<p>Hey I'm a high school student who is going to graduate next year. I am trying to major in Sports management and right now I am really interested in Flagler College's Sports Management because I heard it is a great school and has a great sports management programme(Top 5 in the nation). However, I couldn't find much info about the school's programme. Therefore, if you know anything about FC's sports management programme or you are an actual student who goes to FC or majoring in sports management at FC, please tell me about the school and programme. Thank you.</p>
<p>Said before and I’ll say it again. Sports Management is the silliest degree any college can offer. If you honestly believe majoring in Sports Management is going to get you in to sports business you need to wake up.</p>
<p>And really, Flagler College? What connections will you make in the sports business going to Flagler College? You need to attend a school with a strong Athletics Department, major in something practical to fall back on, and do everything you can to meet players, Alumni involved in sports, etc etc.</p>
<p>So, in summary - don’t major in Sports Management (I can’t believe schools actually offer this as a major) and don’t go to a small school with absolutley no athletics worth speaking of. Lets say that you fall into the VAST (PLEASE READ: VAST) majority of students who choose this major and wind up working at a sporting goods store - what will you do everytime you walk in to an interview for the next 6 years and when they ask what your major is you have to tell them “Sports Management”? It will certainly NOT get you ahead of anyone, but it can certainly pull you behind others. Sports business is all about charisma, lucky breaks, and most importanly - connections.</p>
<p>Hey Pls, I’ve heard many good things about Flagler College’s sports management programme. I feel like you are just trying to critize. Dude, you must have been a very negative person. Hey buddy, if you really believe you’re saying the absolute truth, what about those people who’ve got great jobs in sports field after majoring sports management. I agree on that connections are the most important thing in this field, but I don’t think a school’s strong Athletics Department will not help me. Hopfully next time a person critizes me, I want that person to be a person who actually majored in sports managment.</p>
<p>Theleader, you need to wise up and realize the school is trying to take advantage of you with this program. They’re capitalizing on the foolish notion that people think they should major in what they love, regardless of job prospects. That’s bull ****. You need to major in something that will get you a job so you can actually ENJOY things you REALLY love outside of work. You’re much better off majoring in something like accounting or finance, getting a small bookkeeping or something job with your colleges team, if possible, or a local team, and then hope to move up from there. A sports management degree gives you no trade, no skill. You bring nothing to the table with that degree. You could learn all of what you learned with the SM degree and then some if you had a small job with a team for a year. Sorry to be harsh, but its the truth. you need to find something more practical</p>
<p>The thing that I want to ask you is did you guys even major in SM? How could you guys tell me it’s wasting time major in SM. I just cannot understand.</p>
<p>I asked you to name one person that has succeeded in the sports business that majored in SM. If you can’t do that then that should be all you need to know. </p>
<p>We can tell you because we have (or at least I have) seen people major in this and go absolutely nowhere. Its a joke. It cannot be applied to anything besides sports and even then - sport is not a professional occupation. What I mean is all the learning of the business you do will be on the job not in the classroom. These are things that cannot be taught in the classroom.</p>
<p>To go to college and spends tens of thousands of dollars on such a narrow degree is foolish.</p>
<p>Ok you’re right that we can’t predict the future and didn’t major in sports management, but what I can definitively tell you that a SM degree does not make you any more qualified to have a job internally with a sports team than does any other business type degree. Therefore, why not get a degree that can actually be applied to other fields besides sports management. Some one with an accounting degree is just as qualified to do that job as you with a SM degree, and plus they have a fall back when they dont get the SM job, which is likely because its a small field. You asked for help, and I’m giving you my opinion. If you’re convinced this SM degree will help you get some kind of career, go for it. I’m not gonna try to convince people to do something that will make more competition for me in the job market</p>
<p>EDIT: Beat me to the response by a minute plsc! lol</p>
<p>Hey, I want to be a soccer agent, and I know that major in sports management is nothing related to become one. But I know many soccer agents who are actually very successful majored in sm. The thing I want to tell you all is what I am focusing on is getting good connections and I believe to get good connections in sports field, it’s going to help me alot to major in sports management. (Especially If one wants to become a sports agent.)</p>
<p>Please name one agent that did that. You’ve yet to actually name a single successful person to major in SM. You just keep saying “I know some”. Yea that means nothing and it comes off as you lying to yourself. </p>
<p>And understand that if you’re talking about European agents the educational systems cannot be compared. My management teacher is British. He always talks about how good some of the SM programs are over there and how the ones in the US are terrible.</p>
<p>It won’t help and you do realize how terrible the soccer market is in the US? You’re just setting yourself up for huge failures.</p>
<p>I understand your opinion is that SM will help but you’re stating that it will get you ahead as a fact and you couldn’t be more wrong. You will be stuck in ticket offices and concession stands. The degree is USELESS.</p>
<p>If you want to be an agent, you should focus way more on law type things. The glam and such of negotiating big money is a very small part of the job compared to all the law involved. Ever hear of Scott Boras? One of the biggest, most dominant sports agents ever? He has a law degree. You should concentrate more on something like that. A SM degree will not make you a better sports agent or anything else in sports. I can’t put it any other way. Get a law degree. Go to a big sports school. Get a small job of some sort with the teams and talk to everyone. The career you’re going for has no “get this degree and you’ll be good” aspects to it. It’s pretty much hit or miss</p>
<p>You have to combine a SM deree with a biz degree and even then it will take luck and hard work to get a great job in sports. Some SM programs are a joke. I agree. But the notion that one can study accounting and somehow get into a sprts management position is just as stupid. </p>
<p>It depends on what you intend to do after college also. A SM degree does teach things such as event mangement and marketing for sports and stuff like that. Will you get that with an accounting degree? Hell no. Do you need it? Yes. </p>
<p>The title of this thread should be “be careful taking advice off of message boards.” That includes my advice. There are so bitter and twisted nut-bags here. Take that for what it is worth. </p>
<p>Try to combine degrees and fit them as best you can to what you want to do in life. And don’t believe everything you read online.</p>
<p>^ Are you trying to tell me that an accountant, who knows the in’s and out’s of how businesses make money (which is all sports is), and actually knows how to do something specific, that being accounting, is less equipped to have a sports management job than someone who gets a stupid SM degree, where they teach you no trades/skills? Come on now. The ONLY way to get a good, lucrative SM job is to start getting into the industry early and hope to move up. Person A has an SM degree, Person B has an accounting degree. A sports team is a money making thing, they need accountants. They have MAYBE one person from whom they require the “skills” from an SM degree. But OP then said he wanted to do sports agency, which no doubt should be pursued with a law degree. </p>
<p>I keep dragging myself into this, but now I’m really done. If you want to think an SM degree is better than accounting, go ahead, I’m not gonna convince someone to be my competition</p>
<p>"It depends on what you intend to do after college also. A SM degree does teach things such as event mangement and marketing for sports and stuff like that. Will you get that with an accounting degree? Hell no. Do you need it? Yes. "</p>
<p>Ahahahahah. You NEED event planning and a sports marketing class? Wow, you clearly have NO clue what you’re talking about. Please tell me you didn major in SM thinking it would get you anywhere?</p>
<p>I’ll tell you want I do have a clue about. I majored and mastered in accounting and passed the CPA exam and got tenure at two colleges teaching accounting including the college I am at right now waiting for my next class. </p>
<p>As an accountant, sure, one could work in the business office of a sports franchise or athletic department. However, there is a whole heck of a lot of crap that I had to learn about accounting and auditing standards and taxation and related topics that wouldn’t help me very much. There are some topics in a typical SM degree that would help you in some capacity in an athletic department (such as HR management and NCAA rules and Fed and state laws) or sports franchise. </p>
<p>A business curriculum teaches you general stuff about marketing. I am sure a SM degree focuses on marketing as well but specifically to the sports industry. </p>
<p>Get off your high horse(s) and stop pretending YOU are the only one that knows *** you are talking about.</p>
<p>like i said, I’m done trying to convince people to be my competition. If anyone wants to pursue an SM degree thinking it will help them become the next Steinbrenner, Boras, Cuban or Rosenhaus, then by all means go for it.</p>
<p>Get off the SM bandwagon just because it’s what your son wants to do. At this point it sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself that it’s not a waste. What happens when your son goes up against the thousands of other people who picked this degree and doesn’t get the job because of the narrow range of opportunities and he goes looking for a job in an unrelated field and is laughed out of every office because he has an SM major?</p>
<p>I’ll ask you to do what I asked the OP. Find me one example of someone who is an industry leader and has majored in SM. Please, enlighten me. </p>
<p>Employers like to see Accounting, Finance, or Economics because it provides a broad base of skills that can be applied in every industry. When you select something as narrow as Sports Management you are simply setting yourself up to have huge difficulties finding a job, it’s as simple as that.</p>
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<p>This is both shocking and hilarious to hear from someone who is in the workforce. You learn about broad concepts in classes and then use internships and entry level jobs to acquire skill sets specific to your industry. </p>
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<p>Point proven here. Your son will be wasting college credits taking numerous classes on how to sell tickets, collegiate athetlic regulations, etc etc. These are not skills that are desirable to athletic departments. These are things that can be learned on the job. Meanwhile someone who majors in Economics/Finance/Accounting will have a much better understanding of why the tickets are set at those prices and someone with a Law degree will be handling all the Universities legal affairs. </p>
<p>Good luck paying Tens of Thousands of dollars for a degree that comes with so much risk and such little return.</p>
<p>Here ya go. At least he’ll have a chance of earning more than Fashion Merchandising majors (something I consider to be as much of a waste and as narrow as SM), but sadly also a high chance of making less than someone who majored in photography.</p>
<p>You are a victim of your own assumptions. I am not advocating for a SM degree, in fact, if you can read, you’ll notice I said one should combine degrees, if possible. I agree with you that most SM programs are too narrowly focused. However, having a narrow focus isn’t all bad. </p>
<p>When you stop preaching and stop pretending you know with absolute certainty the answers to thinsg you’ll realize we do not live in a world of absolute truths. One can get a law degree and still end up working at Wal-Mart or in a job he/she hates. Soem SM degrees are bogus but others are world class programs that have track records of getting people in the door. </p>
<p>You want examples? </p>
<p>Check out what Umass is doing or the U. of South Carolina. </p>
<p>Neither of these programs is training people to work at the YMCA. </p>
<p>I could name others but why waste my time. I get the feeling you have a SM degree and are quite bitter about it because you work at Foot Locker. You remind me of the people I know who went to film school and end up in accounting or selling hot dogs or whatever. </p>
<p>The truth is there are risks associated with any degree plan. In addition, some degree plans suck more than others. You have to discern which ones are bogus and which ones deliver real marketable skills. </p>
<p>There are some very good SM programs out there. I am not sure I turst the undergrad ones but some of the graduate ones are excellent.</p>