By now, Mark and I hope that you have been able to check out our new Sports Market Analytics online platform. The site is loaded with all the great data that you have come to expect from SMA…with a whole lot more. While I recommend spending some time on the site, here is the first of a series of articles that can serve as a great roadmap when helping students access the data and other information they may need for their case study and project work.

Before you begin to access data, I highly recommend that you start at the beginning. In our case, the beginning is accessing our comprehensive search feature now called SBRnet Mega Search. This is also our site wide search feature that opens up the world of possibilities for students with applicable data, relevant articles and even related organizations that might be a good source of related information.

In my 26 years of experience working in research, I always recommend when starting some sort of research project to keep an open mind, keep your search wide open and don’t try and push the agenda that you think might exist before you even get off to a good start. You just never know what might be available before you get there. I usually visualize an upside-down triangle or funnel with the wide end on top. It's always a good idea to let the data take you in the right direction and not the other way around.

This topic is a great one to combine with understanding the different sorts of methodologies that are available in terms of research. Reach out to us and we are more than happy to work with classes or groups of students to help them better understand the process of using data and research to solve problems and challenges.