Better for me than Harvard?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>I'm currently a sophomore here in England, and I am being recruited to play college AMERICAN football. After college, I want to try and work in football, either as a coach or a scout, with the eventual aim of becoming a Head Coach or General Manager. If these careers don't work out, I want to either go into the marketing/management side of sports, either working at a college, hoping to eventually get to be Athletic Director, or for any company, such as the NFL, any NCAA conference etc. in the business/management side, or in marketing. </p>

<p>So as you can see, after my dream jobs directly within football, I still want to try and work within it in someway, but in more of a business role with a sports background. Obviously, if I get to 40 something and nothing is going anywhere, I want to have a backup plan, which will probably be to work in management/marketing at any other company.</p>

<p>I have a 3.95GPA and attend one of the top academically selective schools in the UK.</p>

<p>So bascially, I want to play football at the highest level I can, while also getting a good degree. I've basically got 4 sets of options here. </p>

<p>1) harvard, Yale etc. These colleges dont offer any sort of business degree, so I would have to major in something else, probably Maths. Also, it is only D1-AA football, as well as being Ivy meaning limited big games, thus limited exposure as a student athlete, but the bottom line is, I get a Harvard/Yale degree.</p>

<p>2) Go to a D1-A football school, that also doesnt offer business, but is still a top ranked school, pretty much just Stanford. Better football/exposure, not quite as good degree.</p>

<p>3) Go to a top Business school, e.g UMich, Notre Dame, Penn Wharton. Mix of D1-A and D1-AA football schools, and not quite as prestigious as Haravrd etc. but give me the business degree that I want/need for my career path.</p>

<p>4) Go to a top sports management school e.g Oregon, Miami, Ohio State, UMass. D1-A football schools, but possibly even less prestigious that group 3, and although sports manegement is what I want to do later, it may be too narrow of a degree in case things dont work out?</p>

<p>So yeah, if you think about this hypothetically as if I could play anywhere, which of these would be the best fit for me in your opinions? Please feel free to add more colleges that fit in to these groups/that I should look at.</p>

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<p>You may want to also post this in a major oriented forum to get the most helpful responses possible.
[Business</a> Major - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/business-major/]Business”>Business Major - College Confidential Forums)</p>

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<p>just posted it, thanks!</p>

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<p>Any slot at a D-1 school will be immensely competitive – as competitive as getting a slot in Harvard. D-1 schools weigh whom they pursue very very carefully – you should repost your general queries here:
[Athletic</a> Recruits - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/]Athletic”>Athletic Recruits - College Confidential Forums)</p>

<p>BTW: to say that “only” Stanford is rather ridiculous in almost any context.</p>

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<p>How could you be a sophomore in England and being recruited for football? Sophomore year is early for all but the most elite prospects in the U.S. to be recruited, and you can’t have the opportunity overseas to be showing your full potential without facing strong competition. Are you saying that you’re hoping to be recruited?</p>

<p>BTW, there aren’t many folks in the U.S. who would consider a Stanford degree to be inferior to Harvard / Yale. Bill and Hillary Clinton’s daughter had her choice of the three and chose Stanford.</p>

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<p>Beyond gadad’s point about your age, location and recruitment which I was wondering about, too, it’s my impression that sports management careers are maybe more about acquired experience than acquired education… That is to say a sports management degree probably isn’t as important as internships and entry level jobs in terms of getting into the field. Theo Epstein and David Stearns are two baseball execs with ivy league degrees that I can think of. You can probably google for more examples in other sports.</p>

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<p>Any of the top 3 choices you listed would be fine. But I think you are overestimating your ability to be recruited by all those schools. Also… not all of them give athletic scholarships. So if you think you will get a full ride at any of them, that is a mistake. If you need money, you need to investigate which ones offer athletic scholarships and pursue those by contacting coaches next year/sending tape/etc. There is a whole forum out here for athletic recruits where you can get advice on that.</p>