Syracuse Sun

A research team from the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics has emerged victorious in the 19th Annual MIT Sloan Research Paper Competition. The team comprised Alivia Uribe, a Department of Sport Management student, along with Sport Analytics Professor Shane Sanders, Associate Professor Justin Ehrlich, University of Reading Professor James Reade, and University of Stirling senior lecturer Carl Singleton. Their paper titled “Do Behavioral Considerations Cloud Penalty-Kick Location Optimization in Professional Soccer: Game Theory and Empirical Testing using Polynomial Regression and ML Gradient Boosting” was recognized as the best in its field at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference held on March 7-8 in Boston.

The conference is known for showcasing innovative research that influences sports analysis worldwide. This year’s competition included six sports tracks: basketball, baseball, soccer, football, business of sports, and other sports. Abstracts were chosen based on novelty, academic rigor, and research impact.

Ehrlich explained that their abstract was submitted last fall among thousands of others. The most promising submissions were invited to present full papers. From these, the top seven papers were selected for oral presentations at the conference. A panel of industry experts judged these presentations before announcing the winner during an awards ceremony.

“I am incredibly proud of our team’s work as it resulted in a fantastic project that resonates deeply with others,” said Ehrlich. He noted that while aiming for riskier goal areas can yield higher conversion rates, players often avoid them due to increased risks associated with missing entirely.

Uribe's involvement marks her as the first female lead author on a winning team in this competition's history. “This is something I’m extremely proud of,” she stated. She expressed gratitude for her professors' support and highlighted her unique perspective as a student-athlete.

Sanders and Ehrlich built upon their previous analytics research to assist Uribe's project while Reade and Singleton contributed valuable soccer data. Last year Sanders and Ehrlich presented another top-seven paper at MIT Sloan concerning NBA shot value changes since 2017-18.

“Falk College is an ideal place to work and teach," Sanders remarked about his experience there. "Our leadership team has positioned sport analytics to shine as a program.”

The team's full research paper can be accessed on the MIT Sloan Research Papers web page.