Milehighhawk
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- Oct 7, 2012
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First, I am putting this in the Seahawks forum because the story came to me with respec to comments Pete Carroll made at a presentation made by the schedule makers of the NFL, but feel free to move if you feel necessary.
So, I have a new friend who was one of four individuals responsible for creating the NFL schedule from around 2012 until last year and I had a chance to talk to him this morning.
He relayed to me that after the Seahawks had won their Super Bowl, at the behest of some of the owners, the NFL schedule makers were requested to make a presentation to a large group of owners, front office personnel and coaches detailing exactly how the schedule was put together. At the end of the presentation, Pete Carrol comes up to him and says, “Hey, have you guys every given this presentation before?” My friend replied, “No, this is the first time.” Pete responded, “So, yeah please don’t ever give that presentation again.” (Dumbfounded look on my friends face). Pete continues, “It terrifies me to know that our whole schedule is the responsibility of four people locked into a room for 2 months and I don’t ever want to hear of it again.” (I thought this was hilllarious). He also noted that Carrol and the Seahawks were pissed they didn’t have any prime time home games in our repeat attempt year (I recall discussion on this site about the same).
I am in IT so there was some discussion of the mechanics of system that were super interesting to me, but I won’t bore you with that portion. The gist of it is they have a fairly antiquated software program that runs some preset algorithms over a couple month period to spit out an initial draft of the schedule. This process is overseen by four (yes four) individuals that are locked into a key-carded room that even the commissioner doesn’t have access to. They then review the draft and optimize it basically to have one really good game in the 1PM slot as the main goal, then a solid Sunday night matchup, with the remaining time slots (including Monday night) not really mattering as much.
The algorithms focus on the strength of the team from the past season, general national pull (not sure how that number is deprived), and INCLUDES the body clock issues associated with travel both east to west and west to east. However, he did note that the body clock factor was researched significantly and they found that it wasn’t a major contributor to wins and losses. That ultimately the better team usually won those games, no matter the start time. I was suprised however that it was actually a consideration as part of making the schedule. He did indicate that after the year San Fran had something like six 10 AM starts (2013?), they sent a huge packet of their own research to the schedule makers. My friend indicated the research really wasn’t compelling though because they felt the better team still won most of those matchups. Basically, having a good team matters way more than the travel impact. He also said they had extenisively researched Thursday night games for outcomes and injury issues and found that the perception that it cost the better teams and there were more injuries ,didn’t match their research. (Someone has another thread on Thursday injuries so I won’t go into that)
Anyhow, I thought this was pretty interesting, so I thought I would share.
So, I have a new friend who was one of four individuals responsible for creating the NFL schedule from around 2012 until last year and I had a chance to talk to him this morning.
He relayed to me that after the Seahawks had won their Super Bowl, at the behest of some of the owners, the NFL schedule makers were requested to make a presentation to a large group of owners, front office personnel and coaches detailing exactly how the schedule was put together. At the end of the presentation, Pete Carrol comes up to him and says, “Hey, have you guys every given this presentation before?” My friend replied, “No, this is the first time.” Pete responded, “So, yeah please don’t ever give that presentation again.” (Dumbfounded look on my friends face). Pete continues, “It terrifies me to know that our whole schedule is the responsibility of four people locked into a room for 2 months and I don’t ever want to hear of it again.” (I thought this was hilllarious). He also noted that Carrol and the Seahawks were pissed they didn’t have any prime time home games in our repeat attempt year (I recall discussion on this site about the same).
I am in IT so there was some discussion of the mechanics of system that were super interesting to me, but I won’t bore you with that portion. The gist of it is they have a fairly antiquated software program that runs some preset algorithms over a couple month period to spit out an initial draft of the schedule. This process is overseen by four (yes four) individuals that are locked into a key-carded room that even the commissioner doesn’t have access to. They then review the draft and optimize it basically to have one really good game in the 1PM slot as the main goal, then a solid Sunday night matchup, with the remaining time slots (including Monday night) not really mattering as much.
The algorithms focus on the strength of the team from the past season, general national pull (not sure how that number is deprived), and INCLUDES the body clock issues associated with travel both east to west and west to east. However, he did note that the body clock factor was researched significantly and they found that it wasn’t a major contributor to wins and losses. That ultimately the better team usually won those games, no matter the start time. I was suprised however that it was actually a consideration as part of making the schedule. He did indicate that after the year San Fran had something like six 10 AM starts (2013?), they sent a huge packet of their own research to the schedule makers. My friend indicated the research really wasn’t compelling though because they felt the better team still won most of those matchups. Basically, having a good team matters way more than the travel impact. He also said they had extenisively researched Thursday night games for outcomes and injury issues and found that the perception that it cost the better teams and there were more injuries ,didn’t match their research. (Someone has another thread on Thursday injuries so I won’t go into that)
Anyhow, I thought this was pretty interesting, so I thought I would share.