March 14, 2017
By Zac Ellis
VUCommodores.com
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Creating a schedule for a national sports league is, in many ways, an art. But it’s a more complicated form of art than most people realize, says Chris Groer (Vanderbilt ’96).
“If you took a 10-team league that played a round-robin schedule, you’d have a number of ways to do it,” Groer said. “For a league like the NBA, there are more possibilities than number of atoms in the universe.”
Groer, a former star on the Commodores’ tennis team, spends much of his time tinkering with the art of sports scheduling. Today he is Director of Research and Development, Data and Analytics for global auditing and consulting firm KPMG. The company uses computers to handle scheduling for a number of NCAA conferences, including the SEC. Groer and his associates have developed a scheduling system for the NBA, as well.
To Groer, his career is a confluence of passions.
“It’s an intersection of math and sports, two things that have been a big part of my life,” he said.
But these days Groer still manages to keep his hand in tennis. Groer routinely competes in senior international tournaments, and this week he will be part of the team that represents the United States in the ITF Young Seniors World Team Championships in Cape Town, South Africa. The team tournament runs from March 19-24, with individual events taking place March 25-April 1.
A Knoxville native, Groer ventured to West End in 1993 seeking the perfect marriage of academics and athletics. He evolved into one of the best players in Commodore tennis history; Groer became the program’s first All-American in 1996 and first to earn Academic All-America honors. He graduated with degrees in mathematics and economics and was later inducted in the Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010.
Groer followed his career at Vanderbilt with a stint on the pro circuit, facing off against the likes of Andy Roddick and competing in Wimbledon qualifying and the Australian Open. After his playing days, Groer earned a master’s in mathematics from the University of Georgia in 2002 and went on to work in the intelligence industry in Washington, D.C. Groer earned his PhD in applied math and scientific computing from the University of Maryland while in the nation’s capital.
Seeking a slower pace of life, Groer later returned his family to Knoxville to work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. One day his sister-in-law Angela Kelly, then Tennessee’s women’s soccer coach, mentioned the complicated process of SEC scheduling. Groer decided to take on the problem as a personal hobby.
“In grad school, my dissertation was about using giant computers for complicated logistics problems,” Groer said. “With scheduling, even if it’s, say, SEC women’s volleyball, it’s an incredibly complicated problem.”
Groer began helping to create Tennessee’s soccer schedule each year. After joining KPMG, Groer began utilizing his scheduling gravitas for bigger problems. The company now handles scheduling for everything from football to women’s volleyball in several NCAA conferences.
The process can be even more complicated NBA and its sizeable 82-game schedule. Groer helps the league streamline its scheduling process to address the frequency of back-to-back road games, among other issues.
“The number of ways you can decide – play-rest, play-play-rest, whatever – there are more possibilities for that than grains of a sand on a beach,” Groer said. “It’s shocking, in way.”
This week, Groer will trade his abacus for a tennis racket in South Africa. Last May he helped the U.S. finish eighth at the ITF Young Seniors World Championships in Umag, Croatia. Groer went 2-2 in singles and 1-0 in doubles in the clay court event.
As Groer prepared for this year’s trip to South Africa, he contacted current Vanderbilt tennis coach Ian Duvenhage, a native of South Africa, asking for extra info on the country. Duvenhage invited Groer to come practice with the Commodores on campus. Groer obliged and ventured back to West End for a weekend this spring.
A trip to campus brought back memories for the former Vanderbilt star. Groer still counts a win over No. 4-ranked Tennessee in Knoxville during his freshman season as a memory he won’t soon forget. Before departing Nashville, Groer took time to address the current Commodores’ players. He reminded them just how special their Vanderbilt experience is.
“I told the guys, this is really one of the greatest periods of your life,” Groer said. “You’re going to be going to battle with these guys on your team for weeks on end, and it will go by faster than you think. Savor it and enjoy the competition.
“Being a student-athlete at Vanderbilt and juggling everything was a challenge, but I’ve taken those skills with me for the rest of my life.”
To follow the results of the ITF Young Seniors World Championships, visit ITFtennis.com.
