PORTLAND, Maine — During the Super Bowl broadcast on Sunday you’ll see plenty of players, coaches, and other team employees along the sidelines and in boxes above the field staring intently at tablets, looking for information they hope will increase their team’s chances of success on the next play, the next drive. They’re using analytics.
You’ve heard about analytics. But do you really understand what they are? Peter Zaimes, a lecturer in decision sciences at the University of New Hampshire who oversees the school’s Sports Analytics Lab, gave us a straightforward definition.
“It’s using data to make more informed decisions,” he said. By going through vast amounts of historical data, sports analytics experts can figure out if the percentages favor, say, kicking a field goal on fourth down or going for a first down in hopes of soon scoring a touchdown.
With every team in the NFL using analytics — and presumably looking at the same historical information — you might wonder if they’ll cancel each other out, leaving neither team in a game with a true edge. Zaimes said the advantage will go to the team that uses analytics more intelligently.
“It’s true across all sports that analytics departments and the quality of data — and really how much they embrace and want to use data — differ really widely,” he said.
So which team in the Super Bowl does Zaimes think will use analytics more effectively? While acknowledging that he doesn’t have any special insight, his hunch is that the 49ers have an edge.
Interestingly, though, his guess is that the Chiefs will prevail, mainly because of their experience (they played in the Super Bowl in 2020, 2021 and 2023, winning in the first and last of those games).
“It’s a small point spread,” he said. “So [KC] is where I’m going to go.”