Four Daniels faculty members to lead student research efforts in sports
Why do basketball teams shoot more three-point shots than ever before? Why are football coaches going for it on fourth down more frequently? Why have terms like exit velocity and launch angle become part of the baseball vernacular?
The analytics revolution is here across all sports, and teams are seeing the value of incorporating that data into the way they play.
Ben Williams
That trend has extended to the classroom at the Daniels College of Business. Faculty members Andrew Urbaczewski and Ryan Elmore recently published what they believe is the first college textbook on sports analytics. Their colleague, Ben Williams, also launched the Sports Analytics Lab at Daniels, supporting student research on impactful analytics questions in sports.
Williams is working alongside Urbaczewski, Elmore and Stefani Langehennig to run the lab, which will allow students to investigate compelling topics in athletics.
“There’s a pretty substantial interest in sports analytics from a faculty research perspective and I know that the students are always excited about it. So, I felt like we could blend this faculty and student interest and call it a lab,” Williams said.
The lab launched this summer and aims to produce high-quality student research on a quarterly basis. The first, recently completed student project focused on compiling scouting reports for professional drafts, investigating if there’s a potential bias in the language used to talk about different athletes.
The project is the first score for the lab, as it is research that will not only help the industry, but will also provide an ideal opportunity for students to demonstrate their expertise for future academic or professional opportunities.
“If you’re trying to go to graduate school, having that research experience and your name on a paper is really important,” Williams said, because it boosts your admission prospects. “If you’ve had that experience, you’re going to have a leg up on the competition. Because anyone can get a good grade on the GRE or have a good GPA, but doing research is really different.”
Beyond that, research teaches crucial skills for the business setting.
Students learn to think critically, find reputable sources, collaborate and synthesize large swaths of data. Then, they use programming tools and statistical methods to showcase their findings.
“If you’re trying to go into any sort of job, you can show how you faced a problem and systematically worked your way to a solution. Every employer would want that, right? It teaches you to think outside the box,” Williams added.
As this lab grows, Williams is hopeful to do interdisciplinary work with partners from across campus. He’s also exploring opportunities for securing funding to pay students for their research.
For Williams, this effort comes at the perfect time.
“Sports analytics is blowing up right now,” he said, “and we have the talent and the desire to make a contribution.”