DU Sports Analytics Lab

The DU Sports Analytics Lab brings together faculty and students from across the University of Denver to explore how data and analytics can improve decision-making in sports. Founded in 2024, the lab serves as a home for rigorous, high-impact sports analytics research—while giving students hands-on experience tackling real-world problems in professional, collegiate, and amateur sports.

At its core, the lab is designed to mentor students, advance interdisciplinary research, and produce insights that matter both inside and outside the sports industry.

What We Study

The Sports Analytics Lab investigates a wide range of questions at the intersection of sports, data, and society. Research areas include both classic and emerging topics in sports analytics, such as:

Player performance evaluation and new statistical metrics
Talent identification and recruiting analytics
Bias and equity in sports data, scouting, and evaluation
Injury prevention and player health using tracking data
Comparative analysis across men’s and women’s sports

Projects span multiple sports and levels of play, with an emphasis on research that’s both analytically rigorous and practically relevant

A Lab Built Around Students

Student mentorship is the primary mission of the DU Sports Analytics Lab. Undergraduate and graduate students work closely with faculty on active research projects, gaining experience in:

Data collection and cleaning
Statistical modeling and programming
Research design and collaboration
Communicating insights to academic and professional audiences

Students in the lab develop highly transferable quantitative and analytical skills, while also building portfolios that prepare them for careers in sports analytics, data science, consulting, and beyond

Research Impact and Partnerships

The lab’s work is designed to contribute meaningfully to academic scholarship while remaining closely connected to real-world applications. Faculty and students present research at national conferences and pursue partnerships with sports organizations and data providers, creating opportunities for applied learning and professional exposure

Interested in learning more or getting involved?

Get Involved

The DU Sports Analytics Lab welcomes:

Undergraduate and graduate students interested in sports, data, and analytics
Faculty collaborators from across disciplines
Industry and organizational partners interested in research collaboration

Sports Analytics RFI

Interdisciplinary by Design

The lab is jointly supported by faculty from:

Business Information & Analytics (Daniels College of Business)
Computer Science (Ritchie School of Engineering & Computer Science)

This multidisciplinary structure allows the lab to approach sports analytics problems from multiple perspectives and welcome students and collaborators from across the university