Five of the Falk College sport analytics students who worked for the United Football League this season attended the UFL’s championship game in St. Louis. From left to right, UFL Operations Manager and ���ϲ����� alum Bryan Kilmeade, Zach Seidel, Toby Halpern, Austin Ambler, Danny Baris, Nolan Bruton, UFL Senior Vice President of Technology Scott Harniman and UFL Vice President of Football Technology Brad Campbell.

When seven students from the Department of Sport Analytics in the   started working for the (UFL) this past winter, league officials explained the kind of data they had available and asked the students to pitch their ideas on how to use it.

One dataset tracked quarterback completion probability, and two students, Austin Ambler and Danny Baris, pitched a metric to quantify quarterback decision-making. They call it a “QB Decision Score,” and it determines if a quarterback made the right passing decision based on the predicted EPA (expected points added) of each receiver on the play.

The UFL officials overseeing the sport analytics students—Operations Manager , Senior Vice President of Technology and Vice President of Football Technology —wondered if such a model was possible, but gave Ambler and Baris the go-ahead to try.

“A week later they came back and gave us a first run-through, and we were like, wow, this is impressive,” Kilmeade says. “In our minds this was going to take the whole season. It took a week.”

Throughout the 2025 UFL season, which ran from March 28 through the championship game on June 14, the seven sport analytics majors—Ambler, Baris, Toby Halpern and Zach Seidel (who are all on schedule to graduate this December), Nolan Bruton ’26, Eleanor O’Connor ’27 and Johann Perera ’25—worked on several significant projects for the league.

In fact, many of their data analysis models were elevated to the teams and their coaches during the season, and they may eventually find their way to the NFL, which has a strong relationship with the UFL. The leagues often discuss rules innovation, technology and player development.

“This partnership (with the Falk College of Sport) has exceeded our expectations on the league side, and we’re looking forward to continuing it with as many students who want to do it,” Kilmeade says. “The students have impressed everybody we’ve gotten them in front of.”

Invaluable Experience

Kilmeade ’18 was a major in Falk College when the started in 2017. He earned a minor in sport analytics, where Department of Sport Analytics Chair was one of his professors and current Director of Corporate Partnerships and External Engagement was his advisor.

He stayed connected with Paul and Riverso throughout his early professional career with the XFL and USFL, which merged to form the UFL. When he was with the XFL, he reached out to Falk College and its about data regarding kickoffs. The students in the club charted games and their analysis led to the new kickoff rule that was first used in the XFL and adopted by the NFL before the 2024 season.

From left to right, Falk College of Sport students Danny Baris, Toby Halpern, Zach Seidel, Nolan Bruton and Austin Ambler with St. Louis Battlehawks player Pita Taumoepenu, the UFL’s defensive player of the year this season.

At the UFL, the league has the same issue: Lots of data, but a small staff that can’t possibly get to it all. So, Kilmeade reached out to Paul and Riverso again and it was a natural fit as UFL President and CEO Russ Brandon is a member of the , and former ���ϲ����� football star Daryl Johnston is the UFL’s executive vice president of football operations.

between the UFL and the Sport Analytics program marked the first time an American college or university has worked with the nation’s premier spring football league.

Paul says the experience the students gained from working with the UFL was “impossible to replicate in the classroom” as the league and students held regular meetings to discuss their projects, shared findings through visualization (charts, graphs, dashboards) and strategized on next steps.

“The main thing I got from working with the UFL was more experience working with data,” says Baris, who majors in sport analytics and statistics. “I also was able to experiment with a few types of models that I had not worked with previously, and I gained experience presenting work to people with a less analytical background.”

Game Changers

As Kilmeade says, the students hit the ground running, throwing and kicking. Other examples of their work with the UFL include a point after touchdown conversion (PAT) decision chart, onside kick alternative and game timing.

Falk College of Sport analytics students in St. Louis with the UFL championship trophy, which was won by the DC Defenders, who defeated the Michigan Panthers 58-34.

Ambler, Baris, Bruton, Halpern and Seidel were available to travel to St. Louis for the UFL’s championship weekend in mid-June. There, they capped their internship experience by staffing the Fan Fest Sportable booth, where fans used the tracking device to measure their throwing skills, and the Tech Suite, where they displayed their work from the season. Kilmeade says film producer and UFL co-owner Dany Garcia was one of the many dignitaries who were impressed by the students’ presentation.

“I was able to do projects with real-world data that were actually used/implemented by the league, and grow my technical skills and abilities by having to learn new techniques in order to accomplish some of the projects,” Ambler says. “These new skills that I learned will be able to be applied to other projects in my future roles throughout my professional career.”

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The and the program at ���ϲ����� have entered an agreement that will allow ���ϲ����� sport analytics students to complete statistical analysis and provide insights and visualizations to the UFL. The agreement marks the first time an American college or university has worked with the spring football league.

As part of the agreement, the UFL will provide ���ϲ����� students with experience in professional football and access to its employees, while ���ϲ����� will provide the data analysis skills of students from the leading sport analytics program in the country.

“The United Football League is proud to team up with the two-time national champion Sport Analytics program at ���ϲ�����,” said UFL President and CEO Russ Brandon, a member of ���ϲ�����’s Department of Sport Management . “Innovation is at the heart of the UFL, so it is only fitting that we seek out the creativity and the expertise of these students as we look toward a new approach to sports analytics.”

The UFL is the premier spring football league formed from the merger of the XFL and USFL in 2024. Under the combined ownership of RedBird Capital Partners, FOX, Dany Garcia, and Dwayne Johnson, the UFL features eight teams in key markets: Arlington, Texas; Birmingham, Ala.; Detroit, Mich.; Houston, Texas; Memphis, Tenn.; San Antonio, Texas; St. Louis, Mo., and Washington, D.C.

The 2025 UFL season will kick off at 8 p.m. ET Friday, when FOX Sports debuts “FOX UFL Friday”—a new night dedicated to UFL action taking place each Friday during the 10-week regular season—with a matchup featuring the St. Louis Battlehawks against the Houston Renegades. The league’s second season will conclude on Saturday, June 14, when ABC presents the 2025 UFL Championship Game.

“The UFL envisions itself as a gathering place for innovative thinkers,” said UFL Vice President of Football Technology Brad Campbell. “Thanks to the contributions of the sport analytics team at ���ϲ����� we will be able to raise this vision to a whole new level.”

Under the leadership of Sport Analytics Undergraduate Director and Professor , ���ϲ�����’s sport analytics students captured back-to-back National Sport Analytics Championships in 2023-24, and they have won numerous player and team analytics competitions in football, basketball, and baseball. About 70 students are providing data collection and analysis for 13 of ���ϲ�����’s athletic teams, and the program’s other professional partners include the Kumamoto Volters’ men’s basketball team in Japan, the Farjestad BK women’s hockey team in Sweden, the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, Major League Soccer’s CF Montreal, and others.

Under the agreement with the UFL, the Sport Analytics program is coordinating student participation, and seven students have joined the first phase, with more to be added later. The UFL is assigning projects related to league operations and initiatives, and the parties are holding regular meetings to discuss projects, share findings through visualizations (charts, graphs, dashboards), and strategize on next steps.

“We are honored to partner with the UFL and look forward to providing insights and actionable items for the teams and league,” Paul said. “The experience and feedback our students will gain from this partnership is something that’s impossible to replicate in the classroom. Opportunities like this have been our dream since the start of the program, and we are so appreciative of all the wonderful people in the UFL and how their experience and expertise will benefit our students in so many ways.”