LORMAN, Miss. – Alcorn State University has moved its Sport Management program into the School of Business. The move connects students to coursework and resources in marketing, finance, management and entrepreneurship.
Current students’ path to graduation does not change. They are now part of a school that has grown undergraduate degree completions by 82.8% and graduate enrollment by 245% over the past three years, and has secured more than $6.3 million in competitive grants.
“Sport is business. That’s not a tagline; it’s the reality of the industry,” said Dr. Antwon Woods, dean of the School of Business. “Every athletic department, every franchise, every agency runs on budgets, sponsorship deals, marketing strategy and data. We moved Sport Management into the School of Business so students learn the field the way it actually operates, not as a standalone track disconnected from the business fundamentals that drive it.”
Sport Management students can take marketing courses taught by faculty who also teach brand strategy to accounting and management majors, and finance courses that cover how a franchise or athletic department manages a budget. They can also use the School of Business’s entrepreneurship curriculum to prepare to start an agency, a training facility or a media venture.
The program is also being connected to two School of Business centers, the Small Business Development Center and the Wells Fargo Financial Education Center. Students will have opportunities to work on consulting projects and financial literacy programming. Dr. Michelle Harper, assistant professor of sport management, is leading that effort and is developing experiential components for the program.
The School of Business has partnerships with Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, KPMG, Amazon, Hope Credit Union and Altria. Sport Management students will have access to those relationships through internships and mentorship. The school is also developing partnerships with professional and collegiate athletic programs and major sport brands to support Sport Management students through internships and career pipelines.
The program prepares graduates for careers in athletic administration, collegiate and professional sport management, sponsorship and marketing, agency representation, event and facility management and sport analytics.
“Our vision is developing transformational leaders who can think strategically and act entrepreneurially,” said Woods. “Sport Management is a natural fit for that. It’s a field built on relationships, resource management and quick decision making.”
Woods said the move gives students more resources.
“To our current students, this move happened because you deserve more resources, not fewer, and you now have them,” said Woods. “To prospective students, if you want to work in sport at a high level, you need to understand business at a high level first.”
For more information, contact Anita Norman, assistant to the dean, in the School of Business at 601-877-6457 or [email protected].
