Running Head: NCAA D2 MEN’S SOCCER
NCAA D2 MEN’S SOCCER 2
NCAA Division 2 Men’s Soccer Total Goals Analysis
Liam Saheed Navarro
MAT308
Wilmington University
NCAA Division 2 Men’s Soccer Total Goals Analysis
Research Question and Relevance
The Wilmington University Men’s Soccer Team had a phenomenal 2019. By the first week of October, the Wildcats were ranked 15th in the United Soccer Coaches National Poll (United Soccer Coaches, 2019). Lorne Bickley was named the CACC Male Soccer Athlete of the Year, six players were named Academic All-Americans, three players were named to the United Soccer Coaches All-American Team, five players earned United Soccer Coaches All Region Honors, and three players were named to D2CCA All-American Teams (Wilmington University, 2019). In fact, the only accolade that eluded them was to win the regional championship. As an avid fan of the Wilmington University Men’s Soccer Team, I wondered if the total goals that the Wildcats scored during the 2019 season was significantly different than their competitors.
Data Description and Data Collection
The population that I studied was the NCAA Division 2 Men’s Soccer Teams. I gathered data from the NCAA Division 2 Men’s Soccer website (N = 50). I searched under Team Statistics and viewed the Total Goals data. Since the teams were ranked from most goals to least goals, I used systematic sampling to construct my sample. I started with the first team, then used every sixth team following. This allowed for an unbiased sample. Although I am not comparing regions, one limitation of this study is that regions may not be equally represented. Possible confounding variables could include inaccurate data collection by NCAA representatives, but this is unlikely.
Data Organization
The total number of goals for my sample can be seen in the chart in Table 1 and the corresponding graph in Figure 1.
Table 1
NCAA Division 2 Total Goals by Team
Team
Total Goals
Wilmington University
91
University of Indianapolis
56
Fort Hays State
49
Colorado School of Mines
46
Nova Southeastern
43
Rogers State
42
Wisconsin Parkside
41
East Stroudsburg
40
Chowan
39
Note: NCAA Website
Figure 1
NC AA Division 2 Total Goals by Team
Data Analysis
Descriptive statistics for this data are provided in Table 2. We see the average number of goals for this group of 9 teams is 50, which is the expected value for my hypothesis test. The data is spread out, since the range is 52 and the standard deviation is 16.4.
Table 2
Total Goals
Mean
50
Median
43
Mode
N/A
Standard Deviation
16.4
Range
52
Count
9
In order to answer my question, “Is there a significant difference in total goals scored?” I conducted a Chi-Square Goodness of Fit Test (α = 0.05, DF = 8, ). The hypotheses are as follows:
Ho: The number of total goals do not vary by team.
Ha: The number of total goals do vary by team.
The test yielded a chi-square test statistic of 42.98 and a p-value of 0.0000009. Since the test statistic, 42.98, is greater than the critical value, 15.507, and the p-value, 0.0000009, is less than the level of significance, 0.05, I reject Ho. There is sufficient evidence that the total goals do vary by team.
Conclusions
This data set reveals the answer to my question: the total goals scored by team varied significantly. This isn’t surprising, as the maximum total goals, 91, gained by Wilmington University, was 41 goals more than the average number of goals.
Going forward, it remains to be seen if Wilmington University will be able to maintain these records. Lorne Bickley, the top striker in the nation with 26 goals, graduated in January, 2020 (NCAA, 2019). This Wildcats fan intends to collect data for the 2020 soccer season and test to see if there is a significant difference between years.
References
NCAA. (2020). Men’s Soccer 2019 Statistics. Turner Sports Network. Retrieved from https://www.ncaa.com/stats/soccer-men/d2/current/team/575
United Soccer Coaches. (2019) United Soccer Coaches Top 25. Retrieved from https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-dii-men/
Wilmington University Athletics. (2019). 2019 Wilmington University Men’s Soccer News. Retrieved from https://wildcats.athletics.wilmu.edu/sports/msoc/2019-20/news
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