Video Transcript

Host Question: How would someone choose the best sports management degree program for them? Any specific things they should be thinking about or looking for when trying to decide which degree program would work best for them?
Guest Answer: Do your research on the teachers, people that have really great experience and have been in the field. They understand whether they were players in a team like the NFL or they were athletic directors, anything of that sort. You want to see that people have the real life experience and other pursuing teaching because they just care about it. And a lot of times they’ll give you the best examples of real case studies or solutions you could pose because they’ve been in your shoes or your potential shoes once you get that job.
Guest Answer: For me, choosing it was, as my friend suggested it. However, it helped that at least at the time, if I remember, of course, this was the early nineties, but I think that program in particular was the third best in the country. They had connections with other colleges and professional organizations, and that’s how I kind of recommend the people I talked to that want to get into sports management. I tell them, look at the ranking and even if it might cost you a little bit more tuition dollars, if they are within the top five, you still want to look at them because they usually are the ones that can put you into a career right away, you know, after graduation that you want to get into because they have connections with the NHL, NFL, MLB, NBA type of things. I even had a friend that went into NASCAR right away after she got done because that was her niche just ranking. And what kind of things can they offer you post-graduation or even during your school years as far as internships and experience that you can put on your resume?
Guest Answer: I think what I would do if I was starting out right now and looking at sports management, I would use the tools that are out there. Specifically, I would look at things like LinkedIn. I’d look and type in different combinations sports management, sports management, University sports management programs. And I’m a little old school. I have these little 6 by 4 cards that I like to use for that, and I’ll just start writing down which schools am I seeing most frequently? Which professors am I seeing most frequently? But I also go to Instagram, I go to Twitter, and I want to utilize those things that are free. You can go to Instagram and just type in sports, business, sports management, sports marketing, sports professors. You will not believe how many responses start coming up, but there are also a number of schools that have great sports marketing sports management programs. We have 252 schools that subscribe to my data. Every one of them has their strengths, their weaknesses, present opportunities for you.