Hello. Welcome to this course in sports law and data analytics. As you may know. This is the second in a series of course is investigating the intersection of the combination of sports law, sports management and data analytics. I am Nellie Drew, I am the director of the UB Center for the Advancement Sport and Professor of Practice in Sports law. Joining me today are Gerry Meehan who is the associate director of sports analytics. And Dr. Bruce Pittman who is the director of the UB Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. Welcome. Mr. Meehan. Would you like to take it away? >> Thanks Professor Drew. I'm excited to be involved in this in particular because it really does bring out a discussion and an examination of management functioning. And on a seasonal basis with the component of data analytics added to it. Going back to the management focus of these programs, we start with the basic premise of winning games. Making the playoffs and maybe competing for the championship. You use sports data analytics and many different functions. You use it in player acquisitions, trades, drafts and free agency. You use it in player retention which includes signing players arbitrations and basically again signing free agents if they're your own free agents. And finally team performance assessments, you've got to consider the value of the data that's used to make these decisions. By that I mean not all data applies to every all particular players data might be applied differently to offensive players and defensive players. So as we've heard in prior courses it's important to eliminate the noise and use, what's relevant jury decision making. Any child and most pro sports things produce what's called a reserve list. Which is a visual display of all the assets of the organizations, the player assets. After that it's up to the clubs to create their own programs. Generally through what I call rosters and depth chart analysis. Rosters and depth charts analysis can be delivered in a number of ways and prior to the modern age, which we call this an analytics age. It was done mostly through paperwork and Excel spreadsheets. But now with the advent of the internet and the speed with which and information is shared. There are some great assets out there on the internet that are used very effectively, one of which is a company called CapFriendly.com. The other that's commonly used at the Hockey-Reference.com I find cap friendly very friendly because it does give you the entire range of information. You need to take a look at a team including your own and the beauty of it is all 32. Now, 32 teams are displayed every single player on the roster is indicated their draft status. How they got there, whether by trade or draft, their contract history or the month they're making their statistics both traditional and advanced statistics. So it's a great tool for roster management, which I'm sure we'll get into. But I'll ask Dr. Pittman to make a comment on that. >> Sure Gerry. The question about how do you build your roster under the constraint of the salary cap is a really interesting one. There's lots and lots of moving parts here. If you make a trade, you're obviously going to be restructuring your salary profile and where you fit under the cap. Or maybe a player, you may be able to restructure the contract and reduce the amount that you're liable under a salary cap and pay this fellow in the out years. Certainly that's a common trick. So the question becomes, as you think about your roster, it's not just who are the best players. But the question becomes who are the best players that we can afford. And then that's the second part of that question becomes opens up other possibilities, other doors, making trades, thinking about other positions, also. >> Great points. And when you think about this whole process of management, decision making and the use of sports data and analytics. And in fact the legal issues that Professor Drew will get into as we proceed. It's important to think about when these decisions are made and I call it the calendar or seasonal approach. All pros, team sports and even non team sports, individual sports are based on a seasonal approaches. And in season and out season time of year for different kinds of activities. We'll use hockey as the example for now. And basically what we're talking about a calendar that defines the timing of management responsibilities and required player responses. Efforts are aligned along three articulated objectives which we mentioned player acquisition, player attention and team coach assessment. Four calendar segments against each with clearly understood management functions leading to decision making. These are mostly defined by the collective bargaining agreement, the standard players contract. And the memorandum of that are that result from negotiations and revisions to the CBA and the standard players contract. Maybe I'll let professor do make a couple of comments about that now. >> Yes, so, many of our students may very well have experienced this in their own lives. Live your life according to what your obligations and responsibilities are in season and offseason, right? But what you may not realize is that the calendar of events that you're responding to is in fact the result of oftentimes protracted labor negotiations. The critical date calendar that Mr. Meehan is referring to is actually an exhibit exhibit 15 to the current NHLPA collective bargaining agreement. And that sets forth these various time periods which set the framework, the calendar within which all of these activities that will be discussing occur. >> Now the critical dates calendar is augmented by what I call an events calendar. And the reason we'll include that in our discussions is because it's not just the critical dates that are mandated by the CBA. That required decision making. It's events that occur throughout the year that are not specifically critical updates. But they're all they also called for an analysis and activities related to those events. For example, the World Junior Championship is not a critical date but it's a big event. Because that's where clubs and scouts and managers convene and things may happen. The annual All Star Game is an event. That event is also a culmination of a group of people that include owners, general managers and players directors of player personnel and players. Often a point where there are collective bargaining discussions being held. So we'll get into the events as well as the critical date calendar. But the important thing to remember is a critical day calendar is critical time is of the essence. There are no excuses for non compliance. Even the so called broken down fax machine of years gone by is not an excuse. Missed deadlines lead to loss of player rights and immediate obviously scoring from the world of sports. So it's important that we think of these not just as important dates. They are essential to protecting your club's assets.
