DATA SOURCES
an evolving list of data sources that may be helpful for sports policy health ethics research
*if you have a source you think we should add, let us know!*
Publicly Available Primary Data on College Sports
The US Department of Education Equity in Athletics Data Analysis includes interactive and downloadable data. Data are at the school-sport-year level, going back to 2003 and include information about a school's sports teams, athlete count, sports revenues and expenditures (with many sub categories), and more. SPHERE lab researchers have used this data, feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
Rachel Lenzi (twitter) of Buffalo News (web) has compiled information on COVID-19 cases among college football players and team staff as well as COVID-19 cases among NCAA basketball players and team staff.
The Intercollegiate (web, twitter) made a plethora of college sports information they obtained through public records requests available on their web library, including:
Athlete Exit Interviews. Per their description: "According to Article 6.3 of the NCAA’s Division I Manual, member institutions are required to conduct end-of-the-year exit interviews with departing athletes. We filed formal records requests with every D-I university subject to public disclosure laws, seeking documents relating to exit or end-of-season surveys that took place during the 2018-19 academic year."
Athletic Department Consulting Contracts. Per their description: "College athletic departments have increasingly engaged with outside consultants to assist on everything from hiring searches to NCAA compliance to football place-kicking instruction. Here are consulting agreements D-I universities engaged since 2018, which we obtained through public records requests."
College sports team rules publicly available. Per their description: "2019-20 team-specific rules and athlete conduct policies from 236 different college sports programs across 52 D-I universities. Our representative cross section features: 127 women’s, 89 men’s and 15 coed programs; 55 teams from Black plurality sports (football and men’s and women’s basketball); and an almost perfectly even split between Power 5 and non-Power 5 squads."
Data on High School Sports
The Korey Stringer Institute (web, twitter) at the University of Connecticut runs the ATLAS project (Athletic Training Location and Services) which documents and describes high school level access to athletic training services. Information available includes a variety of reports and interactive maps. Data are available for research through contacting the study PI and completing a data use agreement.
Data on Professional Sports
FiveThirtyEight (twitter, web) has made a treasure trove of their data and code including a ton of stuff on professional sports. You can find it here.
Jon Roegele (twitter) has put together a publicly available list of Major League Baseball players who have had Tommy John surgery. You can find it here.
Football Outsiders (web, twitter) has compiled a NFL Player Injury Database that is available for research purposes by contacting Scott Spratt (twitter) or Zach Binney (twitter).
Pro Sports Transactions (web) documents "every transaction— including trades, free agent movements, signings, waivings, draft picks, injuries, movement to and from minor leagues, disciplinary actions, and legal/criminal actions— in the history of popular North American professional sports (baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer). Check them out HERE. Note: databases are queriable but full dataset access requires scraping.
Policy Data
Julia Raifman (web, twitter) and her team have put together a detailed and evolving set of state-level COVID-19 related policies. The database and related documentation can be accessed on this github page.