Sports and its Dependency on Data Analytics

One of the many reasons why I find sports analysis interesting is the new found acknowledgement of its importance to not only player and team performance but the organizations bottom line. As the money in sports has grown teams have reinvested in their scouting techniques and incorporated data analytic departments as a major component. Statistics have always been used to evaluate talent but over the past 25 years a renewed emphasis has been place on its importance as new and more complex statistical formulas have been developed. Increased revenue and the desire to optimize the cost associated with scouting talent around the world which in many cases begins when players reach the age of 12 has turned talent evaluation into a science. As a business graduate student and avid sports fan I am realizing that their may be a niche that caters to my professional and personal passions. Sports organizations are increasingly operating the player development departments in the same fashion that they operate their other organizational departments. In the past that may have not been the case given that unlike in other industries in sports the product being sold also happens to be the employees. However, the same data driven principles and evaluation techniques used in product placement for example, are starting to be viewed as necessity in an increasingly competitive and lucrative environment. I find that I am drawn to this new practice but with a desire design teams that incorporate relative sports statistical techniques with proven historical practices that are less data driven.