Title: Application of the analytic hierarchy process for the evaluation of basketball teams

Authors: Zilla Sinuany-Stern, Yaron Israeli, Michael Bar-Eli

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel and College of Judea and Samaria, Ariel, Israel. ' Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. ' Department of Business Administration, School of Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel and Ribstein Center for Sport Medicine Sciences and Research, Wingate Institute, Israel

Abstract: In this paper we predict the ranking of 11 Israeli basketball teams by employing the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) developed by Saaty [1]. Four experts participated in the evaluation process and six criteria were introduced to evaluate and rank the teams. Consistency tests led to sensitivity analyses conducted with five criteria and three experts. The results were validated against the actual ranking at the end of the season. Although there was good correlation between each expert|s ranking and the actual results, the best correlation was between the predicted average rank (over all the experts) and the actual results.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process; ranking; basketball; sport management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2006.008115

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2006 Vol.1 No.3, pp.193 - 207

Published online: 17 Nov 2005 *

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