Sports analytics is driven by enthusiasts and financed by franchises. The 19th annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (SSAC), which took place last Friday and Saturday, made it more evident than ever how these two groups can collaborate effectively.

For years, the primary motivation behind the industry has come from fans frustrated with poor tactics: an overuse of bunting in baseball, excessive punting in football, among others. The most prominent figure in analytics, Bill James, was a teacher and night security guard until his yearly “Baseball Abstract” publications began to challenge a century’s worth of traditional beliefs in the 1980s. Subsequently, sports analytics transitioned into a formal profession.

At the same time, team valuations continue to escalate, women’s sports are thriving, and collegiate sports in the U.S. are evolving into a more professional atmosphere. All of this should lead to an increase in analytics positions, as noted by “Moneyball” author Michael Lewis during a panel last Friday.

“This entire analytics wave stems from decisions becoming very costly,” Lewis explained. “Making a mistake didn’t matter when you were paying someone $50,000 a year. But if you’re shelling out $50 million, you better be sure of your choice. So, suddenly, someone who can provide you with a slight edge in that decision-making process becomes invaluable.”

Interested in becoming a respected sports analytics expert? Here are five suggestions derived from MIT’s leading event on how to make progress in the field.

1. You can enter this field.

As it turns out, Bill James was the initial speaker on the opening Friday morning panel at SSAC, hosted at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. His focus: the significance of everyone’s contribution, as today’s amateurs can evolve into tomorrow’s professionals.

“Time will show that the individuals doing truly significant work are not those on stage, but rather those in the audience,” James stated.

This year, the audience comprised 2,500 participants from 44 U.S. states, 42 countries, and over 220 academic institutions, featuring numerous panels, a competition for research papers, and countless hallway discussions among networking attendees. SSAC was co-founded in 2007 by Daryl Morey SM ’00, president of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers, and Jessica Gelman, CEO of KAGR, the Kraft Analytics Group. The first three conferences were hosted in MIT classrooms.

Even now, sports analytics is still predominantly a grassroots endeavor. Why? Because fans can analyze sports deeply, free from conventional constraints, and then apply a quantitative approach.

“For many people, the driving force is the desire to apply this [analytical] thought process to sports,” stated soccer journalist Ryan O’Hanlon from ESPN during one of those hallway chats with MIT News.

O’Hanlon’s 2022 publication, “Net Gains,” documents the endeavors of several individuals who transitioned from non-sports occupations to make meaningful contributions in soccer analytics before moving into the industry. As the growth of Major League Soccer in the U.S. and women’s soccer flourishes, the sport may soon offer more opportunities. In O’Hanlon’s view, only three out of 20 clubs in England’s Premier League heavily invest in analytics: Brentford, Brighton, and (leading the league) Liverpool. That might change.

In any scenario, most individuals making the leap from fandom to professional ranks are eager to scrutinize issues that others may take for granted.

“I believe it’s about not shying away from questioning the status quo,” O’Hanlon added. “Whether discussing how a game is played, how we acquire players, or any aspect, almost everyone reaching a significant level and influencing [analytics] has posed those questions and discovered ways to answer them.”

2. Build relationships with the video team.

Imagine you’re passionate about a sport, start analyzing it, create quality work that garners attention, and — boom! — land a position with a professional team to perform analytics.

However, as former NBA player Shane Battier highlighted during a basketball discussion panel at SSAC, you still won’t have much time to converse with athletes about your beloved data. This isn’t typically the operational model of professional teams, not even those well-versed in statistics.

The good news is: Analysts can still connect with coaches and players by effectively utilizing video clips. Most European soccer coaches may disregard data but will pay attention to the video analysts on their team. Basketball coaches are fond of video. In American football, reviewing films is crucial. Additionally, technology has made it simpler than ever to combine data with video clips.

Thus, analysts should foster friendships with the video team. Notably, analytics professionals are beginning to grasp this more thoroughly than in the past, a realization that was evident at SSAC across various sports.

“Video in football [soccer] serves as the optimal method for communication and achieving alignment,” remarked Sarah Rudd, co-founder and CTO of src | ftbl, and a former analyst for Arsenal, during Friday’s panel on soccer analytics.

3. Explore roles in women’s sports analytics.

Have we highlighted the substantial growth in women’s sports? The WNBA is expanding, the U.S. transfer market in women’s soccer has doubled for three consecutive years, and women’s collegiate volleyball can now be accessed in a basic cable package.

This growth is beginning to fund enhanced data collection efforts, both in the WNBA and beyond, which was a frequent topic of discussion at SSAC.

As Jennifer Rizzotti, president of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, reflected on her playing days in the 1990s: “We didn’t have access to statistics; we weren’t given insights into our opponents’ tendencies. When I think about the resources players have today and the progress we’ve made, it’s quite remarkable.” However, she added, the volume of data available in men’s basketball continues to far exceed that of women’s basketball: “It highlights how much further we have to go.”

Some women’s sports still lack the financial resources required for essential analytics infrastructure. One Friday panelist, LPGA golfer Stacy Lewis, a 13-time tour winner, pointed out that the widely utilized ball-tracking analytics system in men’s golf costs $1 million weekly, a price far out of reach for women’s sports.

Additionally, at a Saturday panel, Gelman stated that achieving complete data equality between men’s and women’s sports isn’t on the horizon. “Unfortunately, I believe we are years away because we need more investment in this area,” she noted.

Nonetheless, progress is being made. During one Saturday discussion, data developer Charlotte Eisenberg described how the website Sports Reference — a vital source of free public data — has begun incorporating play-by-play data for WNBA games. This will aid in assessing individual players, especially over extended periods, a resource that has long been available for NBA games.

In summary, as women’s sports continue to expand, so too will the analytics opportunities within.

4. Don’t be intimidated by someone’s vague “eye test.”

A subtle pitfall in sports analytics, even at SSAC, is the belief that analytics should align with the so-called “eye test,” or seemingly intuitive observations regarding sports.

The issue is: There is no singular “eye test” in any sport, as individual intuitions vary widely. For some basketball coaches, an altruistic role player stands out. To others, a flashy off-the-dribble shooter passes the eye test, even without impressive shooting percentages. That discord would be present even in the absence of statistics.

Enter analytics, which validates the immense worth of efficient shooting (in addition to traditional strengths like defense, rebounding, and minimizing turnovers). However, in an interesting twist, the interpretation of a good shot in basketball has notably evolved. In 1979-80, the NBA introduced the three-point line; in 1985, teams averaged 3.1 three-pointers per game; by 2024-25, they are expected to average 37.5 three-pointers per game, with impressive efficiency. What caused this shift?

“Initially, people didn’t utilize [the three-point shot] properly,” Morey remarked during a Saturday panel, humorously noting that “they were too uneducated to realize that three is greater than two.”

Undoubtedly,

Players were not accustomed to launching threes in 1980. However, it also required a significant amount of time to alter perceptions in the game. Nowadays, analytics demonstrates that a contested three-point shot holds greater value than an open 18-foot two-point shot. This may still contradict someone’s “eye assessment.”

Moreover, consistently adhering to analytically driven coaching could result in a more uniform, less captivating game, as Morey and basketball icon Sue Bird indicated at the same discussion.

“There’s a bit of instinct that has now been taken from the game,” Bird remarked. Shooting threes is logical, she agreed, but “You’re only concentrating on the three-point line, which detracts from all the other elements.”

5. Reflect on absolute principles, but adapt to present strategies.

Bill James raised the standard for sports analytics: His revolutionary formula, “runs created,” elucidated how baseball operates with nearly Newtonian clarity. Team runs equal the multiplication of on-base percentage and slugging percentage, divided by plate appearances. This also applies to individual athletes.

Nevertheless, it is nearly infeasible to duplicate that type of foundational equation in different sports.

“I believe in soccer there remains a vast amount to grasp regarding the game’s mechanics,” O’Hanlon told MIT News. Should a team carefully maintain possession, execute long passes, or press aggressively? And how do we assess players with dramatically differing roles?

This sometimes results in scenarios where, O’Hanlon observes, “No one truly comprehends the correct inquiries that the data should be posing, because no one genuinely understands the ideal method to play soccer.”

Fortunately, the search for fundamental truths can also yield some strategic insights. Take, for instance, one of the three contenders in the conference’s research paper competition, “A Machine Learning Approach to Player Value and Decision Making in Professional Ultimate Frisbee,” authored by Braden Eberhard, Jacob Miller, and Nathan Sandholtz.

In their work, the writers investigate gameplay trends in ultimate, assessing whether teams achieve greater success by employing a succession of higher-percentage short-range passes or by attempting longer, high-risk throws. They discovered that athletes often opt for higher-percentage passes, although variation exists, particularly among star players. This indicates that tactical adaptability is essential. If the defense aims to eliminate short passes, try throwing long occasionally.

This exemplifies a classic dilemma in sports: the optimal method of play often hinges on the opponent’s strategy. In the quest for ultimate truths, analysts can uncover the efficacy of short-term tactics. This assists teams in securing victories, which helps analytics professionals maintain their positions. However, none of this would emerge if analysts weren’t immersed in the sports they cherish, seeking answers and endeavoring to share their discoveries with the world.

“There is nothing occurring here that will transform your life if you do not follow through with it,” James stated. “But there are numerous things happening here that will alter your life if you do.”