Sport Management Programs Growing at Many Colleges

Colleges are rethinking how they teach sport management, and the shift is being driven by compelling numbers. The sports and entertainment sector is expected to add nearly 100,000 jobs annually through 2034, and the global sports economy is projected to reach $3.7 trillion by 2030.

At least 10 colleges and universities are launching sports business programs this fall alone, including American University, Indiana University Indianapolis, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. They join a wave of programs that launched in recent years at schools like Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Chatham University, and Cleveland State, as Inside Higher Ed recently reported.

Many of these programs are being built inside business schools rather than the kinesiology or education departments that traditionally housed sport management. Experts quoted in the piece argue this shift matters, since a business-grounded degree signals a student understands finance, analytics, and operations, not just the administrative side of athletics. That combination is proving attractive to employers hiring across front offices, leagues, and sports-adjacent companies.

For counselors advising students drawn to this field, a few things are worth understanding. It’s a genuinely broad career area. Media and broadcasting jobs get most of the attention, but the bulk of the opportunity is in operations, marketing, analytics, business development, and community relations roles with teams, leagues, and organizations. Programs also vary quite a bit in approach. Some are narrow business specializations, while others take a more interdisciplinary path that pulls in communications, psychology, data science, and law. All “sport management” degrees are not the same, so it’s important to look at each program’s structure and understand it’s fit for each student.

Schools note that these programs help attract applicants, since sports remains one of the more naturally appealing majors to talk about. Encourage students to look past that appeal and evaluate curriculum, internship access, and industry connections. Programs at schools with strong athletic departments or proximity to professional teams also tend to offer richer hands-on experience and better internship pipelines, which is worth factoring into how a student compares options.