Document Type

Abstract

Publication Date

2025

Publication Title

Global Sport Business Journal

Volume

10

Issue

1

Pages

14

Conference Name

2025 Global Sport Business Association Conference, 21-24 February 2025, Miami, Florida

Abstract

A trend is developing in academia as it relates to Student-Athletes and advisement practices. With the NIL deals and transfer portals on the continually evolving forefront of collegiate athletics it is difficult to keep the athletes not only eligible to compete but also on track to obtain a degree. A student athlete may be advised to take the track of an Integrated Studies degree and then a transfer to or from a Sport Management Degree. This occurs throughout both the undergraduate and graduate levels of higher education. In addition, certificate programs in athletic administration, sport marketing, sport management, and sport compliance are becoming utilized and are appearing to be used for eligibility purposes. An increasing challenge is marketing the Sport Management degree programs as the viable option for student athletes for long term career benefits and not as a means to better address NIL and transfer opportunities if they decide to engage in such opportunities. From this dilemma stems a multitude of questions for advisors, universities, and sport management degree administrators to wrestle with. How do we as stewards of both the student-athlete and the program itself, best serve all parties well? As both NIL opportunities and transfer restrictions become more student-athlete friendly, it seems that we as academics and mentors may have to focus on the components and aspects of what is within our control as opposed to what many may consider to be a large scale and potentially detrimental landscape for many student-athletes to navigate in their long-term development and degree pursuits. This study will address best practices and the fine line that currently exists between being excellent stewards of our academic programs and the stewardship of serving our student-athletes that is bestowed upon those within the field of sport management education.

Rights

© 2025 SFA ScholarWorks. All rights reserved.

"The following uses are always permitted to the authors and do not require further permission from SFA ScholarWorks provided the author does not alter the format or content of the articles, including the copyright notification:

Posting of the article on the internet as part of a non-commercial open access institutional repository or other non-commercial open access publication site affiliated with the author(s)'s place of employment."

Original Publication Citation

Overton, R., Case, B., & Ross, M. (2025). Academic clustering for athletes. Global Sport Business Journal, 10(1), 14. https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/gsbj/vol10/iss1/4/

ORCID

0000-0002-9423-9586 (Case)

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