The Sports Kernel

Have you seen Netflix's new documentary on the SEC quarterbacks from last year titled, "SEC Football: Any Given Saturday?" Well if you haven't, it's fantastic and provides a valuable in-depth look at the competitiveness in the best conference in college football. This article is inspired by that Netflix show, as I wanted to provide a quantitative in-depth look at this year's SEC starting quarterback group. I collected data from Sports Reference CFB for an advanced statistic analysis at the QB's 2024 season. Then, I gathered my own collection of data by totaling each QB's 3rd down stats from ESPN's play-by-play for each game. This data was collected for each starting quarterback's last season in FBS play and I was able to compare completion percentage, sacks, and interceptions. By collecting the data myself, I was able to see trends in performance between conference and non-conference play as well as opponent difficulty. Third downs provide a ch...

As the MLB All-Star break comes to a wrap, we saw a great show of the premier power hitters in the league during the Home Run Derby. Cal Raleigh continued upon his regular season dominance, by winning the 2025 Home Run Derby, but many young and veteran names all gave a great effort. Although the focus is on homeruns during this event, there is so much more to a player's contribution in a game. The Wins Above Replacement (WAR) statistic measures offensive and defensive contributions from a player compared to the teams backup for them, their replacement.  In this study, I focused on analyzing the contribution of homeruns to each Home Run Derby contestant's WAR statistics for the 2025 season. The data was sourced from Pro Baseball Reference and then filtered to only include players with at least one homerun and eliminate duplicates of players that switched teams mid-season. Determining the Average HR Contribution to WAR When looking at the 2025 season and MLB players with at least...

Over the next two nights, every team has the challenge of picking the right prospect(s) that will perform at a high-level in the NBA and fit their team culture. Unfortunately, not every pick will work out the way the team expects when they draft them.  In this article, I analyze some of the projected top picks in this draft class who have the potential to really stand out in the NBA and who are some of the hidden gems hanging around the late first round and second round.  Each graph in this article compares the current prospect pool for the 2025 NBA Draft to current rising stars and All-Stars from the previous five draft classes. Cooper Flagg, Duke, Freshman The clear choice for the Mavericks at #1 and the pick Nico Harrison desperately needed to replace Luka Doncic. Flagg's two-way play stood out all year at Duke, leading the team in all of the five main stat categories. He's a true competitor and winner, and that mentality will suit him well at next level, where he has alr...

With the 2025 NBA Draft right around the corner, prospects are preparing themselves for the biggest leap in their young careers. Will they handle the transition well? Will they become a breakout star in the league? Many questions arise around each prospect this time of year and within this article I aim to provide data-backed reasoning as to who in this class could become a rising star and potential All-Star in the NBA. Although data can provide some clues as to who may breakout in the league, there are obviously so many more factors that come into play to decide the actual outcome of a player and whether they can reach their full potential. Overview In this article I analyze the current prospects against the rising stars and All-Stars from the previous five draft classes across basic and advanced stats categories. Rising stars is very subjective, so I determined the group of rising stars based on general consensus from following the NBA and the media. The data was sourced from RealGM...