The Sloan Sports Analytics Conference has released its schedule of events.  Several of the sessions will run concurrently, but not as many as I feared.  Sunil Gulati will appear in a session parallel to the Emerging Analytics session (with the officials from Man City and Chelsea), so there may be some popping in and out of rooms.  I will attend the analytics sessions (baseball, basketball, and emerging), as well as the Research Paper Presentations throughout the day.  Of course, the real action happens in the hallways and during the break periods.

The one session that I am looking forward to, other than the Emerging Analytics session, is this one on the limits of "Moneyball", moderated by Moneyball's author Michael Lewis and paneled by Mark Cuban, Bill Polian, Daryl Morey, and Bill Simmons.  I've written a post already on the limits of soccermetrics and I'm interested in finding out whether the panel touches on the same points I argued.  Analytics are great tools, but they're just tools, and are no substitute for a functioning brain in the sports team's front office.

The other major news from the Conference is that it will no longer be held at the Sloan Business School.  Instead, it will be at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, a much large venue which indicates how much interest in the Conference has grown in recent years.  I'm just glad that I hadn't already reserved a hotel room!