Associate Professor of Management Brian Lyons was quoted in a recent article about the Wonderlic test used to determine the intelligence of draft prospects at the NFL Combine.
Can an intelligence test predict an athlete’s success in the NFL? That’s the question the IndyStar set out to answer in a recent article about the Wonderlic exam given to draft prospects at the annual NFL Combine.
The article, “Inside the quirky IQ test at the NFL Combine,” included insight from Associate Professor of Management Brian Lyons. Lyons explained that the 12-minute, 50-question test has little to no impact on a player’s NFL statistics.
“Pretty much, the Wonderlic doesn’t matter,” Lyons said. “It doesn’t really predict whether you’re going to get a tackle or throw an interception.”
In 2009, Lyons co-authored a study with Brian Hoffman and John Michel about how Wonderlic scores translate to athletic ability. The authors compared the Wonderlic scores of 762 football players to their NFL statistics and found no real correlation.
In the article, Lyons joins a list of other experts, as well as a former NFL player in the debate over the Wonderlic’s relevance. You can read the entire IndyStar article and learn more about Lyons’ research here.