In Fall 2016, we began a collaboration with the Yale Daily News, entitled ”BY THE NUMBERS”. All articles that have been published by the YDN, or the YDN sports blog, “Down The Field”, are archived below.
2018-19
BY THE NUMBERS: Yale Just Falls to LSU: Luke Benz ‘19 breaks down how Yale had a perfect game plan but fell short in March Madness against LSU.
BY THE NUMBERS: Most Exciting Ivy Games: Luke Benz ‘19 uses his Game Excitement Index metric to break down the most exciting basketball games of the Ivy conference slate.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy Hoops Midseason Rankings: Luke Benz ‘19 uses his NCAA Basketball Model to give some Ivy League power rankings at the midpoint of the Ivy season.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy Hoops Power Rankings: Luke Benz ‘19 uses his NCAA Basketball Model to give some Ivy League power rankings in advance of conference play hitting full swing.
BY THE NUMBERS: Yale vs. Duke Preview: Krish Maypole ‘21 and Luke Benz ‘19 preview the upcoming Yale vs. Duke men’s basketball clash and analyze strengths and weaknesses of the two squads.
BY THE NUMBERS: A Statistical History of The Game: Luke Benz ‘19 examines a the history of the Harvard-Yale football game since 1875.
BY THE NUMBERS: Princeton’s Success: Krish Maypole ‘21 and Luke Benz ‘19 place Princeton’s historically dominant football season in context and offer some keys to the Yale-Princeton football game.
BY THE NUMBERS: Rise of Ivy League Football Recruiting: Using data from 247Sports, Luke Benz ‘19 examines the recent rise in recruiting success in Ivy League football.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy League Football Preview: Luke Benz ‘19 gives a 2018 Ivy League Football preview based simulations using the YUSAG FCS model.
2017-18
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy Lax Approaches Final Week: Matt Robinson ‘18 breaks down the numbers in advance of the Ivy League Lacrosse tournaments in NYC.
BY THE NUMBERS: Baseball MVPs: Luke Benz ‘19 turns to Ivy League Baseball Wins Above Replacement to identify the most valuable players in the Ancient Eight.
BY THE NUMBERS: Softball MVPs: Luke Benz ‘19 turns to Ivy League Softball Wins Above Replacement to identify the most valuable players in the Ancient Eight.
BY THE NUMBERS: How Mad was March?: Luke Benz ‘19 creates a new metric comparing each year’s NCAA basketball tournament to the average tournament in order to contextualize just how crazy the 2018 tournament was.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy League Lacrosse Predictions: Matt Robinson ‘18 uses the YUSAG college lacrosse rankings to break down each Ivy League’s teams chances at postseason success.
BY THE NUMBERS: Yale Heads to Ivy Madness: Luke Benz ‘19 previews the 2nd iteration of the Ivy League Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament with title odds and breakdowns of potential championship matchups.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy Hoops Enters Home Stretch: With four games left in Ancient Eight Confernce Play, Luke Benz ‘19 details each’s teams math to the Palestra.
BY THE NUMBERS: Math to Ivy Madness: Luke Benz ‘19 hits reset on the Ivy League as conference play enters the seconf half of the season.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy Basketball Analytics: Luke Benz ‘19 assess each Ivy League’s team’s chances of reaching Ivy Madness and explains why this weekend’s games against Harvard and Dartmouth are especially important.
BY THE NUMBERS: Replacing Makai Mason: Luke Benz ‘19 debuts college basketball assist networks to examine how Yale’s offense has done without its star point guard.
BY THE NUMBERS: The Game 2017: Matt Robinson ‘19 gives a statistical preview of the 134th playing of the Harvard-Yale football game.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy Title Race Heats Up: Luke Benz ‘19 and Matt Robinson ‘18 break down the numbers you need to know for the final 3 weeks of the Ivy League Football season.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy League Football Quick Hits: Luke Benz ‘19 examines title odds and Yale’s outlook at the midway point of the football season.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy League Football Preview: Matt Robinson ‘18 uses the YUSAG college football model to simulate the Ivy League Football season in order to give predicted records and title odds for each team.
BY THE NUMBERS: How to Win an Ivy League Football Championship: Luke Benz ‘19 breaks down why controlling the running game is much more important than controlling the passing game for winning titles in the Ivy League.
Summer 2017
Yale Baseball Postseason Predictions: Luke Benz ‘19 simulates the NCAA Baseball tournament to determine Yale’s chances for postseason success.
All-Ivy Baseball/Softball Snubs and Surprises: Luke Benz ‘19 uses his WAR project to evaluate the Ivy League’s all-conference honors and doles out some hot takes.
2016-17
BY THE NUMEBRS: Baseball/Softball MVPs: Luke Benz ‘19 analyzes the most valuable Ivy League Baseball/Softball players using Wins Above Replacement (WAR) and other advanced MLB stats.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy League Track MVPs: Michael Menz ‘17 runs a 10,000 iterations of a simulated track meet to account for race-to-race variability and find the most valuable performers in the Ivy League.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy League Baseball Park Factors: Michael Bogaty ‘19 explores which Ivy League baseball stadiums can be classified as hitter-friendly and pitcher-friendly parks.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy League Lacrosse Predictions: Daniel Tokarz ‘20 and Luke Benz ‘19 break down the odds for the Yale Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse teams to reach the postseason.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy League Baseball Pythagorean Win Percentages: Michael Bogaty ‘19 calculates Pythagorean Win Percentages for each of the Ancient Eight teams and analyzes which teams under/over-performed last season in hopes of better predicting this season’s results.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy Math-ness: Luke Benz ‘19 previews the Ivy League basketball tournament, assigning odds to each team’s chances of reaching March Madness. Benz also breaks down what must go right for the Bulldogs if they wish to beat rival Harvard.
BY THE NUMBERS: Math To The Palestra: Luke Benz ‘19 and Michael Bogaty ‘19 break down odds and scenarios for the Yale Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams for make the Ivy League tournament.
BY THE NUMBERS: Counting Yale’s Losses: Evan Green ‘17 breaks down shot charts from the Yale Men’s Basketball team’s graduating seniors and explores how team tendencies have changed this season.
BY THE NUMBERS: Swimming MVPs: Michael Menz ‘17 offers an in-depth look at which Ivy League swimmers are most valuable to their respective teams.
BY THE NUMBERS: The Biggest Home-Field Advantage: Will Min ‘19 explores home-field advantage in the Ivy League, and examines whether away trips to Cornell (Ithaca, NY) are more difficult than the rest of the Ancient Eight.
BY THE NUMBERS: Hoops Analysis: Luke Benz ‘19 and Michael Bogaty ‘19 examine updated playoff odd for the inaugural Ivy League Tournament after the first full weekend of Ancient Eight play.
BY THE NUMBERS: ECAC Hockey Predictions: Michael Bogaty ’19 crunches playoff odds for the men’s and women’s ECAC hockey teams and analyzes the Yale men’s teams chances vs. rival Quinnipiac University in the “Battle for New Haven”.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy Hoops Games to Watch: Luke Benz ‘19 introduces the “Playoff Swing Factor” to Ivy League Basketball and analyzes which games will have the biggest impact on the playoff race.
BY THE NUMBERS: Women’s Hockey Predictions: Michael Bogaty ‘19 updates his ELO model and uses it to predict results for the Yale Women’s Hockey Team.
BY THE NUMBERS: Men’s Hockey Prediction’s: Michael Bogaty ‘19 begins a new series in our collaboration with the Yale Daily News, in which we make predictions for several Yale Sports Teams. In this first installment, Bogaty covers Yale Men’s Hockey.
BY THE NUMBERS: Ivy Hoops Weekend Recap: We help the Yale Daily News kick off their new sports blog, “Down the Field”, with an analytical recap of last weekend’s Ivy League Men’s Basketball games.
BY THE NUMBERS: Basketball Begins: Continuing our collaboration with the Yale Daily News, Luke Benz ‘19 previews the Ivy League Men’s Basketball season and explores team’s chances of reaching the Ivy League Tournament in March.
BY THE NUMBERS: Harvard vs. Yale: Matt Robinson ‘18 breaks down Yale’s chances of winning “The Game” 2016.
ANALYSIS: Volleyball starts slow, ends strong: In another collaboration with the Yale Daily News, Michael Menz ‘17 explores the signal given by the first set in Ivy League Volleyball. Teams that win the first set by more are more likely to go onto the win the match. Additionally, the Yale Volleyball team was the team most likely to come back from losing the first set.
Ivy League Projections - Updated Through 3 Weeks: Matt Robinson ‘18 using updated ELO and Sagarin ratings analyzes the current state of Ivy League Football and chronicles the decline in Yale’s projected wins.
BY THE NUMBERS: Home-field advantage in the Ivy League: In another collaboration with the Yale Daily News, Evan Green ‘17 investigated the size of and factors behind home field advantage in different Ivy League sports. Despite the differences in fan attendance, travel accommodations, and skill level of athletes, home field advantage was not significantly different in the Ivy League than that seen in professional sports leagues.
BY THE NUMBERS: Previewing the Ivy League football season: This article by Matthew Robinson ‘18 is the first piece in our collaboration with the Yale Daily News. Throughout this year we will be analyzing Ivy League sports and publishing them in the Yale Daily News and on our website here. In this article, he introduces ELO ratings for the Ivy League and projects the Ivy League standings using the ELO ratings and Sagarin Ratings.