The Football Analytics Club was established during the 2017-18 academic year and became an officially recognized Syracuse University student organization in Fall 2019. The club started with four members, grew to 40 the next year, and then to more than 100 members in 2019-20. The club meets weekly discussing all things related to football, conducting research, competing in trivia contests, and welcoming guest speakers, among other activities.
During the Fall 2020 semester, club members took part in a Mock Case Competition. The students were divided into groups and tasked with projecting the contracts and future performance for certain NFL free agents. The groups presented their findings to a panel of upperclassmen and faculty.
In Fall 2019 and 2018, club members attended a Buffalo Bills game, where members met with Syracuse University Sport Analytics alumnus Evan Weiss ’19, who was a football analytics intern with the Bills at that time. Weiss was also the founder and first president of SU’s Football Analytics Club. He gave students valuable career advice on how to break into the NFL analytics world.
The Football Analytics Club has also formed a close partnership with the XFL since the new spring football league was founded. Club members collected data from NFL, AAF and CFL games that would later be used by a small group of club members to research potential changes to the game of football. This group worked with Sport Management alumnus Bryan Kilmeade ’18 to reach conclusions that the XFL used to help formulate its rules.
Club members have also worked on many research projects over the past few years, exploring topics such as “Do NFL Players Perform Worse After Receiving a Large Free Agent Contract;” “Do NFL Referees Display Bias Towards Certain Calls or Teams;” “How Winning/Losing Streaks Impact Future Winning Chances and Betting Lines;” and “How Player Arrests Affect Team Winning Percentage in the NFL.” Also, club members participated in the NFL’s first-ever analytics competition, the 2019 Big Data Bowl. SU’s group was awarded an honorable mention for finishing in the top eight out of more than 50 entries.
The Football Analytics Club routinely welcomes sport industry guest speakers such as Neil Hornsby, founder and CEO of Pro Football Focus; Bryan Kilmeade and Sam Schwartzstein, of the XFL’s football operations department; Tucker Zeleny, director of sports analytics at the University of Nebraska; JT Busco, Syracuse University football assistant coach; and Ryan Smith, analyst and account manager at Pro Football Focus. These speakers, among others, gave students insight into the use of analytics in both professional and college football.
Club officers for the 2020-21 academic year are Zak Koeppel (president), Cameron Mitchell (vice president), Will Friedeman (director of research), Joe Pickering (director of operations), and Preston Klaus (treasurer). The Football Analytics Club meets weekly during the academic year. All Syracuse University students are welcome to attend. For more information, email Koeppel at zkoeppel@syr.edu.
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