Following several years of working with students on sports analytics projects, the Sports Analytics and Statistics Laboratory (SASL) at UVA was established in 2020 by Department of Statistics professors Jordan Rodu and Jeff Holt, who serve as co-directors. In Fall 2024, SASL has 48 student interns working on projects sourced from UVA Athletics, sports analytics competitions (NFL Big Data Bowl, NFLPA competition), and projects initialized within SASL.

Technological advances have created an explosion of complex data spanning multiple statistical domains (high dimensional time series, network, and spatiotemporal data to name a few) but have left a dearth of statistical methods that are critical for analysis.  In addition, demand for statisticians in the sports domain has dramatically increased due to a recognition of the contributions of statistical analysis to both sports strategy and performance (analytics) and injury prevention and recovery.

SASL faculty work closely with departments across grounds at UVA to identify and fill gaps in statistical theory and methodology that will help advance the state of the art in sports related fields.  In addition, the Department of Statistics (in collaboration with SASL) offers courses in sports analytics and coordinates sports-related projects that are suitable for students at the undergraduate, masters, and PhD levels.  Through high-quality collaboration and education opportunities SASL produces graduates who are highly competitive in job markets related to sports analytics and statistics, with several SASL alums currently working for teams in the NFL, MLB, and NBA, as well as other sports-related organizations.  

We are pleased to welcome you to SASL.  Feel free to contact us with any questions!