#216 How Data is Changing College Football | Danny Davis, CEO of Recon Sports

Welcome to episode 216 of Sports Management Podcast. Today's guest is Danny Davis, founder & CEO of Recon Sports - a platform helping college football teams use data and AI to build smarter rosters and develop elite athletes. We spoke about:  The use of athlete data in sports The risks of operating in college sports How military experience shaped his entrepreneurial mindset The mindset shift from Army officer to entrepreneur How he invested 10,000 hours to master his craft And much more!    Time stamps:  00:01 Intro 00:26  What Recon Sports does - syncing athlete data 01:22  Internal vs external data and identifying future stars 02:40  The hundreds of metrics collected across programs 04:15  The original idea: from high school analytics to college innovation 05:43  First client discovery and go-to-market process 07:02  Biggest challenge - scaling himself and training others 09:03  AI, digital twins, and the next frontier of sports analytics 11:19  Why consolidating data is the foundation of AI success 12:01  The risks of operating in college sports 14:38  Expanding into aerospace and other verticals 18:27  How military experience shaped his entrepreneurial mindset 22:02  The mindset shift from Army officer to entrepreneur 26:57  How he invested 10,000 hours to master his craft 31:14  The value of mentorship and how to find great mentors 37:17  Overcoming rejection and separating vision from strategy 40:16  Advice for breaking into the sports industry 43:40 Outro   Follow Sports Management Podcast on social media Instagram Twitter LinkedIn YouTube www.sportsmanagementpodcast.com