OT: Michigan Sports Management Degree
I have a family member who is a student at Michigan and considering the Sports Management degree program. My family has read much of what is on the program's website, but I was wondering if any posters had personal experience with the program at Michigan or the degree in general? How is the job market for new grads? What are starting salaries? Would you recommend the program to others?
Thanks in advance for your help.
December 17th, 2013 at 9:16 PM ^
...from a top-40ish national MBA program (top 25 in some years) and to be quite candid, I think your time/money would be better spent in another degree program. First of all, sports management isn't a discipline. It's soft. If you're gonna go the business route, go finance or accounting or economics or statistics or supply chain or marketing. Sports management encompasses all of those disciplines but in and of itself is an empty degree. And the best way to break into the sports industry on the business side is to sell, sell, sell. Get a part-time job while you're in school selling tickets for either your school or a local pro team. Even if sales isn't your long-term interest, it's the best way to show you're serious about the industry. And you sure as hell don't need a sports management degree to do this. I had a very positive experience working in the sports industry but after several years realized there were many, many, many more opportunities outside of sports and chose to exit the industry.
December 17th, 2013 at 9:34 PM ^
I got my BA in Sport Management from U-M and I agree with everything you say
Might be my own fault, but I found the job market to be very tough. Go the general business route. I've had to get my MBA at Oakland now to expand my opportunites because Sport Mgmt. is kinda limited.
U-M's Sport Mgmt program is kinda underwhelming in terms of the curriculum and job opps. There doesn't seem to be too many connections to utilize unless its our own Athletic Dept. This is Michigan dammit, it should be better.
December 17th, 2013 at 9:32 PM ^
If the kid wants a decent shot at a job after college, then no. If money is no object to the kid and his family then sure. If the object is a return on the investment of a college education, then RUUUUUN! If the kid's "passion" (haha) is "sports management" (double haha) then steer them toward straight business and volunteering somewhere in the athletic department. If the requirements to the undergrad b-school are too stringent (and believe me, they are stringent), and STEM or health stuff isn't an option, then go ahead, because sports management is equally as useless in todays job market as art history/poli sci/sociology/softology etc. etc
The caveat is if the kid is female and wants to land herself an athlete (MRS degree?), then go for it.
I'm sure I come off like a complete ass, but I really am trying to be helpful.
December 18th, 2013 at 8:08 AM ^
December 18th, 2013 at 9:15 AM ^
MRS degree? What decade is this?
December 17th, 2013 at 9:35 PM ^
Not familar with the Michigan program but I'm in my final year of the Sport Management program at Central Michigan. It's been a fantastic expirence and one I wouldn't change. Yes you catch a lot of flack for being a "jock major" and so on but like any other program it's as serious as you take it. Sports in a glamour industry so as far as inital jobs go, it's internship heavy and/or low-paying. However if it's what you are passionate about you won't want to trade it for anything. Yes there are ways to get into the sports industry that don't involve the majoring in Sport Management. However those are becoming tougher and tougher, as more and more qualifed Sport Management grads are entering the workplace and organizations are looking at them first over other disciplines. Also networking as with any business is key and the connections you make in the program can pay big dividends when it comes to moving up in the sports world. Overall I have had nothing but great expirences and while there are some specfic challenges with being a Sport Management major, so does every other degree program.
December 17th, 2013 at 9:39 PM ^
December 17th, 2013 at 9:46 PM ^
Thanks for your input everybody. I think he would be inclined to go the normal business route if it were an option, but unfortunatley the admisson requirements are probably too stringent.
December 17th, 2013 at 9:56 PM ^
One of things that the UM Sports Management program has going for it is access to connections. Several of the faculty consult for professional team owners on the side. There is a professional team owner coming to talk to the undergraduate students at least once a semester in recent history. The program has also ramped up their internship connections, providing a lot of opportunities to do summer internships with Detroit and Ohio professional teams. The best way to a job afterwards is to work with a professor to assist in research consulting and/or do a great job with the internships each year. If you get an in with an organization that way, the success rate getting a good job afterwards is pretty high. If you go through the program without getting to know the professors and without doing internships, you will struggle finding a job afterwards.
December 18th, 2013 at 12:24 AM ^
I was in the sport management program at UofM for 3 semesters 05-06. It became clear to me that a switch to LSA and a degree in something like economics, accounting, business, computer science has far better value long term and that sports management was probably a waste of a few thousand dollars each semester. While I'd been a die hard sports fan since I can remember I didn't share that same passion for the behind the scene aspect of the industy and decided I'd better keep my options open.
My advice for somebody thinking about a sports management degree or entering the industry would be to major in a subject which could be useful in the sports field but has value and could lead to opportunities in other fields as well. Get an internship/work study somewhere in the athletic department, facilities management or marketing, to get a feel for the industry. Plan on either staying oncampues over the summer and working the spring sports/fall prep or finding another internship for the summer. Experience and networking are everything.
This plan would have you as well-placed to enter the field after your 4-5 years as anyone with a sports management degree in addition having far more options in the overall job market.
If for whatever reason somebody has thier heart set on a sports management degree then don't pay top dollar at a school like Michigan. Go somewhere where you can minimize your post-school debt obligation because entty-level salaries are shit.
Like someone mentioned, entry into the sports industry is tough, starting salaries are low, and you're going to have very little flexibility in terms of job choice or location because you won't have many opportunities/offers to chose from.
Having said all that, I did enjoy my experience and never found myself close to getting swamped academically (although the prgram is not the cakewalk that many people think. the workload is more project/group/paper oriented and less knowledge/theory/fact cramin), and I can tell people I had classes with current and former pro-athletes, olympians, WCWS walk-off ledgends and took a class taught by a former-NHL veteran and Berenson assistant who shared some incredible stories about the early years of the program under Red and his experience as an athelete at UofM. He also wasn't afriad to critizie the university's athletic department openly in class (this would play out on a larger stage a short while later on the radio station wtka) which I found hilarious but more importantly really opened my eyes to the hyprocisry rampant in college athletics. It would end up being the class I felt I got the most for bang for my buck while in college.
December 18th, 2013 at 12:45 AM ^
that so many UM fans ridiculed DeShawn Hand for choosing to play football at Alabama and in the bargain have the opportunity to study engineering.
December 18th, 2013 at 1:26 AM ^
any degree + networking capabilities of DeShawn Hand post-grad (assuming decent competency) >>>>> normal person's opportunity.
it's not really fair to compare a random student's decision metrics with those of a 5* athlete
December 18th, 2013 at 2:44 AM ^
Please not the Hand/engineering nonsense again. Hand will not major in engineering. One, Satan's football requirements will preclude him from doing so, he will be steered away from it anyway, and what the heck is he going to need an engineering degree for? Hand chose Alabama because it's a better football program, not because he felt coerced into sports managment at Michigan. So to paraphrase Mean Girls, stop trying to make "engin" happen! It's not going to happen!
Plus this is all silly talk, because Saban's going to leave to coach both the Texas Longhorns AND Houston Texans for 25 million a year and 100% of the Longhorn Network, and Hand will flip to Michigan (and major in art history).
December 18th, 2013 at 8:00 AM ^
"Satan" ? Really? Come on.
December 18th, 2013 at 10:20 AM ^
At least they will let him try. I don't see why they could't bring him on campus let him take Calc 1, Chem 125, and Engineering 100. See how he does in that and if he can stay eligble then let him continue. If not steer him towards the General Studies.
December 18th, 2013 at 2:29 PM ^
Letting him try engineering would not be setting him up for success. Any legit engineering degree takes way too much time for a modern era football player to be successful both on the field and in the classroom. Being up front with a kid about that is the right move. The courseload you recomend is a pretty heafty tiem commmitment for an average student let alone a student athelete (this assumes you would like to be successful). Now, taking an engineering major where the dean is a "football guy", maybe you can succeed on paper anyway?
December 18th, 2013 at 9:51 AM ^
the master degrees of Sports Management. Bachelor degree is starting to become more and more useless unless you have tons of internship/volunteer experiences. If I were him, I'd go with a different major that would be useful down the road like Econ, Business, etc. for undergrad then apply for grad school in Sports Management. The most important thing is to talk to the athletic department about helping out in any capacity in your freshman/soph year. Once you do it often enough, they'll get to know you and if you want undergraduate student internship, it's much easier to get the coveted internship spot in whichever department you want to work in like Marketing/Promotions, Sports Info, etc. Continue to volunteer and work i an internship from undergrad to grad school. By then, you will already have more experience than most people with a master degree.
I think that this is not a bad degree if you know where to apply it later in your career. I myself study management in sports and thanks to the [SPAM LINK DELETED] with management essay samples I'm succeeding in my class. But I clearly thought about how I can use my degree after graduation before choosing my degree. So to not waste my time on a worthless degree.
And do not waste your time on worthless spamming either, Carl12Terry.
Haven't I already banned a previous "CarlTerry" account for spamming?