In the NBA, the most common jersey number is 12. In MLB, 22 is the most commonly worn jersey. What about collegiate volleyball? Surprisingly, 1 or a number ending in 2, is not the most common.
If you wear the number 4, you have the most common jersey number worn in the past decade of Division I collegiate volleyball! While 4 has the highest overall percentage at 5.49%, the numbers 3, 2, and 1 trail closely behind at 5.48%, 5.45%, and 5.44% respectively. This may be the case when looking at the data as a whole, but when you look at different positions, you get some very different results.
The most common jersey for setters is 1, at 7.28%. This makes a lot of sense to me as a setter, and while I do not wear the number 1, it seems in-character that the on-court leader wants to look the part. Similarly to setters, liberos most commonly wear the number 1. In fact, liberos wear the number 1 at a higher rate (8.04%) than setters. I have chalked this up to the fact that, just like setters, liberos are on court leaders. Another theory is that they have usually been last in the height lines, so they are compensating. Here is where it really gets interesting.
The most commonly worn jersey number for middle blockers is 12 (7.15%). This was the most shocking piece of data for me, because it just felt so random. After giving it some more thought, I decided that this inclination to choose a higher number stuck with them from a young age. I do not know about everyone, but I started playing volleyball at a recreation center. The jerseys were pre-ordered, increasing in size when the numbers increased. With this in mind, I theorize that most middles have higher numbers because they were always the tallest kids around, forced into jerseys with larger numbers to make sure that the tiny children got a jersey that fit them. Poor middles. Outside hitters most commonly wear the number 10 (6.35%). I think this is very fitting, especially since one of my favorite players at the moment is Arkansas’ All-American outside hitter Jill Gillen, who wears the number 10. Not to brag, but I did get to meet her in Tampa. It was awesome. At 5.79%, opposite hitters are most likely to wear the number 14. Interestingly enough, 5.7% of opposite hitters wear the number 7. Coincidence? Maybe, or maybe oppos just really like multiples of seven.
Data Notes:
- So, perhaps not surprisingly, given the purpose of NCAA stats reporting and records, the jersey number data has almost no missing data (only mssing 6 out of 48,999 observations). There are a few more that are probably transcription errors: three players are listed with triple digit jersey numbers, for example. But overall, the data looked good.
- I’ve been relying on the NCAA position data for these posts, which is listed for more than 98% of athlete-years. The NCAA positions are standardized with the following labels: DS, L, L/DS, MB, MH, OH, OPP, RS, S. For these posts I combine DS, L and L/DS; MB and MH; and OPP and RS. I haven’t really explored whether there are systematic differences between schools and/or athletes reported as OPP vs. RS, MB vs. MH, and DS, L, and L/DS. That could be something to look at in the future.
- There clearly are some small errors in the positions that are reported to/by the NCAA: super short athletes who are listed as middles but who have no blocks and lots of digs, outsides with 7 or 8 assists per set, things like that. But overall the data seems pretty good.
- Team websites, which typically include historical rosters, of which I have also scraped but haven’t written much about yet, have data that overlaps with NCAA stats data. The data is mostly the same, but with some small differences. The data from team websites that are also on the NCAA stats website include position, year in college, and height. I’ll post more about reconciling the two data sources when I make posts that use the team website data.