How to start a career in Sports Management

<p>Growing up, I was always obsessed with sports, and thus grew up thinking I was a shoe-in to become a sports agent. Yea, then reality set in, and I'm at Arizona State on a full scholarship considering a major in finance or accounting. But I've been thinking recently that a career in sports management isn't as impossible as I once thought. Could anyone give me some advice on what undergraduate programs most sports agents follow? I know some schools offer degrees in Sports Management, but do all future sports agents go this route? So basically, what are the top schools in this field, etc etc. Any info would be awesome. THANKS</p>

<p>^I would say Finance and or Management are best for you, forget the accoutning crap. You should also, try to manage (if possible) some athletes in your school. Such as you may have a friend who is on the basketball team and (ASU is amazing for basketball by the way) he saysthat you went to a couple of meetings with him and you helped secure him or her a job and you write that on your resume and send it to firms as your accompishment, even though you just went ot a couple important meetings with your firend. This is a bit tricky, but you just need some street smarts and if you make your bs sound good enough, you should be able to land a job at a decent firm.</p>

<p><---This is a brilliant idea seriously and since ASU is very sports oriented, you should be fine.</p>

<p>Not all sports agents do SM. You can easily get into the field just by doing management, marketing, or finance. Getting into the field is all about connections, and what connections your school has to agencies, athletes, and who can hook you up with a job. I don't know how ASU is with this. I'm assuming you don't have a SM program at ASU (but I know they have a good B-School which is a plus), so you need to keep in touch with your career centers, speak to people who have gone out of your school to the sports field, and try and get an internship somewhere. Numerous times people get hired, get a position, and come back to the school saying "I need interns! Send some over here!" Network yourself and look into the oppurtunities your school has with pro sports teams, you have good oppurtunities in the state of Arizona with the Suns, Cardinals, Coyotes, and Diamondbacks, and almost always the organizations give preference to area candidates, as they are the most likely to stay there. Lots of those teams have "Career days" which they let people who are interested in the organization come and get educated about what someone in this field does, who they employ, and how you get employed. For good grad schools, UMass, Ohio, Oregon, BGSU, Baylor, Florida State, West Va, Tennessee, Miami, Texas, Michigan, Northwestern, NYU, there are no rankings, although <a href="http://www.nassm.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.nassm.com&lt;/a> is a helpful list in just seeing who has it. Good luck!</p>