Few economics classes are as popular as Economics of Sports at Pomona College. This spring, Professor Marisa Cameron, an avid football fan, is teaching two sections of the upper-division elective. From using data analytics to calculate player value to teaching the history of free agency, Cameron aims to use sports as an accessible gateway to the world of economics.
“Sports in general are just a really interesting topic that has a ton of economic principles behind them,” Cameron said. “The nice part about the economics of sports in general is that, essentially, it’s deceptively a data analytics and micro course disguised under the topic of sports.”
Drawn in by the course title and description, Tara Kamshad PO ’28 expressed her appreciation for how Cameron seamlessly integrates economics principles into discussions of sports.
“Sometimes, I don’t even realize that we’re talking about really cool economic concepts, because it’s just woven into something as awesome as sports,” Kamshad said. “Understanding the actual economics behind sports has been a great balance of being fun and everyone being engaged.”
An important part of understanding these concepts is incorporating data analytics tools like Excel and R. For Jack Sobota PO ’27, the data analytics aspect has been really helpful both in his understanding of the class so far and in building tools for the future beyond college, which Professor Cameron emphasized.
“One of the things [Cameron] mentioned early on is that she wants the class to help prep for the workplace,” Sobota said. “She’s emphasized learning Excel, which has been very helpful in getting familiar with data sets and really finding meaning in them.”
Such emphasis on data analytics offers a unique opportunity for project-based quantitative learning. For Kamshad, opportunities to apply data science skills in projects have been rare, making the course’s structure particularly exciting. Rather than focusing solely on theoretical concepts, the class centers around real-world application, allowing students to demonstrate their concrete skills through classwork.
“One of my biggest critiques of Pomona in general is that a lot of our classes aren’t the most project-based,” Kamshad said. “Even in computer science, I don’t have the biggest portfolio. I feel like in this class, I’ve gotten a lot of work in that area. I’ve done a lot of Excel modeling for our projects, and then just had a six-page paper on Moneyball. That’s just a great thing to say, that I’ve been able to do and apply what we’ve learned in the class to a really cool project.”
The class recently finished their first major assignment, titled the “Moneyball Project,” in which they assumed the roles of Major League Baseball executives, using data to evaluate players’ performance and contributions to winning. For many, this project was the first deep dive into the statistics behind the game, offering a new perspective on sports and their business potential.
“I thought I knew all I needed to know about Moneyball, having seen the movie, but through learning about the behind-the-scenes of sports, I’ve realized there’s a lot more to it than I originally thought,” Max Goodman PO ’28 said. “Professor Cameron does a great job of making it fun and interesting.”
As the students themselves learn about new aspects of sports, Cameron is also gaining new perspectives on sports and the business behind them. A large percentage of the class are athletes and sports lovers who offer unique perspectives during class discussion, whether from their own time on the field or from watching sports from the stands.
“Because there are so many student athletes in the class, we get to talk about how far data science gets us, and the role of psychology and cognitive ability,” Cameron said. “I find that I’ve been learning a lot from them as well. I’ll present the theory, and then they have additional context that they want to provide.”
Those discussions often extend beyond the field itself, exploring the broader structures that shape modern athletics. One of the core topics that has been stressed is the depth of the business behind the game, centered on sports as an entertainment product, Goodman explained.
“The overarching theme so far has been about competitive balance — how do they keep sports interesting so people keep watching?” Goodman said.
For Cameron, that unpredictability is what makes sports an interesting application of economics. Unlike many traditional industries where outcomes are fixed, sports rely on uncertainty as a feature of the product itself. The value of sports lies not in just the event, but in the tension and possibility that anything could happen.
“At the end of the day, [sports are] a form of entertainment,” Cameron said. “What makes it different is that the outcome is always unknown. You want to go into any game and have no idea who could win. That’s the unique part about most sports. That’s the beauty of competitive balance and what makes the product itself unique.”
This idea of competitive balance lies at the heart of sports economics. League structure rules, revenue sharing systems, salary caps and more to preserve that uncertainty. By examining such behavior, students in the class see how microeconomic theories play out in the world of entertainment, using sports as a lens to see how these concepts come to life.
Jake Creelan PO ’29 is an avid sports fan from Brooklyn, New York. He is excited to see how the Yankees excel across every discipline, from politics to economics, in classes across the 5Cs.
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