Syracuse, N.Y. — Every Tuesday and Thursday, students gather in a plush new classroom on the Syracuse University campus to analyze sports.
They listen to Dr. Rodney Paul use words like "heteroscedasticity," "regression diagnostics," "weighted least squares" and "multicollinearity" to analyze the information they will consider to determine, say, what influences a minor league baseball team's attendance or why one NFL offensive line performs better than another. There are dizzying charts and equations and graphics to absorb, a software program to help sort out the raw data and a room full of curious young people who are attempting to master this brave new world.