Sport Management and Sport Analytics Student Organizations
Baseball Sabermetrics
Baseball Sabermetrics and Statistics Club
Sabermetrics is the study of advanced baseball statistics. This club conducts in-depth discussions about everything related to baseball, with members taking part in a fantasy baseball league and guest speakers brought in on a variety of topics throughout the year.
Over the course of the 2023-24 academic year, club members worked on several research projects, including pitcher impact on base-stealing prevention and classifying Major League hitters into different archetypes. Club members also attended Syracuse Mets games and held a mock case competition where participants received feedback from faculty as well as an industry professional.
Guest speakers from 2023-24 included SU Sport Analytics alumni, Major League Baseball executives, baseball publication writers and SABR researchers, among others.
Club meetings also consisted of discussing Major League Baseball current events, participating in a mock offseason where members act as the General Manger of a Major League Baseball franchise, and fun activities such as baseball jeopardy and watch parties.
Over the 2024 Fall semester, students had the opportunity to learn and work on various topics critical to the baseball industry. Weekly meetings focused on significant topics within Major League Baseball that extended beyond the lens of strictly news, analyzing players, teams, and investigating intriguing statistical stories across the industry. Students participated in a Mock Case Competition, where they created a scouting report on an anonymous pitcher facing an anonymous team and had the opportunity to present their projects to Syracuse faculty and analytics professionals working for MLB clubs. Additionally, students engaged with Syracuse alumni working in the sports industry during workshops that highlighted skills learned at Syracuse—skills that were pivotal to the alumni’s success in their respective fields. Students also had the chance to build their portfolios through Mini-Mock Case Competitions, exploring player analysis, player contracts, and team performance. Outside of the club, students attended a Syracuse Mets game to network and connect with peers across all grade levels.
In Spring 2024, for the 10th straight year, Club members participated in the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) Analytics’ Spring Diamond Dollars Case Competition in Phoenix (AZ). Undergraduate teams were separated into competition rooms, where they presented to judges. They also attended a Chicago Cubs Spring Training game.
“Having a Sabermetrics club at Syracuse is important as it allows for students to study in-depth advanced baseball statistics to create a better understanding of the game and of player value,” Paul said. “Students will learn the origins and uses of sabermetric statistics and then discuss and debate their usage. The goal of the club is to inform and encourage the use of advanced baseball statistics for a variety of uses in the industry.”
Club officers for 2024-25 are President Jonah Soos, Vice President Jessica Fackler, Director of Engagement Jacob Kalamvokis, Director of Programming Caitlin Kohlmeier, Director of Outreach Zachary Silverstein, Director of Research Danny Baris, Director of Operations James Young and Fiscal Agent Hayden Orenstein. For more information, email Soos at jasoos@syr.edu.
Basketball Analytics
Basketball Analytics Club
The organization was assembled to conduct analysis on the NBA, NCAA, and high school basketball and has expedited the process of recording large sums of data at an efficient pace. Club members are working on research on a variety of topics focusing on professional and college basketball organizations, teams, players and business strategies.
During the 2023-24 academic year, the Club hosted guest speakers from many aspects of the sport industry. Club members participated in the Syracuse University Basketball Analytics Competition, Mock Case Competition, Milwaukee Bucks Hackathon, Mock Trade Deadline, Expansion Draft, NBA Mock Draft, Fantasy Basketball League and a Scavenger Hunt.
RJ Frahm is the club president.
Football Analytics
Football Analytics Club
The Football Analytics Club meets weekly discussing all things related to football, conducting research, competing in trivia contests, and welcoming guest speakers.
During the Fall 2024 semester, club members learned visualization techniques using football data in the programming language R. The club welcomed guest teachers, including Sport Analytics Professor Brad Congelio and FantasyPros Data Scientist Sam Hoppen. Jacob Baldwin, Data Scientist at PFF, visited the club in Fall 2024. Additionally, Football Analytics Club members participated in a mock case competition, where club members were tasked with researching the best combination of NFL wide receivers.
During the 2023-24 academic year, club members were active on their research projects as well as planning the Fourth Annual Syracuse University Football Analytics Blitz. Also, club members formed teams for the NFL’s Big Data Bowl, working in groups to answer the prompt, while gaining valuable experience competing in the football analytics competition.
Club members have 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.”
The Football Analytics Club has formed a partnership with the XFL to collect data. Members have also worked on research projects, exploring topics such as “Do NFL Players Perform Worse After Receiving a Large Free Agent Contract.”
Club officers for 2024-25 are President Austin Ambler, Vice President Zach Seidel, Director of Research Nick Wolfe, and Director of Outreach Jayke Pastis. For more information, email Austin Ambler at aeambler@syr.edu.
Hockey Analytics
Hockey Analytics Club
The Hockey Analytics Club is a student-run organization that meets weekly during the academic year to discuss trends and events in the world of hockey. The Club also conducts analytical research and has worked with the Syracuse University women’s ice hockey team, the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch, and the Tennity Adult League.
Guest speakers have included Buffalo Sabres General Manager Kevyn Adams, as well as NHL agent Allan Walsh, Dante Giugliano (Hockey Trader at FanDuel) and Sam Ventura (Buffalo Sabres).
The Club conducts research, such as “NHL Roster Salary Composition’s Effect on Team Success.” Club members stage various activities such as a mock offseason, club fantasy hockey league, in-season predictions discussions, and an analytics-based scavenger hunt.
Outside of club meetings, members frequently got together to play floor hockey at the multipurpose court at SU’s Barnes Center.
Club officers for 2025 are President Caleb Rice, Vice President Ian MacMiller, Director of Operations Robert Yardley, Director of Research Carter Pietrowski, Director of Outreach Linc Zdancewicz, and Treasurer Tim Campbell. For more information, email cjrice@syr.edu.
Soccer Analytics
Soccer Analytics Club
The Syracuse University Soccer Analytics Club, which was founded in 2018, conducts analysis and research on the various soccer leagues around the world. The club provides a platform for students with a passion for soccer to discuss the sport and work together, conducting research using a variety of statistical methods and analytical tools.
In Fall 2024, a group of club members was selected to complete a research project using state-of-the-art tracking and physical data from Skillcorner for the inaugural American Soccer Insights Summit. The group used advanced clustering and regression techniques in the analysis and presented the project on stage at the Summit in January 2025.
In Spring 2024, the club predicted the results of the 2026 World Cup. This was accomplished through an OLS regression which identified the furthest round a country was expected to make it to. A randomized draw based on actual constraints was created to simulate the tournament.
The club’s major success has been achieved in the form of papers of being selected for various conferences, including the MIT Sloan Sport Analytics Conference, Midwest Sport Analytics Conference, and Carnegie Mellon Sport Analytics Conference. Find examples of the Club research on Instagram @cusesocceranalyticsclub.
Club members strive to improve the scope of analytics in the world of soccer, hoping the same number of statistics available for basketball or baseball will be available for soccer.
Officers for the 2024-2025 academic year are president Sebastian Bush, vice president Max Theriault, director of operations Braden Hines, director of research Theo Schmidt, director of recruitment and engagement Carter Pointon and social media director Cesar Barrera. For more information, email skbush@syr.edu.
Sport Analytics Women
Sport Analytics Women (SAW)
Formed in Fall 2020, Falk College’s Sport Analytics Women (SAW) Club strives to create a group of like-minded women to build relationships, assemble a support system and study sport analytics during their time at Syracuse University and into their post-graduate careers. The club’s mission is to collaborate and serve as a positive advocate for women in sport analytics by connecting with each other as well as with professionals in the industry. The goal of creating relevant opportunities for club members is achieved through tutorials on programs such as R, SQL, Python and Tableau, group research projects and hosting guest speakers.
In Fall 2024, SAW began a research project looking at the impact of Playoff Probability on attendance, collecting data and learning basic R coding skills. The project will continue through the next semester. Also, a few of the Club members attended Koding with KAGR, an analytics conference in Foxborough, Mass.
In Spring 2024, the SAW Club met weekly, held workshops focusing on various topics and hosted guest speakers, including FanDuel NHL Sports Trader Sara Barshap, who is also the Assistant Commissioner of the American Collegiate Hockey Association. Club members also hosted a Women in Sports panel, attended the Syracuse Crunch’s Women in Sports Night, participated in a T-shirt toss at a Syracuse University women’s basketball game celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day and attended a Buffalo Sabres game to meet with executives.
Guest speakers have included Mackenzie Mangos ’22 (Player Valuation Analyst at the Pittsburgh Pirates), Kylie Dedrick ’23 (Team Data Solutions Strategist at the NBA), Drina Domic ’19, (Data Scientist in Business Intelligence and Solutions at the NBA), Ally Blake (Data Scientist at the NFL), Ella Summer (Miami Dolphins), Julianne Jochym (NHL), Lindsay Barenz (Oakland Roots/Oakland Soul), Kelsey McDonald (Brooklyn Nets) and Juliette Gorson (FanDuel).
In Fall 2023, several Club members attend the Women in Sports Data Symposium in Philadelphia to network and attend panels from females working in the sports data landscape.
The Club also continued its partnership with Sports Info Solutions, as members are paired based on their interests with individuals in the company, creating a mentor/mentee relationship.
Club officers for 2025 are President Anna Pierce, Director of Outreach Maddy Forster, Director of Programming Danielle Napierski and Secretary/Fiscal Agent Claire Patin. The club meets weekly during the academic year in Falk College. Students from all majors are welcome. Follow the club’s Instagram or Twitter. For more information, email Pierce at apierc03@syr.edu.
SPM Club
Sport Management Club
The Sport Management Club is a student-run organization in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics’ Department of Sport Management. Since its founding in 2005, the Club has raised more than $750,000 for local charities.
Under the guidance of Sport Management Founder and Endowed Professor Emeritus Michael Veley and Faculty Advisor Dr. Jeremy Losak, the Sport Management Club has provided countless students, regardless of major, invaluable experiential learning opportunities to expand their professional, academic, and social skillsets.
The Club’s signature event is its annual Charity Sports Auction to raise money for a Syracuse-area charity. The 20th annual auction was held in a hybrid format, both in person at SU’s JMA Wireless Dome and online, in December 2024. To support the Syracuse Rescue Mission, supporters placed bids on hundreds of items, including sports memorabilia, gift certificates, household items, vacation packages, and electronics. Previous beneficiaries of the club’s annual charity auction have included Make-A-Wish Central New York, Boys & Girls Clubs, Golisano Children’s Hospital at Upstate, the Ronald McDonald House Charities of CNY, the Central New York SPCA, the Upstate Cancer Center, Special Olympics New York, Food Bank of CNY, the Salvation Army, American Diabetes Association, the Boeheim Foundation, Vera House, and McMahon/Ryan Child Advocacy Center. For more information about the annual Charity Auction, visit Twitter @SPMAuction as well as sucharitysportsauction.com.
A highlight of the Fall 2024 semester was a trip that Club members took to Boston to watch the Syracuse University football team take on Boston College. The trip also provided club members the opportunity to network with industry professionals and SU alums from the Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics. They shared insights into the sports industry, career paths, and advice for those aspiring to work in the sport industry.
Guest speakers for the fall semester included Josh Rawitch, President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and a panel of industry professionals from the Buffalo Bills/Legends who discussed the Bills new stadium project. Additional club outings included trips to a Syracuse Mets game and Apex Entertainment for bowling and laser tag. Club members also logged numerous volunteer hours at the Syracuse Rescue Mission.
The Sport Management Club meets weekly during the academic year at 7pm on Tuesdays in Falk 200. Students from all majors are welcome.
Officers for 2025 are President James Stickel, Executive Vice President Kaden Halboth, Vice President of Community Service Emily Gilbert, Vice President of Programming Allison Vilms, Vice President of Administration Robbie Rychlik, and Vice President of Membership Jacob Swibel. For more information, contact Stickel at jrsticke@syr.edu.
Sportsbook Analytics
Sportsbook Analytics Club
The Falk College Sportsbook Analytics Club was founded in 2019 in response to one of the fastest growing industries in the nation. The club and its members continue to explore, learn, and discuss the ever-changing landscape of sport prediction markets, such as legalized sports betting and daily fantasy sports.
The club has annually expanded both in membership and in programming. In addition to discussion about the industry’s news and latest trends, the club has introduced workshops and competitions. They also host guest speakers from around the sport industry throughout the academic year. In Spring 2024, Nick Ercolano, of BDGE, joined the Club to discuss branding, media and podcasting in the sports betting space. Also in Spring 2024, the Sportsbook Analytics Club was featured on Syracuse’s Spectrum News, as the students discussed how betting markets are made and how the club is connecting students to the sports betting landscape. Watch it here
In the Fall of 2023, the club partnered with Smashup Fantasy Sports, a daily fantasy app that adds a twist of applying power-up cards to their daily fantasy lineup. While club members can compete in all of the app’s competitions, Smashup is also allowing the Sportsbook Analytics Club to compete against other universities, testing the club’s lineup projection skills on a national level.
The club completed its first official research project in 2022 by submitting a poster to the Falk Research Poster Competition titled, “Does Win Percentage Correlate to Point Production in the NFL?” Club members scraped data to see if two teams over .500 win percentage would score the “over” on total points and if two teams under .500 win percentage would score the “under” on total points. Members created a model to predict over/under based on win percentage, but it was found that win percentage should not be used as an indicator of total point production in the NFL.
Students from all majors and backgrounds are welcome to join the club and attend weekly meetings. Club officers for 2024-2025 are President Charlie Maddux, Vice President Luke Hildebrand, Director of Research Dylan Stafeil, Director of Outreach Robbie Giegerich and Treasurer Jacob Kalamvokis. For more information, email Maddux at chmaddux@syr.edu.
Sport Professionals of Color
Sport Professionals of Color
The Department of Sport Management’s Sport Professionals of Color Club is an organization that strives to uplift and connect students of color who are interested in working in the sport industry.
The organization was formed during the 2014-15 academic year with the purpose of helping to guide young professionals in their pursuit of success and career establishment in the industry. The club strives to improve members’ professional skills, host speakers, foster networking growth, and create a sense of community among students of different backgrounds.
Over the course of the 2023-2024 academic year, the club welcomed numerous guest speakers, including SU alum Tobi Joshuasville, assistant director of development for major gifts at Syracuse Athletics; Akbar Christi, the founder and chief executive officer of Seamus Golf; Micale Allen, an athlete investing consultant with Big League Advantage; Matt Howard, a senior associate at the KB Group who specialized in early-stage venture capital investments at the intersection of sports and technology; and Stephen Anderson, a partnerships manager for the Golden State Warriors.
Additionally, during Black History Month, the club met with Steven Gilbert, a videographer and producer from Syracuse Women’s Basketball, who offered his perspective on the basketball industry and the power of networking.
Club members participated in fantasy football drafts and created March Madness brackets. In addition, the Club hosted Kevin Cooper, founder/owner of FanEase and a Syracuse alum who provided advice on how students of colors can make a difference.
Club leaders for 2024-25 are president Jeremiah Patterson-Yancey, vice president Jada Johnson, secretary Nicole “Violet” Holmes, treasurer CJ Green, social media coordinators Meadow McNeil, Cindy Dupiton and Rahsheek Hill, event coordinator Trinity Jennings-Pagan and engagement/outreach coordinators Cindy Dupiton and Trinity Jennings-Pagan. The Club meets weekly during the academic year. Contact Patterson-Yancey for more information at jtpatter@syr.edu.
Tennis Analytics Club
Tennis Analytics Club
The Tennis Analytics Club was formed in Fall 2022 to bring together students who share a common interest in the sport.
During the 2023-24 academic year, club members created a Shiny App that lets users see player statistic output in wins and losses to measure what kind of factors may indicate more success. They also used RStudio for data manipulation, aggregation, visualization, and analysis in a variety of ways, using data from various online sources like the ATP and WTA websites, GitHub, and others. The Club discussed various statistical and machine learning concepts such as the probability of independent events, the Bayes Rule, decision trees, gradient boosting and clustering, and applied them to tennis. Club members met weekly to discuss relevant tournaments as well as news in the tennis sector of professional sports. They also researched websites such as FanDuel and DraftKings.
In previous semesters, the Club measured the effects of first and second serve strategies in the ATP.
Officers for 2024-25 are President Jarrett Markman, Vice President Jordan Hemley, Treasurer Chris Marfisi and Director of Research Jameson Bodenburg. Contact Markman at jmarkman@syr.edu for more information.
WISE
Women in Sports and Events (WISE)
The Fall 2024 semester for WISE was filled with exciting professional growth and impactful community engagement. On campus, WISE hosted a variety of events, including campus involvement workshops and networking sessions. A highlight of the semester was WISE’s involvement with the New York Jets’ chapter of the NFL’s Crucial Catch program, spearheaded by Community Outreach Chair Jacqueline DiPaolo. This initiative featured a campus-wide fundraiser to support the cause. Beyond campus, members participated in a collaborative trip to Boston with the Sport Management Club. During the trip, WISE members attended the Syracuse football game against Boston College and had the opportunity to connect with Syracuse alumni. To wrap up the semester, WISE hosted a networking event with Falk College professor of practice Sue Edson. Members engaged with women working for Syracuse Athletics, gaining valuable insights and connections in the field.
WISE members often volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House in Syracuse to cook and serve meals to families staying at the facility. The group also co-hosts workshops focusing on campus resources and resumes; partners with Witty Wicks, a homemade candle company, and Chipotle, to fundraise for future networking trips and events; and welcomes numerous guest speakers to campus or virtually.
Keep up with SU’s WISE Club on Social Media: Twitter: @WISE_SU; Instagram: WISE_Cuse; and Facebook: Women in Sports and Events at Syracuse University.
Club officers for 2025 are Allison Vilms, Tess Wright, Emily Gilbert and Lexi Katz.
The WISE Club includes women from all majors on campus interested in pursuing careers in sports and events. For more information, email WISE advisor Beth Perez at erper100@syr.edu or club president Allison Vilms at arvilms@syr.edu.
