PHOENIX, AZ, March 8, 2013 – A team of students from the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management of the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies (NYU-SCPS) placed first in the Diamond Dollars Case Competition – presented by YarcData – at the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Analytics Conference on Friday. The four-person team won the undergraduate school division of the competition on the strength of its quantitative analysis and projections of the type of contract that a young, upcoming star player should receive today.
The team members, all students in the NYU-SCPS Tisch Center’s B.S. in Sports Management program, are: Hunter Gilbertson of Lake Forest, Illinois; Raef Cogan of Beverly Hills, California; Michael Rappaport of Woodside, New York; and James Goldstein of Oak Park, California.
The Diamond Dollars Case Competition is the first national competition of its kind focused on baseball analytics. In two competitions – one for graduate and professional schools and another for undergraduates – students from across the country prepare presentations and analyses of the types of operational issues that a team’s general manager and staff confront over the course of a season.
“We are extremely proud of our NYU-SCPS Tisch Center students for exemplifying their skills and knowledge,” said Wayne G. McDonnell, Jr., clinical associate professor of sports management at the NYU-SCPS Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management. “The SABR Analytics Conference is just one of the many extraordinary opportunities in which our students are involved that teach them the business of baseball.”
The NYU-SCPS Tisch Center team competed against undergraduate teams from Cornell University, St. John Fisher College, and two teams from Tufts University. Each team was given the opportunity to present their analysis and recommendations to a group of judges which included Major League Baseball front office executives.
“Our students really took advantage of this incredible opportunity at SABR to demonstrate their savvy analytic talents to MLB professionals and baseball industry insiders,” said McDonnell. “It’s also a great way for these students to differentiate themselves from the thousands who aspire to become baseball executives.”
NYU-SCPS Tisch Center Undergraduate Students Win Diamond Dollars Case Competition at SABR Analytics Conference
About the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies
Established in 1934, NYU-SCPS (scps.nyu.edu) is one of NYU’s several degree-granting schools and colleges, each with a unique academic profile. The reputation of NYU-SCPS arises from its place as the NYU home for study and applied research related to key knowledge-based industries where the New York region leads globally. This is manifest in the School’s diverse graduate, undergraduate, and continuing education programs in fields such as Real Estate and Construction Management; Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management; Global Affairs; Philanthropy and Fundraising; Graphic Communications Media, Publishing, and Digital Arts; Human Capital Management, Marketing, and Public Relations; with complementary strengths in the Liberal and Allied Arts; Translation and Interpreting; Management and Information Technology; and Finance and Taxation. More than 100 distinguished full-time faculty members collaborate with an exceptional cadre of practitioner/adjunct faculty and lecturers to create vibrant professional and academic networks that attract nearly 5,000 degree-seeking students from around the globe. In addition, the School fulfills the recurrent continuing higher education needs of local and professional communities, as evidenced by 55,000 annual enrollments in individual courses, specialized certificate programs, conferences, workshops, seminars, and public events. The School’s community is enriched by more than 25,000 degree-holding alumni worldwide, many of whom serve as mentors, guest speakers, and advisory board members.