As everyone in the sports industry knows, data analysis has become one of the most important pursuits of which a team and league can devote resources. To quote Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, “Data is the new oil.”
This new data worshipping in sports has meant major opportunities for anyone trained in data science and analytics analysis. But it also created new job opportunities for aspiring students who want to work in the sports industry.
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Syracuse University’s Falk College announced recently that they will be offering the first ever bachelor’s degree that focuses on sports analytics. The program will begin in August 2017 and will give students the opportunity to learn the integral parts of sports analytics. The major will teach students math, statistics, research methodology, sport economics, database management, finance, and computer programming to help prepare them for the world of sports analytics.
“Upon graduation, students will be prepared to think conceptually and analytically while applying these principles to real issues in sport organizations,” said Dr. Rodney Paul, a sports economist and professor at Syracuse University. “Our program prepares students for a variety of different possible analytics career paths on the player evaluation side, business side, or both.”
In a collaborative effort between professor Michael Veley and Dr. Paul, Falk College now has something to offer that no other university in the country can. The idea for a sports analytics program came after Veley took sport management students on an annual trip to Los Angeles to meet people in the sports business and get a pulse on what’s trending in the industry. After a few trips Veley noticed that franchises were expanding their analytics departments and realized that it was something that people were genuinely interested in.
After seeing that having analytical skills that can be applied in sports was becoming more valuable, Veley approached Dr. Paul about the possibility of creating the program. Paul began to realize that students were gaining interest in analytics through the Baseball Statistics and Sabermetrics Club at Syracuse University, for which he serves as the faculty advisor. In 2014, members of the club approached Paul with an idea for a research project that they wanted to work on that focused on how atmospheric conditions affect pitchers in Major League Baseball. The research project was presented at the 2014 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and was later the focus of a column in ESPN The Magazine. After seeing the amount of interest that analytics were garnishing from students Paul thought that this could work.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the job market for various data analyst disciplines is growing at 27 percent annually, far exceeding the national job growth average of 11 percent. The sport industry is the fifth largest economic sector in the U.S. economy, generating slightly less than $500 billion in 2014-15.
The new program will also incorporate a mandatory foreign language requirement that will help prepare students for jobs all over the world. As analytics spread throughout the world, the university wants its students to be equipped with skills to work in different places like South America, Europe, and Asia.
“The program will provide a very rigorous and challenging curriculum, but by the time our students are finished we feel that they will be able to pursue a career anywhere,” said Paul. “Since we are the first program of this kind, we feel that the students will provide some internal competition, and we are looking forward to that because a little competition makes everyone better.”
When the program launches in August 2017, Syracuse University’s Falk College will be looking to set the standard when it comes to preparing students for the world of sports analytics.