Abstract
Previous research in the National Football League (NFL) has shown that teams traveling eastward may gain circadian advantages during competition. The current study examines 30 years of performance using all West coast teams subject to frequent travel in the NFL. We hypothesized that the West Coast teams would gain circadian advantages during eastward travel compared to travel within the same time zone. Data for all away games played from the 1990-2019 seasons will be collected from Pro Football-Reference and FiveThirtyEight. We will investigate the impact of time of game, time zone, their interaction, and day of the week on game outcomes, points scored and allowed, interceptions, sacks, punts, and completion, field-goal, and extra-point percentages. We will control for each team’s strength using Elo rating. A series of generalized regressions with Holm-Bonferroni post-hoc tests will be used for analysis. Analyses are currently ongoing. We expect to find that teams experience greater competitive advantages the further eastward they travel, providing evidence for the circadian rhythm advantage for West Coast teams. Given that our sample will be limited to West Coast teams, we recommend further study on other teams in the NFL, as well as other sports.
Presenters
Abhay KopardekarStudent, General Studies, Abhay Kopardekar, California, United States Sean Pradhan
Associate Professor of Sports Management and Business Analytics, School of Business, Menlo College, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Circadian Advantages, Travel, Performance, National Football League
