Learn, build, and launch with AWS for the NFL Big Data Bowl 2026!
Your guide to the NFL Big Data Bowl competition: expert submission tips, track options, and AWS tools to get started.
The National Football League (NFL) is back with another Big Data Bowl, where contestants use Next Gen Stats player tracking data to generate actionable, creative, and novel stats. Previous iterations have analyzed running backs, defensive backs, special teams, pass rush plays, and tackling, and have generated metrics that have been used on television and by NFL teams.
What makes a successful submission?
Andrew Patton , Director of Analytical Research & Governance at NFL, shared some great advice in this online thread . Out of the 20 tips Andrew shared, here are the ones that caught my attention:
- Stay On-Task & Grounded:
- Answer the prompt directly (#1): “Make sure you answer the prompt. Don’t try and solve all of football and don’t stray outside the bounds of what we are asking that year. If we ask for tackling related submissions, don’t give me a fourth down model.”
- Discuss limitations (#14): “Make sure you talk about the limitations of your work, and/or don’t wildly overstate what your project can do. You’re given a very narrow slice of data in a short time frame.”
- Write & Present Like a Pro:
- Format for easy reading (#2): “The people that grade these do this at night, on weekends, in addition to their regular job responsibilities. As such, make it as easy as possible for readers to understand that you did a good job. Help us help you purely by your formatting.”
- Be concise (#4): “Flowery prose is not your friend. Be concise and direct whenever possible. I applaud creativity, but most of the time it comes off like a bad, creative writing assignment.”
- Invest in the write-up (#7): “Don’t spend 200 hours on the technical part and 30 minutes on the write up. It’s very easy to tell when somebody half asses the explanations and those submissions never get through.”
- Proofread rigorously (#8): “Have a friend read it to help with grammar, spelling, etc. that’s the easy stuff to do right.”
- Craft a smart title (#17): “Pick a title that is memorable and informative.”
- Polish the Details:
- Size visuals properly (#6): “Make sure your figures and charts, etc. all display the correct size. If I have to zoom in 27 times to read the legends that’s not going to help your case.”
- Choose pro colors (#10): “Pick better colors for your charts. Your submission should look expensive.”
- Use accurate terminology (#11): “Use correct football terminology. You need to make sure you are using the correct words for very simple football terms. Something very obviously incorrect in the area of expertise of the graders is not a good look.”
How do I get started?
Take the steps below to get started on your hackathon submission leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the complete stack of analytics and AI tools for data preparation, model training and statistical analysis.
Step 1: Enter the 2026 NFL Big Data Bowl competition, and get ready to start building.
You can choose from two tracks:
- Leaderboard Track: Build the most accurate movement-prediction model, tested on plays from future games. Sign up for Leaderboard Track
- Data Visualization Track: Tell the story through compelling visuals, tools, or interactive experiences. Sign up for Data Visualization Track
Step 2: Check out this live demo from AWS using Amazon SageMaker and sample NFL data!
Join Shannon Brazil from AWS Training and Certification as she demonstrates using a Jupyter Notebook in Amazon SageMaker AI to analyze offensive formation plays and creates a machine learning model to evaluate training formation success rates.
Step 3: Sign up for the AWS Free Tier and earn $100 in credits when you create your account.
- You can also earn another $100 by exploring more AWS services.
- The plan is valid for 6 months or until you use the $200, whichever comes first.
- No charges incurred unless you switch to the Paid Plan
Step 4: Create a SageMaker Unified Studio Domain to start developing your Jupyter Notebooks!
Continue your learning with free video courses and articles on all things analytics on AWS.
- Visit AWS Skill Builder for over 91 free digital courses on using AWS for data analytics.
- Learn more about data analytics from AWS community members.
Best of luck in the NFL Big Data Bowl 2026. I’m looking forward to seeing this year’s submissions! 🙌
--Antje
Update Oct 1, 2025: Removed link to separate Slack channel in favor of the competition's official Discord.
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