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Sports Innovation Institute IU Indianapolis

Sports Innovation Podcast – Nick Elam

Posted on by SII Team

Dr. Nick Elam is a Ball State professor focusing on educational leadership. But if you watched the NBA All-Star game this season you may have heard or seen his namesake trending on Twitter. The Elam Ending, a term coined by The Basketball Tournament, an annual $2 million prized basketball tournament on ESPN, is a way to make the ending of a game more competitive as opposed to intentional fouling to try and drag out the clock and hope the other team misses free throws.

In this episode of the SII podcast, Dr. Elam shares the 15 year journey of his idea to improve the game of basketball and where he thinks it will go from here. Host Travis Smith asks Dr. Elam’s opinions on new trends in innovating sports, such as NASCAR’s stage formula and the XFL’s new kickoff and extra point formats.

 

   

Senior Capstone Tackles National Shortage of Sports Officials – Fall 2019

Posted on by Geoff Sherman

by Kyle Mechelin

A nationwide shortage of sports officials has grown to become a serious threat to sports at all levels. Athletic organizations have felt the pressure of finding the minimum number of officials to staff contests. The past years have repeatedly seen youth and interscholastic sporting events cancelled or postponed due to the lack of a full officiating crew. Shortages of officials threatens the entire ecosystem of youth sports.

Under the direction of David Pierce, Ph.D., IU Indianapolis’ sports management capstone class changed its usual approach in response to the officiating shortage. Instead of consulting with a local sports organization to help it overcome a specific issue affecting its business, the fall 2019 cohort sought a deeper understanding behind the root causes of the officiating crisis and created solutions to increase stability within the American sports ecosystem. Over the course of the semester, students were able to find key insights and statistics that lie at the root of the shortage.

The Facts
The population of officials is growing smaller and older. The average age of officials in the 1970s was 21 years old, but, in 2018, the average has increased to 43 years of age (DeNisco, 2018). The current state of officiating is pushing young people away from the job. However, the issue goes beyond the aging population of officials. Retention is dropping at a dangerous rate, with 70 percent of officials quitting the profession within three years of starting (Seifert, 2019). Officials are leaving the job every day, and the margin of retention for new officials is resulting in the shortage.

Across the nation, states are seeing a recession in the population of officials year after year. Michigan saw its high school official population fall roughly 23 percent over a ten-year period from 2009 to 2019 (Lacy, 2018). From 2010 through 2018, the total number of high school officials in Florida dropped by 30 percent (Barnhouse, 2018). Indiana has seen an eight percent drop in officials over the past four years. Across the country, each state is showing an annual decline in total sports officials.

Human-Centered Design
Students used human-centered design to uncover the key problem spaces in the recruitment and retention of officials.

  • First, the students engaged in contextual inquiry observing officials in their game-day environment and then interviewed Indiana-based officials from different levels of play and across sports. These interviews revealed several key pain points that were repeatedly discussed by the interviewees as factors that led either themselves or their peers to walk away from the job. These pain points included verbal abuse from fans and coaches, the flawed system used to assign officials to games, gaps in training and education, and poor support from the organizations that employ the officials.
  • Second, students engaged in facilitated ideation sessions to develop creative and innovative solutions to the problems. With a greater understanding of the shortage of officials and empathy-based thinking, the students began the ideation process to create solutions with the needs of the official at its core.

The Solutions


Pivotal Moments
Our solution, Pivotal Moments, creates an opportunity for kids in disadvantaged neighborhoods to pursue their passion for sports and stay involved in sports past their playing days through officiating. The first prototype will be launched with Brookside Community Development Corporation in the Indianapolis near-eastside Brookside neighborhood. The program teaches students the essential skills and mechanics to officiate basketball and futsal, paired with learning conflict resolution skills from the nearby Peace Learning Center. After completing the training, middle and high school students will be paired with leagues and churches in the surrounding area to officiate games and earn money. The implementation of this program not only helps kids stay connected to their passion for sports, but also allows the officiating industry to gain more qualified young officials to help combat the current decline of eligible referees.

It’s the Person, Not the Stripes
Verbal abuse is a major factor that pushes sports officials to leave the profession. The large number of officials leaving the field each year is putting a strain on sports in America. The goal of this team was to get people to see the person that is behind the calls of the game. With this goal in mind, It’s the Person, Not the Stripes was developed. It’s the Person, Not the Stripes is an empathy marketing campaign with the objective of showing what officials endure by using firsthand interviews, day-in-the-life videos, ways to look at officials differently, and salute-to-service drives. To protect the future of sport, accentuating the humanity of these men and women can aid in minimizing the behavior that is detrimental to officials.

Eyes and Stripes
Rookie officials (first and second year) are struggling to find meaningful and efficient ways to build confidence in their ability to officiate their games. Rookies feel they are thrown into games with lack of preparation and training, which leads to a decline in their confidence. The main goal of this team was to provide a unique training experience for rookie officials by utilizing semi-immersive and augmented reality game simulation through the officials’ point of view. The result of this group’s analysis was Eyes & Stripes. The idea of this interactive website is to immerse the trainee in a first-person point-of-view along with in-game intense sound. By providing the first-person point-of-view and environmental factors, a game-like atmosphere will be generated for the official to experience. Being prepared for what happens in the game environment gives a boost of confidence in which officials are more likely to return to work.

Ref-n-Motion
Ref-n-Motion will expose students to officiating at a young age by showing the benefits that can build excitement behind officiating as a potential career path. Ref-n-Motion is a curricular addition that brings the profession to the students. Through physical education curriculums and eventual high school athletic association adoption, the students will be exposed to the profession throughout their academic careers. Students who show an interest and want to enter the profession will also have the chance to extend their exposure into college through an academic minor. During college, these students will have the opportunity to become licensed officials and learn the business side of the profession. Through Ref-n-Motion, the younger generation will be heavily impacted and be more likely to fill the shoes of the older officials who are hanging up their stripes and whistles.

Between the Lines
Between the Lines has built a platform where officials can document their game history and build their own digital officiating resume giving officials a way to market themselves to recruiting services and assignors. The platform will be an extension of the already existing platform, Silbo. This new feature will aid in eliminating pressures felt by officials when trying to create rapport with the assignor. Assignors will only be responsible for scheduling high school sports and will use Silbo’s new feature to find qualified officials for those games. The feature will create transparency between the assignor, recruiter and officials leading to a deeper trust and authentic relationships between the three.

Giving Referees and Officials Wellness, Training, and Health (GROWTH)
GROWTH provides a 360-degree wellness program for officials to enhance their mental and physical well-being. This program alleviates major pain points through specialized care and community creation programs. Specialized care provides referees with access to high-level support from physical and mental healthcare experts. The community creation programs feature mentorships, group meetings, and monthly conferences. These are all targeted to giving officials an organic community and a healthy support system of peers. This program is designed to be easily adopted and implemented by sports governing bodies that are interested in protecting their future ability to host sporting events.

Two-way Mutual Rating System
As an example to the nationwide problem, the IHSAA currently has an archaic system to rate officials that leads to unfair assignments and causes officials to leave the profession. The Two-way Mutual Rating System is a method that will resolve that problem. This new system allows officials to receive feedback from coaches, athletic directors, fans, peers, and IHSAA evaluators. Officials can also rate the school based on crowd actions, facility conditions, and treatment of officials to help prepare other officials who may be assigned to games at a specific school in the future. It ensures that officials are satisfied with the amount of feedback they receive and provides them with a system to advance to the elite games in a fair and appropriate way — through their performance.

REFPoV
Most fans typically only see games from a broadcast or elevated seat view, but REFPoV provides users with an entirely different perspective to show them what the officials see and how hard their job can be from their point of view. REFPoV can function not only as an educational tool, but also as a recruitment tool to expose users to officiating as a potential career, as well as an improvement tool for referees themselves to use to perfect their craft and hone their skills without worrying about the pressure of making in-game calls. REFPoV will ultimately aim to bring everyone in the world of sports together, help generate a greater sense of empathy for referees, and permanently change the perception of sports officiating.

References
Barnhouse, W. (2018, September 20). High school sports struggling with shortage of officials.

DeNisco, A. (2018, September 28). Referee shortage hamstrings high school sports.

Lacy, E. (2018, October 11). Why referee shortage may have long-term consequences for high school, youth sports.

Seifert, K. (2019, June 19). A ‘crisis mode’ at all levels: How technology put officials in a tough spot.

SII Engages in Community Learning Innovation Sprint with Fair Oaks Farms

Posted on by Geoff Sherman

by The SII Team

In a cross-university collaboration, the IU Indianapolis Sports Innovation Institute engaged in a design innovation sprint with Fair Oaks Farms in Fair Oaks, IN in the fall of 2019.

Twelve sport management students from three universities set out to answer the question “How do we use sport and physical activity to get users to stay at Fair Oaks Farms for multiple days?”. In teams of three with mentoring from faculty, the students engaged in a micro-immersive experience in community engaged learning.

After analyzing what was going on at Fair Oaks Farms, the students immersed themselves in the property and drilled down to find the problem before pitching their solutions to Fair Oaks Farms.

SII works with IU Sports Properties on IU Football sponsor evaluation

Posted on by Geoff Sherman

by The SII Team

Dr. Pierce led a team of student researchers to complete a sponsorship effectiveness evaluation for IU Sports Properties. The students collected data at two IU football games. Amassing a dataset of over 500 responses, students analyzed the data to provide IU Sports Properties with results on brand recognition and effectiveness in marketing through IU football. Students learned how to collect data, analyze data in SPSS, and visualize data in Tableau.

Be Bold. Be Smart. & Build Relationships.

Posted on by ianpark

It seems like a lot of us college kids experience a pretty similar feeling come end of Junior year. We stop wondering what we are going to do after college, and begin really focusing in on it.

While I was finishing up my spring semester this year, I had just completed my Consulting Capstone course and I was feeling a bit inspired by it (Consulting Capstone). I only had two semesters left in college. I had friends who were graduating and landing jobs in their desired field, and other friends who seemed like they were always involved in something. So, I set out to earn as much experience as I could during the summer.

Senior Year

As the semester ends, a lot of the internship opportunities are open up. Naturally, once the Spring semester was ending, I decided to start applying for what felt like every internship opportunity out there. I stopped looking for internships that were strictly working for directly for a sports organization, and challenged myself to apply for a few for sport-affiliated companies.

While I was submitting dozens of applications to different companies and organizations, I landed a few extra opportunities from school. I began my work with the Sports Innovation Institute(SII) at IUPUI, as an undergrad researcher. My first project utilized the design thinking method to identify potential software and improvements that IUPUI Athletics should implement, in an effort to boost in-game attendance and overall fan engagement through their promotional efforts.

Additionally, I started working with the IUPUI Event Social Media Team. This opportunity gave me the chance to sit in the media center of the track and work the Indy Grand Prix, as well as the Indy 500 Race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway(IMS) this past May, assisting in operating their Instagram and Twitter on event days.
More recently, I received the opportunity to work with Indy Jazz Fest, posting on their behalf to wrap up the end of the Festival this year, and creating a social media strategy for them heading into next year.

By the time summer started I had lined up a full summers worth of work. While working with SII, IMS, and Jazz Fest, I continued my previous role working Game Ops with Indy Eleven, our local USL team, for the season.

Then, I got an opportunity to work with BallerTV, as a Brand Ambassador at the Nike EYBL Tournament in town, where I informed and signed up families, scouts, and coaches for BallerTV’s platform. (Arguably more exciting, it gave me a chance to see Lebron watch his son, Bronny Jr. — and his sons teammates –dominate the tournament).

Shortly after seeking out these new opportunities, I got accepted as an Events Department Intern for the Indianapolis Colts, where I got to work events, training camp, and game days (pictured right, is the Lucas Oil Stadium at 6am during setup for our first game of the season.)

Soon after, I began at a startup company called SponsorUnited, where I worked as a Sports Sponsorship Scout identifying, analyzing and recording in-house, as well as digital, sponsorship.

Finally, I ended up landing a full-time internship at a place called Techstars. Techstars is an accelerator program, run worldwide for startup companies in dozens of industries, but this would be the first ever Techstars Sports Accelerator. And, they chose to start it here in Indianapolis.

Techstars

Once I landed my internship, I researched Techstars Indy and read anything that I could find online about it. I found out a guy named Jordan Fliegel would be the MD, so I googled him. I learned about his past work, and what he was currently up to with CoachUp and Techstars. Plus, I found out he wrote a book called Coaching Up (which I then bought online and read in 2 days — you’re welcome Jordan).

A few days later, we met Jordan at his house for an orientation/rooftop cookout (this was my first clue that I was going to really enjoy this summer). During orientation, Jordan and Andrew (Techstars Indy Program Manager) ran us through what we should be expecting and what was expected of us this summer.

I remember Jordan saying two very important things:

  1. “I am telling you guys this, sincerely. If you want to work in business, this is where you want to be. It is like an accelerated MBA program as an intern. I went and got my MBA, and this summer is going to teach you more than any MBA will, if you just make the most of it.”
  2. “This is Champ, my dog, and there is BBQ Chicken Pizza in the kitchen, so please help yourself.”

Joking aside, Jordan was right and I knew it. This summer was going to be what I would make of it. I had interned other places before, and I knew what I wanted to work on and how to be an asset. I listened to every word he said, asked questions where I needed more information, and took notes to help myself be successful.

Before I knew it, I was spending days surrounded by Founders, CEO’s, & other high-level executives of million-dollar, even billion-dollar companies. I was listening to founder-stories that were intended to share some wisdom and inspiration with the current Techstars companies, along with multiple workshops about best practices in a variety of topics for startups.

To put it into context, my first job was working roofing for my neighbor. Shortly after, I started working at a Dairy Queen, and once I graduated high school, I left and became a sales associate at TJ Maxx. These were humble beginnings that never led me to believe that I would be working alongside such incredible minds. Throughout college, I was lucky enough to earn opportunities with multiple sports organizations around the city, and even so, none of these experiences taught me what Techstars taught me, or put me around the network that Techstars did in just three short months.

While at Techstars, I learned a multitude of different things from a vast amount of people, in a very short period of time. Within this time, I picked up a lot skills and knowledge that I did not have prior. However, instead of boasting about the things I am able to do now because of Techstars (trust me, I will save those for my resume), I thought that sharing three key takeaways from my experience would be more beneficial, and just inherently more interesting.

Key Takeaways:

  1. Be Bold

When I began the Techstars program, two of the guys I was working with were taking each intern out for a monthly coffee and were asking us questions about how we were doing, how the program was going, etc. We talked for a while and they eventually challenged me to set a goal for myself for the duration of the program. I came to the decision that I wanted meet with at least three different people, from different companies, outside of work each month.

One day, I went out with another intern and Co-Founder of WePlayed, Rob Ciampa. Rob is an entrepreneur/author/business speaker/pizza connoisseur (basically anything you can think of). The man is full of knowledge and one of the most sincere people I met. As we walked around the city of Indianapolis, Rob talked to us about his business journey, touched on his personal life a bit, delved into what made me and my fellow intern tick, and what ultimately brought us to Techstars.

Rob asked me what my personal brand was to which I had a bit of confusion. I wasn’t sure that I had ever really identified my brand down to one sentence. After talking to Rob for a while, he challenged me to be bold. In that moment, I wasn’t sure what exactly he meant, because I liked to think I was bold. After much consideration, I realized that Rob was telling me to put myself out there and to take a risk. (An entrepreneur advising risk. Imagine that.) He told me to go create my own brand and to create a domain to go with it. “You can always go make changes, but you have to put yourself out there first. Spend five minutes on yourself and go be bold.” he said. From that point forward, not only in the internship, but in life, I made an effort to put myself out there and to spend the extra five minutes on myself. To be bold.

  1. Be Smart

There is a tendency with our society, and probably more so our generation in particular, to get distracted by things too easily. We spend too much time looking at social media, playing games, or binge-watching our favorite series on one of our handful of streaming platforms. We are over-saturated with options that hinder our work flow.

When I experience this, I like to take a second to calmly think about where I want to be five to ten years from now, and then ask myself if what I am currently doing, is getting me closer to that goal. Then, based on my answer, I respond accordingly.

Out of the dozens of Founders and CEO’s I worked with or met, the most successful ones have surrounded themselves with like-minded people, in the sense that they are all disciplined. Scott Dorsey, the Co-founder of Exact Target, talked about the importance of Level 5 Leadership from Jim Collins’ Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t. In the book, Collins talks about ensuring that you “get the right people on the bus, get the wrong people off, then take the bus where you want. First who, then what.” If you surround yourself with a group of smart, driven people, who all have a common goal in mind, you will survive any shifts or pivot that may come your way.

3. Build Relationships

This one seems obvious, yet it still seems to be taken for granted the most. As a young professional, it is probably the most important part of starting your work in almost any industry. I learned early on, that finding a mentor is a very essential aspect of growing. I have been lucky enough to find multiple people who have taken interest in me and help me succeed, but it wasn’t by happen-stance. You have to be willing to take the first two steps to really flourish in this part. You have to be bold enough to go talk to the person who you think could really help you grow, but you also need to be smart enough to know which like-minded people are going to help you stay disciplined.

Techstars was the perfect example of how networking is essential. Techstars entire program revolves around this. Ten different companies coming together to push their companies to the next level, by collaborating with one another, meeting with dozens of mentors, who gave their insights on our company and how they might be able to help, and a social network of former/current Techstars members to reach out to. It was this “give first” mentality that really drove a lot of the progress in Techstars, and it inspired me to try and exude that same mentality within my own professional and personal life.

Moving Forward

As I am finishing up my last semester of college, I feel more prepared than ever. I know that I still have a lot to learn, and that is what I am gearing-up for each and every day. I know that as long as I keep a growth mindset, I will continue to grow and influence others along the way. So, be bold. Be smart. And build those relationships.

Sports Innovation Podcast – Cheri Bradish

Posted on by SII Team

Next up on the IUPUI Sports Innovation Institute podcast is a conversation with Dr. Cheri Bradish from Canada’s Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario. Dr. Bradish is the Director of the Future of Sport Lab, which is the focus of this episode. Dr. Bradish explains the concept of both incubators and accelerator programs and, in doing so, discusses the importance of having a community and network of sport innovators as more companies look to be entrepreneurial in the sport industry.

The Future of Sport Lab (FSL) is a collaborative lab and incubator for sport innovation and research. The lab is a vision supported and co-managed by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), one of the world’s premier sport and entertainment companies, and Ryerson University, Canada’s most vibrant educational institution. The objective of the FSL is to be Canada’s global leader in sport innovation, creating a sport ecosystem anchored by innovation and entrepreneurship, that will connect premier Canadian sport properties, industry partners, experts, faculty and students. FSL fosters innovative sport solutions and technologies as well as related insights and programming across a variety of disciplines, from fan engagement to sport science.

FSL just announced the newest five companies to join their accelerator program. Click the company links below to learn more about these innovative companies working with the FSL.

  • ProWire (Toronto / New York) – Delivers in-venue, real-time audio channels streamed directly to a fan’s phone
  • Zone7 (Tel Aviv, Israel / Palo Alto, CA ) A human performance platform that empowers and protects the health, potential and longevity of athletes through Artificial Intelligence
  • Mission Control (St. Louis, MO) – An esports platform where people can create and join recreational video game leagues with friend
  • Feidao (Montreal, PQ) – A mobile e-commerce, ticketing and travel platform designed to help Chinese visitors make the most of their stay in Canada
  • StreamLayer (Chicago, IL) – An audience engagement platform for OTT services

 

 

Sports Innovation Podcast – Dave Schrader

Posted on by Geoff Sherman

Dr. Dave Schrader talks as part of the SII Speaker Series in September.

The Sports Innovation Institute welcomed Dr. Dave Schrader to campus in September, where he spoke to a group of students about sports analytics projects. Afterwards, Dr. Dave joined the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation on the subject, including his favorite student projects at different colleges and how to strategically start the conversation with athletic directors about adding an analytics unit to the department.

(more…)

Sports Innovation Podcast – Galen Clavio

Posted on by SII Team

Dr. Galen Clavio, Director of the National Sports Journalism Center, and Andrew Rosner, Assistant Athletic Director for Creative Services, from Indiana University sat down with the Sports Innovation Institute podcast for an in-person tour of the Mark Cuban Center for Sports and Technology inside Assembly Hall.

Well-known Indiana alum shark tank investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, provided a gift to the Hoosiers athletic department that has allowed Indiana University students access to the most innovative and cutting-edge technology in the sports industry.

As you’ll hear in the episode, students at IU Bloomington that want to work in sports media are getting real-world experience and exposure. For example, students learn how to produce live games, studio shows and create highlights, as well as how to operate 360 degree replay systems and create virtual reality products.

To see more of the projects students are creating with the Mark Cuban Center for Sports Media and Technology, follow the center on Twitter @CubanCenter.

Sports Innovation Podcast – Brendan Szulik

Posted on by SII Team

Silbo is a digital marketplace directly connecting sports officials with amateur sports games. Silbo CEO and Co-Founder Brendan Szulik spoke with the SII podcast to discuss how they’re trying to fix the amateur sports officiating crisis going on right now across America’s youth sports. Silbo is on a mission to improve amateur sports. Silbo connects game providers and officials simply and conveniently, while also developing the next generation of sports officials.

Traditionally, the process of recruiting, scheduling, and paying sports officials was analog, inefficient, opaque, and resulted in a fragmented supply of referees. Nearly 10% of games nationwide are being cancelled due to a shortage of officials. Silbo built a game-changing technology to advocate for officials’ wages, working conditions, and scheduling; provide more opportunities for sports officials nationwide; and train and activate the next generation of sports officials.

Silbo is not yet in Indiana but Brendan Szulik is optimistic about their growth and looking to get college students more involved in the future. To learn more about Silbo visit www.Silbo.ai



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