Patent Application
20150142528
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for rating and ranking, and more specifically to systems and methods for rating and ranking prospects recruited by organizations based on offers received by the prospects.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The success of an organization is often tied to the quality of the new recruits. For example, in college football, fans pay a lot of attention to which high school athletes have been offered scholarships by their favorite college teams. The ranking of the high school athletes is also highly watched by the fans.
Conventionally, the rankings of high school football players are determined by the staff of sports reporting services, which consist mostly of reporters and writers who specialize in college football reporting. As such, such rankings represent little more than the opinions of a select few sports writers, and are often regarded as being biased.
Several embodiments of the invention advantageously address the needs above as well as other needs by providing an offer-based ranking for prospects being recruited into organizations.
In one embodiment, the invention can be characterized as an apparatus for generating prospect rating. The apparatus includes a non-transitory storage medium and a processor configured to execute codes stored on the non-transitory storage medium to determine one or more offers that have been extended to a prospect, determine a relative value for each of the one or more offers based on an organization associated with the offer, add relative values of each of the one or more offers extended to the prospect to generate a prospect offer points score, and store, in a storage device, prospect offer points scores associated with a plurality of prospects.
In another embodiment, the invention can be characterized as a computer-implemented method for generating prospect rating. The method includes the steps of: determining one or more offers that have been extended to a prospect, determining a relative value for each of the one or more offers based on an organization associated with the offer, adding relative values of each of the one or more offers extended to the prospect to generate a prospect offer points score, and storing, in a non-transitory computer readable medium, prospect offer points scores associated with a plurality of prospects.
In yet another embodiment, the invention can be characterized as a computer-implemented method for generating prospect rating, including the steps of: retrieving from one or more databases, information on a plurality of offers, each of the plurality of offers being made from an organization to a prospect, for a plurality of prospects, retrieving from a look-up table, the relative value for one or more offers extended to each of the plurality of prospects, wherein the relative value of an offer is based on a past success of an organization extending the offer, and adding, with a computer processor, relative values of the one or more offers extended to a prospect to generate a prospect offer points score, and storing, in a non-transitory computer readable medium, prospect offer points scores associated with a plurality of prospects. Wherein, the relative value for an offer extended by an organization is based on a weighted average of Elo scores of the organization's performance from two or more prior years.
The above and other aspects, features and advantages of several embodiments of the present invention will be more apparent from the following more particular description thereof, presented in conjunction with the following drawings.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding components throughout the several views of the drawings. Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention.
The following description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of describing the general principles of exemplary embodiments. The scope of the invention should be determined with reference to the claims.
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment.
Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided, such as examples of programming, software modules, user selections, network transactions, database queries, database structures, hardware modules, hardware circuits, hardware chips, etc., to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, and so forth. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention.
Present disclosure describes a method for rating recruited prospects based on the offers they received from recruiting entities. Data on actual offers extended reflects the opinions of the coaching staffs of the recruiting organizations such as college teams, and their paid advisors. Offer based ranking, therefore, provides a more transparent rating and ranking system that is based on decisions made by experts on evaluating talent.
Referring first to
The database 110 may be internal, external, networked, and/or remote from the computer 120. While only one database is shown, it is understood that the computer 120 may be connected and configured to retrieve information from multiple databases. In some embodiments, the database 110 includes information available on the Internet, and the computer 120 retrieves the relevant information by parsing the information retrieved from the Internet. For example, the database may include one or more sports reporting service such as Rivals and ESPN which reports offers schools made to prospects and/or offers that have been accepted by the prospects.
In some embodiments, the computer 120 retrieves the information from the database 110 and stores it on memory 123 for later use. In some embodiments, the computer 120 periodically updates the information on its memory 123 with the information stored on the database 110.
The computer 120 may be any processor based device such as a personal computer, a server, a mobile device etc. In some embodiments, the process of rating and ranking prospects as described with reference to
It is understood that, while only one computer 120 is shown in
The display device 130 may be any known display device such as LCD, LED, OLED, etc. The display device 130 may be integrated, local, networked, and/or remote to the computer 120. In some embodiments, the display device 130 is coupled to a processor-based device separate from the computer 120. In some embodiments, at least one of the steps in the method described with reference to
Referring next to
As previously shown in
The data module 200 is communicatively coupled to the database 100, and receives the data from the database 110, as indicated by an arrow pointing from the database 110 to the data module 200. The data module 200 may comprise hard drive memory, RAM, ROM, a combination thereof, or any other type of memory suitable for storing the data and transferring the data as required to implement the system for determining the offer-based rating for prospects.
In one embodiment, the data module 200 is communicatively coupled to the determine offers module 202, the determine relative value module 204, and the add relative values module 206. The data module 200 transfers the data to the modules 202, 204, 206 as requested by the respective modules 202, 204, 206, as indicated by arrows pointing from the data module 200 to each of the modules 202, 204, 206.
The determine offers module 202 comprises computer programming language or other means suitable for performing an evaluation described below in step 301 of
The determine offers module 202 is communicatively coupled to the processor 122 for both sending and receiving, as shown by a double-ended arrow between the evaluation module 202 and the processor 122.
The determine offers module 202 transfers a plurality of player offers, as described below in
The determine relative value module 204 comprises computer programming language or other means suitable for performing an evaluation described below in step 303. The determine relative value module 204 is communicatively coupled to the processor 122 for both sending and receiving, as shown by a double-ended arrow between the determine relative value module 204 and the processor 122.
The determine relative value module 204 transfers a plurality of player offer relative values, as described below in
The add relative values module 206 comprises computer programming language or other means suitable for performing an evaluation described below in steps 305, 307, 309. The add relative values module 206 is communicatively coupled to the processor 122 for both sending and receiving, as shown by a double-ended arrow between the determine relative value module 204 and the processor 122.
The add relative values module 206 transfers an offer-based rating table, shown below in
The offer-based rating 208 may comprise hard drive memory, RAM, ROM, a combination thereof, or any other type of memory suitable for storing and transferring data as required to implement the system for determining the offer-based rating for prospects.
The offer-based rating 208 is communicatively coupled to the display screen 130 for transferring the offer-based rating table to the display screen 130, as shown by an arrow pointing from the offer-based rating 208 to the display device 130.
Referring again to
The data module 200 included in the memory 123 receives the data from the database 110 as previously described in
The determine offers module 202, in conjunction with the processor 122, determines the plurality of player offers, as described below in step 301 of FIG. 3., and stores the resulting player offers for use by the determine relative value module 204.
The determine relative value module 204, in conjunction with the processor 122, utilizes the plurality of player offers, and in some embodiments additional data retrieved from the data module 200, to determine a plurality of relative offer values, as shown below in step 303 of
The add relative values module 206, in conjunction with the processor 122, utilizes the plurality of relative offer values, and in some embodiments data retrieved from the data module 200, to add the relative offer values for each player and store a offer-based rating table, as described below in steps 105, 107, and 109 of
The offer-based rating table 208 retrieves the offer-based rating table from the add relative values module 206. The offer-based rating table may then be transferred to the display device 130 for display. It should be noted that in some embodiments the offer-based rating 208 may be eliminated and the offer-based rating table transferred directly from the add relative values module to the display screen 130.
Referring next to
In step 301, information on offers received by prospects can be retrieved from the internal or external database. In some embodiments, the offer information is retrieved from multiple external reporting services. Data from multiple sources may be compared and compiled to generate a more complete list of offers extended to prospects. For example, for offers made by Division 1 FBS colleges to high school football players, offer data may be obtained from Rivals and ESPN reporting services. The information on the two services are compared and combined to determine which schools have made offers to which high school football players.
In step 303, the relative value of each offer extended to a prospect is determined. The relative value of each offer may be based on a variety of factors. For example, the relative value of an offer may be based on the past performance records of the school extending the offer. In some embodiments, a numerical representation of the school's past performance is derived using the Elo rating system. In an Elo rating system, rating is represented by a number, which increases or decreases based upon the outcome of games between rated players. After every game, the winning side takes points from the losing side. The total number of points gained or lost after a game is determined by the difference between the ratings of the winner and loser. In college football, for example, the outcomes of intercollegiate games in each school year may be used to determine the school's Elo score for that year. In some embodiments, the Elo rating from multiple years can be included in the calculation of the relative value. For example, the relative value associated with a school may be a weighted average of Elo rating scores from the previous three years. The Elo score from one year ago may count for half of the weighted average, the Elo score from two years ago may count for one-third of the weighted average, and an Elo score from three years ago may count for one-sixth of the weighted average. In some embodiments, the relative value of a school may be based on one, two, four, five, or more years of Elo scores.
In some embodiments, the relative value of an offer may be based on one or more other factors including offer amount, offer timing, and/or a school's conference ranking, tournament placement, team revenue, academic ranking, estimated fan base for sports teams, net earning of a company, etc. The relative value may also be based on published ranking of the organization such as university rankings or corporate rankings that are published by different magazines and newspapers. The relative value may generally be any quantifiable and comparable characteristics of an organization.
In some embodiments, the relative values associated with schools are calculated and stored prior to the process shown in
In step 305, relative values for each offer extended to a prospect are added to generate the prospect's offer points score. For example, if prospect A receives offers from schools X, Y, and Z, the relative values associated with schools X, Y, and Z are added together to generate prospect A's offer points score.
In some embodiments, after the offer points associated with each offer a prospect received is added, the sum of the offer points may be adjusted with other factors to derive an offer points score. For example, offer point scores may be adjusted based on the timing when the prospect commit to an organization. In college football for example, this may be associated with the length of time between the date a player accepts an offer and the signing day (last date to commit to a school). Once a prospect commits to an organization, the number offers they will receive is likely to be reduced because other organization are less inclined to make offers to a player who has already committed to another organization. This adjustment would compensate players who commit early to adjust for those offers they likely lost due to early commitment. Another factor that may be used to adjust offer points scores may be based on the prospect's specialization. In college football for example, a player's final offer points score may be adjusted base on their position (quarter back, running back, etc.). Offer points score may also be adjusted based on other characters such as their origin state, city, high school, GPA, etc.
In step 307, whether more prospects should be rated is determined. If more prospects need to be rated, the process returns back to step 301. If all the ratings are completed, the process proceeds to step 309. The list of prospects to be rated may be based on information from one or more internal or external databases. In some embodiments, the list of prospects is retrieved from one or more databases of offer data. Offer data may include a listing of offers, each offer being made from a school to a prospect. In step 307, the offer points scores of one or more prospects may be stored in a computer readable medium for subsequent retrieval and utilization.
In step 309, prospects are ranked based on their offer points scores as determined in step 305. In some embodiments, prospects with higher offer points scores receive a higher ranking. While steps 303-305 may be used to determine the offer points score for prospects from different school years and different specialties, prospects may be ranked according to their respective school year and specialty. Step 309 may include displaying the ranking of the prospects. The display of the ranking may include other information such as prospect position, prospect city of origin, prospect school commitment, number of offers received, and offer points scores associated with the prospect. The display of the ranking may further allow the user to interact with the ranking. For example, the user may search, sort, and filter the ranking. An example of a displayed prospect ranking is described herein with reference to
In some embodiments, step 309 may be optional to the process shown in
In some embodiments, the system is configured to automatically repeat steps 301 to 307 and update the stored prospect offer points scores when offer data is updated.
The method shown in
Referring next to
A similar rankings table may be generated for athletes in other sports and other types of prospects. Rankings for colleges, cities, and high schools, may also be similarly displayed. For example, a school offer points score for Texas may be calculated by adding the offer points scores for Jake Oliver, Rami Hammand, and other players that have committed to attending Texas. In some embodiments, the user viewing the rankings table may sort the table by selecting a column of the table. In some embodiments, the user can filter and search the entries in the table. For example, the user may select to only view the rankings of players who have committed to Texas, only players from Dallas, Tex., etc.
It is understood that the data in
Many of the functional units described in this disclosure have been labeled as modules, in order to more particularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, a module may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom VLSI circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discrete components. A module may also be implemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable array logic, programmable logic devices or the like.
Modules may also be implemented in software for execution by various types of processors. An identified module of executable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions that may, for instance, be organized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, the executables of an identified module need not be physically located together, but may comprise disparate instructions stored in different locations which, when joined logically together, comprise the module and achieve the stated purpose for the module.
Indeed, a module of executable code could be a single instruction, or many instructions, and may even be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustrated herein within modules, and may be embodied in any suitable form and organized within any suitable type of data structure. The operational data may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed over different locations including over different storage devices, and may exist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system or network.
While the invention herein disclosed has been described by means of specific embodiments, examples and applications thereof, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention set forth in the claims.
