zleffel4 Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I'm currently in a "Mathematics Modeling" course and have decided to pursue a data analysis type project in regards to NCAA Div1 wrestling. I want to investigate possibly the smallest three weight classes (125, 133, 141) and determine ultimately if it is essentially better to be a taller and longer wrestler or a shorter, bulkier one. I plan to examine overall success and the results in head-to-head matchups over the past ten years, but I don't know where exactly I can find the results of the individual NCAA Div1 Championships over the past ten years or if it will even be possible to obtain their heights. Any help with this issue or any other ideas to make this project more interesting would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to make math as cool as possible!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2CJ41 Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Results http://www.wrestlingstats.com Heights????? Probably individual school websites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bash513 Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I'm currently in a "Mathematics Modeling" course and have decided to pursue a data analysis type project in regards to NCAA Div1 wrestling. I want to investigate possibly the smallest three weight classes (125, 133, 141) and determine ultimately if it is essentially better to be a taller and longer wrestler or a shorter, bulkier one. I plan to examine overall success and the results in head-to-head matchups over the past ten years, but I don't know where exactly I can find the results of the individual NCAA Div1 Championships over the past ten years or if it will even be possible to obtain their heights. Any help with this issue or any other ideas to make this project more interesting would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to make math as cool as possible!!! I would stay away from stating things like longer and bulkier beause it will be impossible for you to gather data. To do this right, you wil have to hold as many other variables constant as you can, school, home state, grade, HS success, past college success, the list could go on forever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zleffel4 Posted February 29, 2012 Author Share Posted February 29, 2012 I had planned to split all the wrestlers up into two separate height groups for each of the three weight class, but I suppose websites don't too often care do list wrestlers' heights, do they? I have the results of the NCAA DIV 1 tournament over the past ten years, but I'm not sure with the more specific data I will be able to gather, what will be interesting and not too complex to model. I've noticed over the past ten years that collectively, Iowa and Iowa State have nine top three finishes in the tournament while Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have eight. Maybe model the two states with their individual wrestlers by examining the All-American results while giving the higher place finishers more "weight" in the model? I'm just spit-balling. Any input is much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bash513 Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 I had planned to split all the wrestlers up into two separate height groups for each of the three weight class, but I suppose websites don't too often care do list wrestlers' heights, do they? I have the results of the NCAA DIV 1 tournament over the past ten years, but I'm not sure with the more specific data I will be able to gather, what will be interesting and not too complex to model. I've noticed over the past ten years that collectively, Iowa and Iowa State have nine top three finishes in the tournament while Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have eight. Maybe model the two states with their individual wrestlers by examining the All-American results while giving the higher place finishers more "weight" in the model? I'm just spit-balling. Any input is much appreciated. No matter what topic you pick, your going to have to collect a lot of data so that you ensure that other factors do not influence your results. Just as an example, In college, I wrote a paper comparing net worth to life expectancy. I couldn't just compare how much someone was worth to how long they lived, I had to factor in race, gender, location, job category/type, etc to make sure other factors didn't effect my data or to at least minimize their influence. The question you should be asking is, holding all other variables constant, what effect does height have on wrestling success at the ncaa finals in the lowest three weight classes. All that said, if you can't find height, you are not going to be able to do this study. I don't want to be a Debbie downer here, but it is.going to be a lot of work to get this type of data because you are going to have to compile it yourself from several places. It may be easier to do something where census data is.easily available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RankingsGuy Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 As I've watched the Indiana HS State Tourney each year since 1996, and the NCAA's each year since 2007, I've noticed an inordinate amount of left-handed finalists and champions. The population of lefty's is only like one in every ten, but when you watch high level wrestling, that proportion becomes much much higher, much closer to 50% of the finalists at both of these tourneys some years. Probably no way of gathering this data, but interesting observation nonetheless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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