Zach Steever

Zach Steever, a Gowanda High School graduate, is playing a big part in the 2019 NFL season. Steever a Ph.D. student at the University of Buffalo is apart of a research team led by Mark Karwan Ph.D., a professor of operations research. The team is partnering up with the NFL to help provide year-round method development and schedule testing.

According to an ESPN article, the goal of the research team is to help build fairer schedules that will minimize long trips on short weeks and even out rest disparity. Both of those factors can be large impacts in the quality of play.

Steever is quoted in the ESPN article saying, “The hope would be that you notice it in the quality of the games,” he said. “Every team knows its opponents before the schedule comes out, but where you place them in the schedule matters. If you create a schedule that minimizes, say, long trips on short weeks or evens out the rest disparity, those kinds of things can factor into quality of the play.”