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Major Insight Episode 33 The Major League Potential of Connecting Business and Sport Analytics

Caroline Brega

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Data is completely transforming the way we watch and play sports, and Caroline Brega is interested in how this “analytics revolution” connects her knowledge of business and her passion for sports.

Outside the classroom, Caroline has worked with the Columbus Blue Jackets as part of Miami University’s inaugural Sport Analytics Summer Academy, and she was selected by Major League Baseball to be a part of its Society for American Baseball Research. On this episode, she also talks about how her penchant for problem-solving helped provide a pathway forward.

Featured Majors:

Finance

Spot Leadership and Management (SLAM)

Featured Organizations or Internships:

  • NCAA Softball Player Performance & Scouting Analytics Intern

  • Sport Analytics Summer Academy

  • Women in Sport Leadership club

  • MLB Society for American Baseball Research

Career Clusters:

Economics and Data Analytics

Accounting and Financial Services

Music: “Only Knows” by Broke For Free

Read the transcript

Intro Speaker Male:

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast by the host and guests may or may not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Miami University.

Intro Speaker Female:

I am going into my last semester of chemical engineering.

Intro Speaker Male:

I'm a senior journalism major.

Intro Speaker Female:

And I'm minoring in supply chain and operations management.

Intro Speaker Male:

I'm a biochemistry major.

Intro Speaker Male:

Classes are going great. Extracurriculars are going great.

Intro Speaker Female:

I'm an RA on campus.

Intro Speaker Male:

I'm thriving.

Jason Meggyesy:

Hi, I'm Jason Meggyesy. And this is Major Insight. This is the podcast where we talk college life with amazing students about how to find your place and purpose on campus.

Today data is completely transforming the way we watch and play sports, and Caroline Brega is interested in how this analytics revolution connects her knowledge of finance and her passion for sports. In addition to finance, Caroline also studies sport leadership and management, otherwise known as SLAM. Outside the classroom Caroline is a player performance and scouting analyst for Miami University's softball and research analytics team, and she was just selected by Major League Baseball to be a part of its Society for American Baseball Research. Caroline, how are you doing?

Caroline Brega:

Good, how are you?

Jason Meggyesy:

I'm doing well, I'm doing well. So just introduce yourself to everybody real quick.

Caroline Brega:

Sure. My name is Caroline Brega, I'm a senior finance major. I'm also studying sport leadership and management and sport analytics. I'm originally from right outside New York City, and I came here, Miami U is not actually not my first choice. So glad I came, I've had so many amazing opportunities outside the classroom that I'm really excited to share.

Jason Meggyesy:

Cool. So let's back it up before you came to Miami. Growing up, how were sports a part of your life? When did you start to develop a love for sport?

Caroline Brega:

I started playing softball right when I learned to walk, my parents put me in little league. I remember I was the smallest girl out there, and really quickly I decided that I wanted to be a pitcher. So I played softball from the time that I joined in elementary school all the way through high school. So that's where I started my sports journey, and I want to continue it into my professional career.

Jason Meggyesy:

Awesome. Did you ever think about playing sports at the next level after high school?

Caroline Brega:

I did. I was definitely prioritizing my academics, I was looking for a school that had a little bit of both. But I eventually ended up choosing Miami just because of, like I mentioned, the experiences in the classroom that I would get here that I never thought I could find anywhere else.

Jason Meggyesy:

Take us to that point in your senior year, talk to me about that college search experience. Were there other schools you were looking at? How did you end up at Miami? That kind of thing.

Caroline Brega:

Absolutely. I was looking all over the country, honestly. I wasn't limiting myself to a certain geographic area. I knew I wanted a balance between athletics and academics. It was a very hard transition for me coming from New York to Ohio, because I was the only one from my high school to ever come here. I didn't know a single person when I got on campus. But for me, I viewed that as a challenge and something that I knew once I overcame I would make the most amazing friends and have the best experience here. So I definitely think that it was a really great experience for me to come out of my comfort zone. I never would have if I'd stayed in New York.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah, got you. So did you know what you wanted when you first arrived?

Caroline Brega:

Looking back, I did not know at all what I wanted. I think I've changed every decision I've made since freshman year. I came in as a finance major. I'm still a finance major obviously, but being from New York I thought I wanted to work on Wall Street or do investments and financial planning, things like that. But I quickly changed my mind because I wanted to be involved in more outside of finance. I wanted to be a part of a bigger initiative. And I found that in sports. I got really heavily involved with the SLAM department early in my sophomore year, and that's when I met the professors that guided me along the way and the other students in classes that I was really drawn to. And that's how I decided to go with sports.

Jason Meggyesy:

So what helped you, what was that moment where you're like, "Oh, this is what I'm starting to gear towards," and getting away from the more finance stuff?

Caroline Brega:

Yeah. So I went on a field trip actually with Dr. Chase and Dr. Beissel to the Columbus Blue Jackets arena in Columbus. And that was a sports analytics hockey conference. And that's when I realized, "Wow, this is something that I'm really interested in." I'm a good problem solver and I'm creative in solving problems, so that's where I realized, "Oh, I can use this skill set and be successful in this career." And that's the first place that I noticed that, wow, I could pursue a career in sport analytics and I think I'd be successful at it.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. So for those that don't know, because I feel like paying attention to sports now you hear the word analytics getting thrown around all the time. And to me, all I know about analytics is I hear the word and then it's like, "Oh, this basketball player should take this shot instead of this shot." But what actually is analytics, for those who don't know?

Caroline Brega:

There's a lot of different aspects to analytics in sports. A big portion of it is actually business analytics. So they're making decisions based on revenue, you could say, setting optimal ticket prices for section three of MetLife Stadium. So that's a big portion with sponsorship and revenue. And then there's also the player performance side. So you're making decisions on the field, relaying those decisions down to the coaches, and then hopefully they make the optimal choice to help the team win. There's a lot of different aspects. You think about the data that's collected, there's so much data that people don't have time to look at. So they're always, it's a very emerging and upcoming field and they're always looking for people with the skill set to evaluate that data and create visuals and communicate results.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. And how have you been able to apply your creativity and problem solving to data analytics?

Caroline Brega:

So I have a position with the Miami softball team, and I'm a player performance and scouting analyst. And basically we were the first group of students to embark on that journey. So that was challenging, to create my own path and figure out what the coach wanted and what was successful, what would be successful over time to help the athletes and the coaches make the best decisions to ultimately win games.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. What specific things were you doing for them, and how did that directly translate to the performance on the field? Or what results did you guys find?

Caroline Brega:

So yeah, this team has been super successful since implementing our analytics team. And last year we actually ended up winning the MAC. Most of the credit goes to the athletes, but I like to think that our analytics had some part in their success. So we ultimately ended up getting software called Catapult Thunder, and it's very cool because a lot of the major league teams actually use it. And basically what it is is, it's a user interface on a computer and it'll show you a strike zone. And basically what we do is we collect pitch by pitch data, tracking every pitch of every game for the entire season, whether it's a strike, a ball, a foul, the result of the pitch, the speed. We have radar guns behind the plate.

Caroline Brega:

And we collect all of that data and then we evaluate it on a game by game basis or a season long basis. So what we're doing is we're basically looking for trends between teams, within the players. What is their swing like? Do they have a weak spot in the strike zone that we can capitalize on? So if we find that in our scouting documents, we show the coach, who then shows our pitchers in film that, "Hey, look, this girl, she can't hit in the upper inside corner. Why don't we throw it to her there?" Insights like that that we can use to our competitive advantage.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. Very cool, very cool.

Caroline Brega:

Really the softball team was first where I applied the things that I learned from the classroom to my professional work environment, I would say. I think it's one thing to do remote learning and reiterate terms from a textbook, but it's another thing to be able to actually apply it, and it's another level of knowledge. And that definitely helped me with interviews and things like that. A lot of the people that I've been talking to want to see research and real world experience.

Jason Meggyesy:

Allows you to speak on a lot of things in those interviews.

Caroline Brega:

Right, a lot of things that a lot of people don't speak about. We're the only team in the MAC that's doing any kind of analytics for softball. So it's been extremely helpful for us as a team, but also helpful for me, being able to start that experience from the ground up and being able to talk about it.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah, I don't think people realize the value of the hands-on experiences. When they come to school they think it's all about the classroom. And to a certain point the classroom is important, but it's really about getting your hands dirty with actual work. And I think you can attest to that. So I noticed you're involved in Women in Sport Leadership as well as the women's collegiate baseball team here in Miami. So just talk to me about how those organizations, what they've done for you and helped shape your experience here in Miami.

Caroline Brega:

Sure. I'll go way back to the beginning.

Jason Meggyesy:

Cool.

Caroline Brega:

So sophomore year, early in the fall when I decided that SLAM was where I wanted to concentrate my efforts, I went to class and I noticed that in each of my classes maybe there were five women. And that was something that didn't really sit well with me. I was like, "I'm so passionate about this. Why aren't other women at Miami potentially pursuing a career in sports?"

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah.

Caroline Brega:

So we decided, Dr. Chase and I decided that we should create a club. This is Women in Sport Leadership, where women can get involved in sport outside of the classroom at Miami. So we do a lot of volunteering opportunities, mentorship opportunities with our upperclassmen for our underclassmen. We're working on doing some professional trips to the Blue Jackets and leveraging the networks that our upperclassmen have created to create opportunities for the underclassmen. And overall we've just seen, Dr. Chase has mentioned that she's seen an increase in engagement in women in SLAM. So that's been really rewarding, and it's only our second semester up and running. So already being able to see those results has been amazing.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah, no, that's awesome. I think a lot of people don't realize the position that they're in to help other people.

Caroline Brega:

Absolutely.

Jason Meggyesy:

And I think being able to give back like you are doing is so awesome.

Caroline Brega:

Thank you, I appreciate that.

Jason Meggyesy:

Talk to me a little bit about your time with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Caroline Brega:

So what we did, it was called the Sport Analytics Summer Academy, it's through the SLAM department, where we took three courses in data visualization, coding, technical skills. And we got to work with an internal partner in Miami athletics and an external partner. For me it was the Columbus Blue Jackets. And basically what they wanted to solve was, they had a lot of customer turnover. So between season to season they were struggling with maintaining loyalty among their fan base. So they came to us with tons of data from like three years, millions of rows of data. And we had to sort through all of that in three, four weeks and come back with insights for them that they could use within their front office to make business decisions and ultimately solve that problem of customer loyalty and turnover. It was an amazing experience to apply the things I've learned throughout my time at Miami to a real life situation, which is ultimately what I want to do when I graduate.

Jason Meggyesy:

No, it seems like you've gained a lot from doing all these things with data analytics. But on the other side, it seems like it can be overwhelming at times. So what are just the challenges that you've faced while working in data analytics?

Caroline Brega:

Absolutely. I think the first challenge you see right off the bat, how do you generate insights from millions of rows of data in a couple weeks? That's the biggest challenge. And I think once you overcome that and gain a little bit of confidence in yourself that you've learned a lot, you know a lot of these technical skills, and you can do it, ultimately with a group it makes it a lot easier. But I think once you overcome that specific challenge, it makes it a lot easier to sit down, look at the data rationally, and think about, how can I generate the best insights for this organization?

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. Cool. So here in five to 10 years, where do you hope to see yourself? What kind of things do you want to be doing?

Caroline Brega:

I'm confident that I want to work in Major League Baseball, specifically in data analytics but I'm not sure whether that's business or optimizing player performance, kind of like I do with the softball team. So I've just been reaching out to baseball operations departments, business analytics departments. Ultimately I want to be an analyst and making the same kind of decisions that I'm making now, but in a professional sports organization. I'm not limiting myself to any specific geographic location, wherever life takes me life takes me. So that's where I'm looking to go, and just networking as much as I can and trying to build connections that'll help get me to that goal.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah, I found out that networking is the name of the game.

Caroline Brega:

Absolutely.

Jason Meggyesy:

Going into the senior year.

Caroline Brega:

Especially in sports.

Jason Meggyesy:

Oh yeah, definitely.

Caroline Brega:

Yes.

Jason Meggyesy:

Definitely, it's all about who you know, where you can get your foot in and get the start, but it seems like you have a great roadmap ahead of you. So when was that moment that you feel like you got your footing in school? Everything was kind of going the way that you maybe not wanted it to, but it felt good, it felt like you were making the right decisions.

Caroline Brega:

Yeah. I think for me, the first experience I had I mentioned was with the Columbus Blue Jackets and their hockey analytics conference. So at that point I knew I was interested in sport analytics, wasn't exactly sure if it was for me because I had so much to learn. And then I got involved with SLAM, and Dr. Chase and Dr. Beissel had mentioned how up and coming sport analytics is and that the skills that I've used in their classes and the things they've seen me do outside the classroom could really cater to that and I could find success there. So it was from their motivation and encouragement that I decided to keep getting involved on campus. And ultimately that led to me attending a major league baseball conference with 40 other upcoming college graduates and getting involved in the industry that way. It led to my work with the softball team and ultimately where I am now trying to get involved in Major League Baseball in any way that I can.

Jason Meggyesy:

Yeah. So you said you're from just outside of New York, correct?

Caroline Brega:

Yes.

Jason Meggyesy:

So are you a Mets or Yankees fan?

Caroline Brega:

I am a Yankees fan.

Jason Meggyesy:

Okay.

Caroline Brega:

Very happy with the way the series went this weekend. I was very excited. I might have screamed a little too loud and lost my voice.

Jason Meggyesy:

Basketball, football fan at all?

Caroline Brega:

Football, I'm a Giants fan.

Jason Meggyesy:

Okay.

Caroline Brega:

My family, I grew up die hard Giants fan. My grandpa has had season tickets since he was little.

Jason Meggyesy:

That's awesome. I'm a Browns fan. So we're coming out of ... our time's now.

Caroline Brega:

I can't complain.

Jason Meggyesy:

No, that's what I'm saying. All right. So you're coming to the end of your college journey, obviously so much has happened and so many things that you wouldn't have even expected to happen have happened. If you could just go back to freshman year and sit down with yourself for an hour, what kind of things would you tell yourself?

Caroline Brega:

I've never struggled with self-confidence, I've always been a confident person. I always believed that I knew I would end up where I was meant to be. So it wouldn't necessarily be tell myself that I can do it, because I always knew that I could. I always had the drive and determination to get to where I wanted to be. But I would tell myself, more so in a social environment, don't forget to have fun. Don't forget to step outside of your comfort zone. Because it's so easy to get lost in professional things and your schoolwork. But I really think there is a genuine balance that I would encourage myself to find as I progressed through my college career.

Jason Meggyesy:

Caroline Brega is a finance major at Miami University. After graduation, she plans to use data and analytics to improve player performance in the world of professional sports. 

And thank you for listening to Major Insight. If you enjoyed this podcast, share with your friends or anyone interested in navigating college life. Many more episodes are now available wherever you get your podcast.

SHOW NOTES:

Featured Majors: 

Finance

Spot Leadership and Management (SLAM)

Featured Organizations and Internships:

  • NCAA Softball Player Performance & Scouting Analytics Intern

  • Sport Analytics Summer Academy

  • Women in Sport Leadership club

  • MLB Society for American Baseball Research

Faculty Shout Outs:

  • Melissa Chase, professor of sport leadership and management

  • Adam Beissel, assistant professor of sport leadership and management

Career Clusters:

Economics and Data Analytics

Accounting and Financial Services