Building Infrastructure for Undergraduate Sports Analytics Instruction at Cal
Bryan Graham, Professor
Economics
Applications for Fall 2026 are closed for this project.
Sports analytics involves the use of data to improve training, performance and in-competition decision-making. The field has grown tremendously over the past 25+ years. Many professional and collegiate teams rely on analytics professionals for scouting, recruitment and athlete retention. Sports analytics also influences current practice in sports journalism. The goal of this project is to build a basic infrastructure to support undergraduate education in sports analytics at Cal. I plan to design and teach an introductory sports analytics class at Cal during the 2026-2027 academic year. URAPs on this project will help build instructional materials for this planned course.
Role: URAPs will complete a basic project with sports analytic content. The intent is that these projects will form the basis for problem sets/assignments in the proposed course. URAPs will, with support from me, select a topic to study, find and collect data and undertake analysis. URAPs will meet with me once per week. A 3-5 hour commitment will be appropriate for most students. Students with exceptional interest and/or background in this area may be suitable for more units.
Qualifications: The proposed course will be introductory; the most important skill for URAPs is an interest in the subject and ideally a sense of topics to explore. I seek URAPs with interests in both professional (e.g., football, basketball) and Olympic sports (e.g., track and field). Your interest may involve questions of performance (e.g.,does consuming baking soda prior to competition delay fatigue?), strategy (e.g., when should a football team punt?) or even economics (e.g., an analysis of the emerging "name, image, and likeness (NIL)" market in college athletics).
Some basic knowledge of statistics and data analysis would be useful. Knowledge of Excel, Python and/or R would also be valuable. We can adapt projects to URAP interests and skill levels. URAPs will have latitude to explore their own interests and ideas.
Hours: 3-5 hrs
Related website: https://bryangraham.github.io/econometrics/
Related website: https://news.mit.edu/2025/five-ways-to-succeed-sports-analytics-0313