded which gives the sports team more power because relocating is no longer expensive or risky. Therefore, “sports franchise owners no longer construct their own stadium because they are not a good financial investment, and taxpayers pay for it, which increases their profits” (Bandow, 2004).

Revenue generated from ticket sales, licensing, rights, and donations have led to financial prosperity using sports as the key source of achievement.

Everything changes. It may change for the better or it may change for the worse, but it will change. This is in undeniable and indisputable fact of life. Over the last century we, as humans, have seen more change than ever before. Technology has flourished, morals have mutated and style has been reformed. The world as we knew it is no more. Many changes that have taken place, such as forms of communication, were profoundly crucial for our society today; while others were not. One of these subordinate changes was the progression of sports and the mechanics of these sports. They are now more calculated and more confined.

Using these numbers, they can then create several mathematical models that then are used for statistical comparison of each of the players. Football uses statistics of everything like how many passes or catches a player makes. Then some of the coaches of the different teams use these statistics to compare each of the achievements the player makes. Realizing that there is the use of mathematics in everything like a simple and fun football game, shows me that you can calculate a lot of things and get statistics from them, these can help me in my math course and during my life because the use of statistics and the information I can get can make me know the probabilities of things happening or like the coaches in the teams that use them to compare things, I can use them for that too. I should use statistics more in my life when they can apply because they can make a difference in how I see things and make my life easier if I know what are the probabilities of an event happening, even if I am trying to choose between several things, I can get statistics to see which one is better or which one is the best option