The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), in partnership with Turner Sports and CBS Sports, has announced Google Cloud as its official cloud provider, and will use Google Cloud’s machine learning, analytics and data services to better serve the needs of its colleges and universities, athletic teams, and fan base. Through this partnership, more than 80 years’ worth of statistical game and competition data across the 90 championships and 24 sports the NCAA administers will be migrated to Google Cloud.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services like BigQuery, Cloud Spanner, Datalab, Cloud ML, and Cloud Dataflow will be used to power the analysis of NCAA data which will enable fans and NCAA members to search, compare, and analyze team and player performance, as well as receive near real-time simulations in new and unparalleled ways. Additionally, the NCAA also plans to use this data to create analysis workflows to build descriptive, predictive, and diagnostic outputs that will help objectively determine and analyze the selection and seeding process across men’s and women’s sports.
In addition to the multi-year technology agreement, Google Cloud will become the official NCAA Cloud Partner, with the relationship tipping off during the 2017-18 NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball seasons. NCAA fans, players, and commentators will be able to experience some of these new advancements in data analytics and insights during and after March Madness.
“We’re looking forward to Google Cloud, one of the most globally recognized brands, joining the Corporate Champions and Partners Program as this relationship will involve the migration of our sports data to the cloud,” said Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president for basketball. “Our NCAA information technology staff will work with Google Cloud on several platform integrations of our basketball tournament information that will enhance the way we provide interesting and fun data to fans.”
“Google Cloud will allow us to migrate decades of historical sports data,” said NCAA chief information officer Judd Williams. “We’ll work with Google Cloud’s team to create new ways that fans will be able to access and search data surrounding March Madness and more, and we will continue to discuss data-driven strategies across multiple content platforms that will enhance digital experiences in other areas.”
“By leveraging Google Cloud’s expertise in data analytics, machine learning, and AI, the NCAA will find new ways to enhance decision-making capabilities across multiple athletic programs - from the selection and seeding process to programming,” said Tariq Shaukat, president, global alliances and industry platforms, Google Cloud. “We’re excited to be part of the NCAA’s digital transformation where they can use data and deep insights to better engage with millions of fans, nearly half-million college athletes, and over 19,000 teams that make up the NCAA.”
“This exciting collaboration will further enhance the passion and excitement of NCAA athletics through Google Cloud’s unrivaled insights, and data analytics technology,” said Will Funk, executive vice president of property marketing and corporate partnerships at Turner Sports. “With Google Cloud, we’ll be able to deliver an unprecedented level of real-time insights across every platform, making college sports more accessible, engaging and fun for viewers and fans around the world.”
“As the result of this multi-layered partnership, Google Cloud, the NCAA, CBS Sports and Turner Sports will be able to provide college sports participants, administrators and fans more data-driven touch points than ever before,” said Chris Simko, senior vice president, sports sales and marketing, CBS. “Allowing these constituencies to interact with, manipulate, and socialize such rich content in real-time is an exciting prospect for all of us.”
About the NCAA: The NCAA is a diverse association of more than 1,100 member colleges and universities that prioritize academics, well-being and fairness to create greater opportunities for nearly half a million student-athletes each year. The NCAA provides a pathway to higher education and beyond for student-athletes pursuing academic goals and competing in NCAA sports. More than 54,000 student-athletes experience the pinnacle of intercollegiate athletics by competing in NCAA championships each year. Visit ncaa.org and ncaa.com for more details about the Association and the corporate partnerships that support the NCAA and its student-athletes.
About CBS Sports: CBS Sports, a year-round leader in television sports, broadcasts a portfolio of events on the CBS Television Network, including THE NFL ON CBS; “Thursday Night Football;” college football, including the SEC ON CBS; college basketball, including the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship; golf, including The Masters®, PGA Championship and PGA TOUR; and CBS SPORTS SPECTACULAR. In addition, the division includes CBS SPORTS NETWORK, the 24-hour home of CBS Sports; produces INSIDE THE NFL for SHOWTIME; and partners with CBSSports.com in creating a recognized leader in digital.
About Turner Sports: Turner Sports, a division of Turner, is an industry leader in the delivery of premium sports content across all multimedia screens. Turner Sports’ television coverage includes the NBA, Major League Baseball, NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, ELEAGUE and professional golf, along with the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League beginning in Summer 2018. The company also manages some of the most popular sports destinations across digital and social platforms including Bleacher Report and its top-rated app, NCAA.com and the critically-acclaimed NCAA March Madness Live suite of products, PGA.com and the Sports Emmy Award-winning PGA Championship LIVE, as well as an accompanying collection of mobile sites and connected device apps. Turner Sports and the NBA jointly manage NBA Digital, a robust collection of offerings including NBA TV, NBA.com, NBA LEAGUE PASS, the NBA App and NBAGLEAGUE.com.
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