Brian Burke has an article on run-pass balance analysis using game theory. The downside to using game theory is that the results are dependent upon the values selected and mixed-strategy games strike me as examples of pseudo-cardinal utility functions in an ordinal world, but it’s a very nice introductory article to show somebody without too much experience in game theory how to use it in this setting, and I could see teaching this as one of many examples of game theory in an undergraduate course.
Also check out his play-calling on third and short (part 1 and part 2). I’m glad I stumbled on that site and will probably read it about as often as Football Outsiders.
