2019-20 Academic Year Research Progress Report

Purpose

The purpose of this page is to report on progress occurring during the 2019-20 academic year related to RGC grant-related research accomplishments. The primary results of this research year pertained to completing the requirements of an RGC grant. General background information about the grant is available from this conference paper (PPT).

Semantic Indexing of 2 Games from 1992 Alabama Football Season

As a result of RGC grant funding, we investigated the recovery of play-by-play data from the historical record. For games in 1992, the historical record consisted of typed play-by-play datasets requiring manual transcription by volunteers, which allowed us to investigate the inclusion into our data processing pipeline of a crowdsourcing method for historical data transcription. We reported on these efforts in this conference paper (PPT). A summary of our results:

1. Alabama versus Tulane on October 10, 1992 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, LA; RECOVERED PLAY-BY-PLAY DATA: 176 plays from 26 drives
2. Alabama versus LSU on November 7, 1992 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, LA; RECOVERED PLAY-BY-PLAY DATA: 185 plays from 26 drives

Example SPARQL queries for retrieving plays from these two games (only) from the 1992 Alabama Crimson Tide football season meeting a variety of query criteria (PLEASE NOTE: To run each query, click on the Blue Arrow icon in lower left portion of screen after clicking on links below):

1. All rushing touchdowns that went for over 15 yards that occurred during the 2 games of the 1992 Alabama Crimson Tide football season that we currently have in our play database
2. Running plays for over 10 yards occurring on 3rd down in the available games of the 1992 Alabama Crimson Tide football season (Just those running plays for which there are video clips).
3. Interceptions by George Teague from the 2 games we have from the 1992 Alabama Crimson Tide football season.

Semantic Indexing of 2 Games from 1961 Alabama Football Season

As part our RGC grant, we investigated games from the 1961 season. For games from 1961, there were no historical records available containing explicit play-by-data. However, there are other documentary sources of such data, including journalistic newspaper accounts of those games. In our study, we investigated the inclusion into our data processing pipeline of a crowdsourcing method for historical data-extraction from newspaper articles. We chose to use articles published in the Tuscaloosa News available online. We reported on these efforts in this conference paper (PPT). A summary of our results:

1. Alabama versus Tulane on September 30, 1961 at Ladd Stadium in Mobile, AL; RECOVERED PLAY-BY-PLAY DATA: 104 plays and 22 drives
2. Alabama versus Vanderbilt on October 7, 1961 at Dudley Field in Nashville, TN; RECOVERED PLAY-BY-PLAY DATA: 129 plays and 25 drives
3. Alabama versus Auburn on December 2, 1961 at Legion Field in Birmingham, AL; RECOVERED PLAY-BY-PLAY DATA: All plays and all drives

Example SPARQL queries for retrieving plays from these two games (only) from the 1961 Alabama Crimson Tide football season meeting a variety of query criteria (PLEASE NOTE: To run each query, click on the Blue Arrow icon in lower left portion of screen after clicking on links below):

1. All passing touchdowns for 15 or more yards from available games of the 1961 Alabama football season with video clips that we currently have in our play database
2. All pass completions by Pat Trammell from the 3 games we have from the 1961 Alabama Crimson Tide football season (just those pass completions for which we have video clips
3. [https://tinyurl.com/sge24qk All plays from the 1961 Iron Bowl in which Bill Battle was a featured player (contributed directly to play's outcome)
   1. Just those plays from that game in which Bill Battle has a: pass interception).