The Swing Game
By David Roher Update: An astute commenter below pointed out a key mathematical error that I made. The corrected values on the table are in italics. It seems that every game in a short series gets...
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The Value of an NBA Playoff Seed
By David Roher More than half of the teams in the NBA make the playoffs year. This makes a lot of the drama at the season’s conclusion about seeds. Having a 3 instead of a 4 or a 6 instead of a 7 could...
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MLB Playoff Home-Field Advantage Is Tinier Than David Eckstein
By David Roher The Rays didn’t get much of an advantage at Tropicana Field, losing all three of their ALDS games there. These playoffs have been one for the road. In the Division Series, the home team...
View ArticleOne and Done: A Thing of the Past? An Analysis of the NBA First-Round Playoff...
By Will McMillan In the middle of the 2002-2003 NBA season, the league made a decision to switch the first round of playoff series from a best-of-5 to best-of-7 format. This was a puzzling move at the...
View ArticleEmbrace the Chaos: the NFL Playoffs and Variance
By Andrew Mooney For interested fan or gambler, the NFL playoffs can be infinitely maddening to comprehend. Those Cincinnati Bengals that had won seven of their last eight? Well, they’re out, held to...
View ArticleWill The Oklahoma City Thunder Make the Playoffs?
By Kurt Bullard The Oklahoma City Thunder came into this season already facing adversity, as it was revealed that Kevin Durant would be sidelined with a foot injury for at least the first four-to-six...
View ArticleDoes Playoff Rondo Exist?
By Julian Ryan In the first blockbuster trade of the season, former Celtics star Rajon Rondo was swapped for a first-round pick and some useful role players– Brandan Wright, with his high field goal...
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Breaking Down Peyton Manning’s Playoff Woes
By Barrett Hansen Super Bowl XLIX is being billed as a matchup between two of the best postseason quarterbacks in the business: the prolific Tom Brady and the cool Russell Wilson. But, just as the two...
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NBA Playoffs: Yes, Regular Season Matchups Matter
By Henry Johnson The NBA playoffs have arrived at last. With the first round series set, basketball analysts are looking to regular season results for information about postseason matchups. NESN, for...
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1 in 54,000: The Odds of the Twins’ Terrible Playoff Streak
By Andrew Kelser and Danny Blumenthal It happened again. The Minnesota Twins have seen their playoffs dreams extinguished. Despite strong starts from ace Kenta Maeda and José Berríos, the Twins were...
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