Sunday, November 01, 2009

An Obvious Auction Possibility?

Yeon-Koo Che & Terrence Hendershott
Economists’ Voice, October 2009
The NFL Should Auction Possession in Overtime Games

"[NFL] overtimes can ruin great games, because, with all too high probability, whichever team gets the ball first wins. Instead of one of the best, the game might have been remembered as dubious, maybe even ignominious, with many ‘what ifs.’ We propose an auction method to eliminate the coin flip’s randomness by letting the teams bid to determine the initial possession...To minimize the impact of luck, it must be the case that the team that receives the opening possession has no real advantage. To accomplish this: Why not let the teams trade on who receives the opening possession with the starting position used as currency?"

(Nod to Kevin L)

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