In today’s NFL, games are increasingly decided not just by talent on the field but by the data teams use to prepare.
A Rice University junior showed enough ingenuity studying some of that data to claim the league’s top analytics honor.
Lucca Ferraz won the 2026 NFL Big Data Bowl, the league’s premier annual sports analytics competition, during combine week in Indianapolis. The event, now in its eighth year, draws some of the brightest students and analysts in the country to tackle football strategy challenges using the league’s advanced Next Gen Stats tracking data.
Ferraz competed independently this year, earning the top prize for a defensive framework that introduces a new metric designed to better measure pass coverage impact. Using tracking data collected from chips embedded in players’ shoulder pads and inside the football, his model analyzes how defenders influence passing plays even when they don’t record a traditional statistic.
In a league where margins are razor thin, front offices increasingly rely on analysts like Ferraz to uncover small competitive advantages that translate into wins.
“Sport analytics is fundamentally about winning,” said Scott Powers, professor of sport analytics at Rice. “You’re always trying to find ways to maximize your edge.”
The Big Data Bowl has become one of the NFL’s most visible talent pipelines with participants presenting their work in front of league executives, scouts and analytics directors during combine week. Several past Big Data Bowl projects have later appeared as features during national broadcasts.
Ferraz’s win builds on the university’s growing presence in professional football analytics. He was also part of a Rice team that reached the finals last year, while Rice graduate Jonah Lubin was named a 2025 semifinalist and now works full time with the Las Vegas Raiders as a football data science assistant, focusing on player evaluation.
Rice is one of only a handful of universities nationwide offering an undergraduate major in sport analytics — a program designed specifically to prepare students for front-office analytics roles in professional sports.
Ferraz, who is majoring in social sciences with concentrations in statistics and sport analytics, said the opportunity represents more than a trophy.
“This competition is one of the biggest hiring pipelines in professional sports,” Ferraz said. “It’s an incredible opportunity to showcase your work at the highest level.”
With the 2026 title now secured, Ferraz joins a new generation of analysts shaping how the NFL evaluates talent, strategy and performance, where data, more than ever, helps determine who wins on Sunday.