Registration Opens January 6
The Wharton Sports Analytics and Business Initiative, in conjunction with Wharton Global Youth, is excited to host the Wharton High School Data Science Competition: Basketball Tournament Predictions. Using team-level box score data from an entire regular season of women’s college basketball, teams of high school students worldwide will determine rankings and predict winning percentages for postseason play.
Get Ready
Important Dates
Reasons to Compete
Participating in the Wharton High School Data Science Competition is a fantastic way to develop your data analysis and prediction skills through the lens of sports, all while having fun with your friends. The experience and problem-solving skills you develop through this competition are applicable to your every day life outside of sports analytics.
Additionally, teams that perform the best will be recognized on the Wharton Sports Analytics and Business Initiative’s website, which could be a great addition to your resume.
How it Works
Who Is Eligible?
This competition is open to high school students worldwide. “High school” is typically secondary-level (no younger than 14, no older than 18 at the start of the competition), pre-university education, as defined by country (e.g., generally 9th – 12th grade in the United States). We suggest participants have completed Algebra 1. There is no cost to participate.
Get Your Team Ready
Each team should have 3-5 students who are currently enrolled at the same high school. Teams are required to have one advisor, who is an employee of the school or school district the team attends. If the high school has various branches, teams must be comprised of students and an advisor from the same branch.
*In order to comply with privacy rules, each team must designate a student team leader who is age 16 years or older.
Register
Registration opens January 6, 2025. Advisors are responsible for registering their team(s). Students are NOT permitted to register for the competition on their own behalf or on behalf of their team. Teams in violation of this rule will be ineligible to compete.
Analyze
Data will be released to participants in early February. Along the way, we will share videos and other educational resources to help you with this part of the competition.
Questions?
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.
If you’re a high school student or teacher seeking additional learning opportunities, please visit the Wharton Global Youth Program to discover the wide range of opportunities designed to educate and motivate pre-collegiate students.
Congratulations to the 2024 Winning Team!
During the winter of 2023 and spring of 2024, more than 215 teams of high school students from around the globe competed in the inaugural Wharton High School Data Science Competition. The competition saw teams of three to five students competing to make predictions about the playoff outcomes of the North American Soccer League – a synthetic professional league with 30 teams and an extensive dataset including win-loss records and more.
We are proud to announce that HW_AnalyticsFC from the Harvard-Westlake School has been selected to feature their paper in a special edition of the Wharton Sports Analytics Journal. This is an incredible opportunity for these talented students to showcase their work in student sports analytics research.
Check out their research, Calculating Win Probabilities of Any Matchup of Soccer Teams below!