Sports and Society Initiative and Ohio State’s Sports Analytics Association hosted the fourth annual Sports Analytics Conference on April 5, featuring student presentations and panels featuring sports professionals. 

Nearly 100 people attended the in-person event, with another 150 online. The conference featured 14 different universities and six analytics firms.

Dr. Ryan Ruddy, a senior lecturer in the department of economics and the assistant director of SSI, said many sports analytics conferences cost a lot of money to attend, and Ohio State wanted to host a conference more accessible to students.

“One of our goals is to provide a space where students do not have to spend a bunch of money and where they can also present their research, even if they are just starting out, so they can gain that experience,” Ruddy said.

The event was held in a virtual format Friday and in person Saturday. The virtual sports professionals attending included Summer Sports Vice President and partner Eric Eager, author of Basketball on Paper Dean Oliver, senior project manager of global baseball strategy at Hawkeye Innovations Katie Krall and senior data scientist of the Pittsburgh Penguins Katerina Wu.

The Saturday panels included a sports science group from the Columbus Crew, a football analytics panel and a basketball analytics panel. Brian Burke, a senior analytics specialist at ESPN, will end the conference as the keynote speaker.

“We were really happy to get baseball, hockey, basketball and football,” Ruddy said. “It’s kind of hard to get somebody from every sport and we were able to set that up.”

Ruddy said when students presented their research, the sports professionals attending asked questions about their presentation.

“It’s pretty cool if you are doing some research on the NFL draft, and then the director of scouting for the Cleveland Browns raises his hand and asks you a question, that’s an opportunity you normally do not get,” Ruddy said.