Online Sports Management Bachelor’s Degree

Earning a sports management bachelor's degree online serves as a great option for individuals who want to fashion their career around sports and who prefer flexibility in their education. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that sports management professions such as coaching and scouting will grow at faster-than-average rates over the next decade.

While no diploma can guarantee you a job, potential degree seekers who find themselves on the fence about earning their bachelor's degree in sports management can rest assured that a variety of opportunities exist in the field. This guide explores the sports management degree, the typical curriculum, and potential careers after graduation.

Why Earn a Sports Management Bachelor's Degree Online?

A student may want to earn a sports management bachelor's degree online for several reasons. Bachelor's in sport management online programs typically deliver coursework asynchronously, allowing students the convenience of completing their assignments at the time and place of their choosing. This flexible option allows students with significant familial or professional obligations to earn their bachelor's degree in sports management while studying full time.

Additionally, a bachelor's in sports management online often offers more affordability than its on-campus counterparts. Distance learning programs generally offer lower per-credit tuition rates than on-campus programs. Moreover, undergraduate online students avoid traditional on-campus costs such as room and board and activity fees.

What Can I Do With a Bachelor's in Sports Management?

Earning an accredited sports management bachelor's degree online provides graduates with flexibility in their professional career. Skills that you learn in a sports management program, such as finance, marketing, public relations, and organizational leadership, can translate to most careers in business or management. The following section highlights skills you develop while earning a bachelor's in sports management online and also covers possible careers.

Skills and Knowledge Gained

Earning a top sports management bachelor's degree online helps you learn universally applicable skills filtered through the lens of sports. Students can expect to graduate from an undergraduate sports management program with the following set of basic skills.

• People Management:

  As they work in a people-facing field, sports management professionals typically need to organize people or teams in order to accomplish a common goal or task. Undergraduate programs make sure that students do plenty of group projects to practice this skill.

• Event Planning:

  Many sports management careers involve creating, organizing, and executing events such as dinners for season ticket holders, donor banquets, and games or matches.

• Public Relations:

  Since many athletes are public figures, sports management professionals who work as agents or athletic directors frequently interact with the media.

• Marketing:

  Whether they work for a team, an agency, or individual athletes, sports management professionals must know how to promote athletes, teams, and narratives in order to sell tickets, merchandise, and sponsorships.

• Negotiation:

  Graduates who want to work as agents must know how to negotiate with teams on behalf of athletes, and many undergraduate sports management programs offer courses in negotiation.

Careers and Salary Potential

Sports management may seem like a narrow field but provides a variety of career opportunities. Graduates who hold an accredited bachelor's in sports management can work for sports teams, agencies, individual athletes, and third-party event companies. Requirements for the field include both soft and hard skills, such as people management, marketing, sales, negotiation, and a basic familiarity with sports. Job titles may include agent, athletic director, coach, reporter, or scout.

• Sports Teams or Clubs: Sports management degree holders can often find positions directly with sports teams or clubs, typically in their marketing or sales departments. During their education, sports management professionals can learn how to promote athletes and teams and develop basic sales skills.
• Advertising, Branding, and Sales Promotions: In addition to working in marketing for sports teams, sports management graduates can apply the skills they learn in college by working for agencies on behalf of individual athletes.
• Education: Some students major in sports management because they love sports and want to get into coaching. Some sports management programs include a concentration in coaching and offer coursework to prepare graduates for relevant certification.
• Marketing, Advertising, and Media Management: As a public-facing field, sports management includes plenty of interaction with the media. Sports management students often take public relations courses to prepare for this.
• Fitness or Recreational Sports Centers: Sports management graduates can often find work in managerial positions at fitness or recreational sports centers like the YMCA or LA Fitness. Graduates who want to work as personal trainers at these locations must pursue additional certification.

Coach

Annual Median Salary: $32,270

Coaches work at the youth, high school, college, and professional levels. They take responsibility for planning and leading practices and implementing in-game strategy. At the youth level, they also teach players essential life skills. Coaching at higher levels typically involves more play-calling and film-study responsibilities.

Scout

Annual Median Salary: $32,270

Scouts work on behalf of a sports team or club, typically traveling around a designated region to identify talented players who could help that team in the future. They watch film and see players live in order to assign them a grade and compare them to other available talent.

Athletic Director

Annual Median Salary: $59,867

Athletic directors serve as the top managers within a college's athletic department. Typical duties include public relations, scheduling games, managing and assigning budgets, marketing, fundraising, and general coordinating for the athletic department.

Sports Agent

Annual Median Salary: $59,829

Sports agents work either for third-party agencies or directly for athletes. They negotiate contracts, seek out sponsorship opportunities, and provide public relations guidance on behalf of individual athletes. They typically earn a portion of athletes' contract payments as their salary.

Sports Reporter

Annual Median Salary: $37,092

Working either as a beat reporter who covers a specific team or as a more general staff writer for a publication, sports reporters write stories for magazines, newspapers, and other publications. They may also record podcasts or perform video interviews.

Become Team

Contributing Writer

Latest Posts

See all Posts

Master's Degree Ideas for Making a Career Change

Making a career change can be difficult but rewarding for those who take the leap. Learn which master's degree programs may provide the best paths towards changing your career.

Become Team / March 16, 2023 / 4 min read

Dental Schools & Dentist Careers How to Become a Dentist

Find Dental school & dentist career information. Learn about education requirements, salaries, and the steps to becoming a dentist.

Become Team

March 16, 2023  / 4 min read

Online Nutritional Sciences Bachelor's Degree

An online nutritional sciences bachelor's degree can open the doors to a variety of careers and industries. Learn more about this versatile degree and the types of careers it can...

Become Team

March 16, 2023  / 4 min read