By the numbers

Brandon Owens, CAS ’22, ’25, always wanted to work in sports in some capacity. Owens accomplished that dream, but his path wasn’t the one he originally anticipated.

Owens currently works as a Data Scientist for the NFL Players Association (NFLPA). But when he graduated from Oakland University in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science, the last thing he expected was to be working in data.

He enrolled in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at OU, but after one semester decided to switch to the Master of Applied Statistics program. After a lot of hard work and a few internships, he landed his dream job at the NFLPA.

“I just felt like I wanted to do something that offered a different challenge,” Owens said of switching from physical therapy to applied statistics. “The nice part about my role now, is that I'm still doing something to help people out in terms of health and safety. We're doing concussion research and advocating for NFL players. We’re helping people and that’s something I really take pride in.”

The NFLPA is located in Washington, D.C. Owens works both in office and remotely, so he relocated to a suburb of Maryland.

“We’re a couple of blocks from the White House,” Owens said. “I really value being around people in the office and building a culture. The NFLPA has a great culture.”

Owens’ job with the NFLPA is his second in professional sports. Prior to taking the job with the NFLPA, Owens worked for the Phoenix Suns of the NBA.

“I'm a big sports fan, so I enjoyed being able to work with sports data and see the back end of what was happening,” Owens said. “Things that you don't really realize, including all the decisions that are happening every day in a sports organization. It was a great insight into that world.”

Owens said the teams have to view player contracts as investments, which is a different way to look at basketball.

“To treat players as kind of investment vehicles is a really different take on basketball,” Owens said. “I grew up playing basketball, so I really enjoyed how it broadened my perspective of the game. Now, if I'm watching basketball, I'm looking at it a little bit differently than I was before.”

Owens started as an intern for the Suns and later worked full-time as a contractor.

“There aren’t a ton of positions in sports and it’s super competitive because lots of people have a passion for it,” Owens said. “It felt like I was on the cutting edge and everyone around me had fresh takes on everything. I had to sharpen my skills and keep on top of things. I feel like it exposed me to some really interesting ways of going about projects and working on things.”

Brandon Owens' internship at Oakland's Career and Life Design Center was essential for his career development.

Owens was able to land the internship with the Suns after working as a graduate assistant for Oakland’s Career and Life Design Center.

“Getting to work in the Career and Life Design Center was super helpful,” Owens said. "That was the first instance of me being able to work and put something on my resume that was data related. It was a great first stepping stone, especially coming from a background that was not math or data related.”

Owens credited Charles Guzowski, who worked in the Career and Life Design Center at the time but has since taken a new role at OU, and Career and Life Design Director Kelly Dorner for helping him during his time there.

“I had to do work for them, but it was also a learning experience in terms of how you structure your resume and make connections outside of going to a career fair,” Owens said.

“I definitely got really good at networking while I worked there, but I also would seek advice from the career coaches. Kelly Dorner was super helpful in offering advice. She gave me advice that sometimes seemed so simple, but I had kind of glossed it over previously. I could go in there every single day and learn something.”

Owens said Guzowski was his supervisor and made sure he was heavily involved in all of the Career and Life Design Center events. He said he learned a ton from the experience.

“The Career and Life Design Center was the area that helped me the most during my time at OU in landing the initial position I wanted to get,” Owens said.

Owens said Oakland made it really easy for him to switch from Physical Therapy to Applied Statistics. Once he was in the Applied Statistics program, he enjoyed the freedom it offered.

“I liked the small class sizes for sure,” Owens said. “I also enjoyed the ability to take electives outside of the statistics classes. I was able to take a lot of computer science classes, too, and I don't think that I could have gotten any of these positions without the ability to code.

“It was perfect for me to kind of double dip without having to go get a computer science degree or a data analytics degree,” Owens added. "My degree is purely mathematical, but I was also able to get the technical experience from taking a couple classes I really liked.”

For more information about Oakland’s Applied Statistics program please visit: https://www.oakland.edu/math/graduate-programs/masters-program/