MS in Sport Analytics
Sport Performance Emphasis
Master’s Degrees | Sport Analytics | Sport Performance
Online M.S. in Sport Analytics, Sport Performance Emphasis
Performance shapes many aspects of a sports team’s season. Doing well on the field or court can translate to increased fan engagement and attendance, and injuries can remove key players from the lineup, impacting the number of points scored and how frequently viewers tune in.
From an outside perspective, this network can feel arbitrary and variable, with many external factors coming into play. The sports industry examines these sources to better predict individual and team performance, design more effective strength and conditioning programs, and monitor injury recovery.
The University of Mississippi’s online Master of Science in Sport Analytics with a Sport Performance emphasis equips you with the skills to use diverse structured and unstructured sources to draw insights and chart how professional and collegiate teams train and how these outcomes can influence a season.
You’ll start with an intensive core covering data analytics basics for measuring, evaluating, and interpreting data. You’ll then take three emphasis courses that highlight the power of data in improving and tracking human performance for athletic organizations.
All courses are structured around an eight-week accelerated format. Ole Miss Online offers rolling admission with five (5) academic start dates per year.
Why Earn a Master’s Degree in Sport Performance?
Given the domino effect of injuries and other performance issues, the sports industry has started honing in on training programs and injury prevention. Efforts now start at pre-collegiate levels and extend through how professional teams prepare for the season ahead.
Technology, particularly acquiring, analyzing, and drawing insights from disparate data, has started to refine and customize strength and conditioning efforts. A more thorough picture of a player’s performance can help prime them for recruitment and predict how well they’ll do in meeting team objectives.
The Sport Performance emphasis promotes data analytics as both a predictive tool and factor in reducing injury rates for collegiate and professional entities. As organizations attempt to make team performance less arbitrary, sport performance analytics help with:
Curriculum
Coursework will prepare professionals with strong practical skills in analytics, focusing on measurement and statistical modeling and big data analytics in sport. The program combines academic, practical, and research‐based skills to allow students to develop their knowledge of sport performance analytics.
The 30-credit-hour curriculum is designed to be completed in 12 months, though students also have the option to complete a part-time course progression and are encouraged to complete the degree within two years of enrollment. The online M.S. in Sport Analytics uses a two-part format.
Review all courses required for the Sport Performance emphasis
Core courses connect you with essential data analytics competencies. You’ll explore descriptive and inferential statistics, measurement and evaluation tools, predictive analysis, R and other languages, data mining, machine learning, and quantitative and qualitative research design methods.
Then, six credit hours of emphasis courses angle this skill set toward sports performance applications, including in exercise science and assessment contexts. You’ll learn about:
- Strength and conditioning practices, theories, techniques, and programming
- Sport physiology and related data-powered monitoring systems
- Methods for injury prevention in sports and evidence-based risk prevention strategies
Careers
Data is transforming our world, including how we predict, assess, and monitor athletic performance. Promote these possibilities in a career that resonates with your interests and skill set. The Sport Performance emphasis positions you for roles in exercise science, training, recruitment, and injury prevention.
Potential opportunities exist in:
- Strength and conditioning
- Predicting human performance
- Sports and exercise science
- Collegiate and professional sports organizations
- Sports and fitness programming
- Allied health professions
The sports industry is predicted to see 15.6% more data storage and management positions. This pattern intersects with and enriches an above-average demand for exercise physiologists and fitness trainers and instructors.
Admission
Picture a career where you’re designing or refining strength and conditioning programs for athletic organizations or tracking players’ performance.
Prepare to Empower Athletes and Teams Through Data with a Master’s in Sport Performance
Guide player and team performance with an online Master’s in Sports Analytics with a Sport Performance emphasis from Ole Miss. For questions about the program, contact Graduate Enrollment Manager Megan Black at meblack@olemiss.edu to set up an appointment to talk more about the program, your interests and needs, and your future.