ABSTRACT

Statistical methods play at least two roles in these situations. First, they provide methods for extracting the maximum amount of information from a set of data. Second, they give us a way to quantify the uncertainty that results from having to base these conclusions on such limited data. This chapter provides an overview of statistical reasoning and the type of statistical methods that are useful in analyzing sports data. Adjusted statistics, which allow us to account for the effects of playing conditions, opponents, coaches’ decisions, and so on, play an important role in the analysis of sports data. There are two basic approaches to calculating the margin of error. The first is to use statistical formulas that are designed for this purpose and are included as part of many spreadsheet and statistical packages. The second approach is based on the interpretation of the margin of error in terms of hypothetical repetitions of the experiment.