Wharton Moneyball

Ron Yurko, a Carnegie Mellon statistics professor and sports analytics leader, examines college football’s fast-changing landscape. He explores fairer Heisman evaluations across positions, the challenge of comparing players, and why transfer-driven roster turnover demands wider forecasts. He also discusses teaching sports betting, prediction markets, roster cohesion, and the volatility shaping today’s football predictions.

Samuel Ventura, the Buffalo Sabres’ vice president of hockey strategy and research, brings a PhD in sports analytics and experience with the Penguins. He explores how the NHL’s rising salary cap could reshape contracts, free agency, drafting, and roster construction. He also discusses hockey-wide analytics collaboration, new player and puck tracking technology, computer vision, and hiring analysts in the AI era.

In a league built around star quarterbacks, the ability to survive an injury can decide a season.Neil Paine, sports writer and data analyst, explores how NFL teams can build a more resilient formula when their starting quarterback is unavailable. He examines why defenses, coaching, and the gap between a starter and backup can determine whether a team stays competitive, along with the strategic question of when to play a rookie quarterback.Paine also breaks down Major League Baseball's playoff-seeding problem, where weak division winners can receive advantages over stronger wild card teams. The conversation closes with a look at the Florida Panthers and why an injury-plagued "gap year" does not always mean a championship window has closed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tej Seth, a football data scientist and NFL analyst, separates meaningful Week 1 signals from statistical noise. They explore Baltimore’s schematic shift, Kansas City’s explosive run game, San Francisco’s persistent edge over the Rams, and how turnovers, travel, and opponent strength distort early results. The discussion also previews key matchups and applies Bayesian thinking to surprising performances across football and tennis.

Is this NFL season more wide open than it appears?Brian Burke, Sports Data Scientist at ESPN, and Kevin Cole, Data Scientist at PFF, use football analytics to examine the season ahead. Burke explains how tracking data is changing the way teams measure pass protection and pressure, while Cole breaks down quarterback projections, team strength, and why the league's top contenders may be closer together than expected. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The road to the College Football Playoff is not as straightforward as a preseason ranking suggests.Bill Connelly, ESPN staff writer and creator of SP+, breaks down the analytics shaping the college football season. He examines why roster turnover creates a wider range of outcomes, how schedule strength affects playoff chances, the difference between the SEC and Big Ten, and the teams best positioned to contend. He also shares what his season simulations reveal about the title race and why a few unexpected teams could break through. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when college football players can make more money by staying in school than by entering the NFL?Steven Godfrey, college football journalist and co-host of Yahoo's College Football Enquirer, examines the financial incentives reshaping college football. He discusses NIL deals, transfer rules, eligibility loopholes, and why former NFL players attempting to return to college football could test the sport's limits.Godfrey also breaks down the Big Ten and SEC, coaching pressure at USC and Michigan, conference depth, playoff paths, and why Notre Dame and Ohio State stand out in the national championship picture. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why are today's MLB pitchers harder to hit than ever?Adam Ottavino, former 15-year MLB reliever and current ESPN analyst, explains how pitch-tracking data, high-speed cameras, and personalized pitching labs reshaped his own career and changed player development across baseball. He breaks down how pitchers design new pitches, use bat-tracking data to attack hitters, and adapt their strategy from pitch to pitch.Ottavino also examines why pitching may have gained an edge over hitting, how teams use data to plan pitch selection, the limits of velocity, automated ball-strike challenges, and what a temporary velocity drop can mean for a pitcher such as Paul Skenes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Which NFL teams are the numbers backing before the 2026 season begins?Aaron Schatz, National NFL Analyst at ESPN and Chief Analytics Officer at FTN Fantasy, explains why the Houston Texans stand out in the AFC and why the Seattle Seahawks project as one of the league's strongest teams. He breaks down the Rams' Super Bowl outlook, the Bills' defense, the Eagles' path through the NFC East, and the teams that could surprise or regress.Schatz also explores how DVOA-based forecasts account for quarterback performance, coaching changes, injuries, schedules, and the balance of offense, defense, and special teams. Plus, why even the best projections leave plenty of room for the chaos of an NFL season. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if baseball’s most trusted pitching limit is more habit than science? Travis Sawchik, baseball analytics writer and author of Big Data Baseball and The MVP Machine, breaks down why pitch counts can miss the real stress on a pitcher’s arm, how workload units and acute-to-chronic ratios offer a better view of fatigue, and why teams may need to rethink how they build pitching capacity.The conversation also covers MLB trade deadline strategy, the Dodgers’ title odds, the Brewers’ risk calculus, when teams should chase variance instead of average gains, Baker Mayfield’s recent production compared with Patrick Mahomes, the Ravens’ coaching changes, Saquon Barkley’s workload, and college football playoff storylines. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.