Degree Title:  Master of Business Administration and Master of Sport Administration

Program Name and Numbers: MBA – MB6141; MSA – MS8149

Department/Unit: Sports Administration & Graduate Program, College of Business

Delivery Mode:  The MBA/MSA program is offered on the Athens campus. 

Terms of Entry: Fall, Spring

Program Mission: The mission of the MBA and MSA dual program is to prepare students for leadership positions by combining the academically rigorous MBA program with the sport-specific knowledge of the MSA program.  The curriculum addresses the growing complexity of the sports, facility, and entertainment industries, and helps our students develop the essential skills in communication, collaboration, and teamwork that are critical for success.

Program Learning Objectives: 

MBA Learning Objectives

• Demonstrate an understanding of business knowledge across business disciplines.
• Integrate information from multiple business disciplines to frame and solve business problems.
• Evaluate business problems and apply business knowledge to add value in a business context.
• Develop the leadership skills necessary to lead organizations in a dynamic environment.
• Create effective teams through collaboration and the use of high performance team capabilities.
• Analyze ethical dimensions of business decisions using ethical decision frameworks.
• Demonstrate effective writing and presentation skills.

MSA Learning Objectives

• Apply effective leadership and critical decision-making skills to successfully manage issues and challenges facing sport managers.
• Recognize and address moral and ethical challenges within the sport industry.
• Demonstrate effective sales and presentation skills.
• Demonstrate a variety of research methods to address managerial issues in the sport industry.
• Discuss the legal implications and risk management needs as applied to the sport industry.
• Demonstrate the ability to use sport management theory as a base for professional practice.
• Strategically plan for sport facility and event management.
• Demonstrate the skills necessary to effectively manage sport within a diverse, global society.

Program Overview:  The MBA/MSA dual program combines a business foundation with a sport-specific focus to create a program that uniquely prepares students to enter the sport and entertainment industry.   The curriculum facilitates the connection of classroom knowledge to professional experiences and provides students the opportunity to apply these skills through hands on projects.

The MBA program provides holistic business knowledge through rigorous core classes, professional development seminars, on-site company tours and networking, an intensive capstone seminar, and an international immersion experience.  Students expand knowledge in areas like organizational behavior, strategic marketing and supply chain management, and prescriptive analytics.  Learning to be a better leader and a more effective teammate are some of the many skills students learn in and outside the classroom.

The MSA program provides a great range of learning options specialize the degree.  The required courses provide a strong foundation in sports administration, while providing the students with opportunities to enhance the degree with electives offerings.  Through practicum, independent study and special problems courses, students have the opportunity to partner with industry experts to solve real-world sport industry problems.

Link to Program: http://business.ohio.edu/academics/graduate-degrees/master-of-sports-administration-and-mba-dual-degree/

Graduation Requirements: 

The MBA program curriculum is a 42 credit hour, lock-step program. 

Core

• MBA 6315  Accounting for Executives
• MBA 6320  Data Analysis for Decision Making
• MBA 6325  Prescriptive Analytics
• MBA 6335  Managerial Finance
• MBA 6340  Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Management
• MBA 6350  Strategic Marketing and Value Chain Management
• MBA 6360  Strategic Use of Information
• MBA 6370  Operations Management
• MBA 6380  Strategy
• MBA 6900  Executive Training Series
• MBA 6900  Building Team Consciousness
• MBA 6900  New Venture Planning
• MBA 6900  Capstone Seminar
• MBA 6900  International Immersion

Seminars will include leadership and professional development, company visits, team cultivation and coaching, and an international immersion experience.

The MSA program curriculum is a 36 credit hour program. 

Required Courses

• BUSL 5650     Law of Sports
• SASM 5000    Diversity in Sports
• SASM 6100    Leadership in Sports Administration
• SASM 6480    Management of Public Assembly Facilities
• SASM 6501    Integrated Media
• SASM 6580    Revenue Generation
• SASM 6800    Research Methods in Sport Administration
• SASM 6900    Seminar I Sports Business Introduction
• SASM 6900    Seminar II Entrepreneurship in Sports
• SASM 6900    Seminar III Career Development
• SASM 6990    Capstone Seminar

Students will round out their program with elective courses.  Below is a sample of elective courses:

• SASM 6110Sports Business Foundations
• SASM 6550  Consumer Behavior
• SASM 6910  Internship
• SASM 6900Special Topics (including Collegiate Sports Seminar & Professional Sports Seminar)
• SASM 6920  Practicum
• SASM 6931  Special Problems
• SASM 6930  Independent Study

Culminating Experience: Students will synthesize MBA course learnings (including strategic marketing, prescriptive analytics, accounting, data analysis, organizational behavior, operations, managerial finance, strategy, and strategic use of information systems) to create specific, actionable deliverables aligning tactics to a client’s strategy in an intensive capstone seminar. Students complete the program by traveling abroad to work with international companies and peers on a two-week consulting project.

At the conclusion of the MSA program, students take part in a week long capstone trip, conducted in a major city working on consulting projects with relevant and significant sports organizations, to create specific, actionable deliverables to advance the objectives of significant real world sports sector partners.  New York has been the regular site for this capstone component and sponsoring organizations include: major professional sports leagues; professional sports franchises; major sports marketing and representation firms; university athletic departments; sports broadcasting networks and public sector organizations.

Admissions Requirements:

• Regionally accredited bachelor’s degree.
• Cumulative undergraduate GPA of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
• GMAT or GRE scores
• Three letters of recommendation from professional or academic references. 
• Official transcripts from all degree bearing institutions at the bachelor’s level or higher and unofficial transcript for any additional college coursework.
• A professional plan statement discussing your career goals, how the master’s degree will help you achieve those goals, areas or competencies that you expect the program will help you strengthen and what you plan to contribute to the learning community.
• Current resume.
• TOEFL or IELTS for non-native English speakers. 

Transfer credits are not accepted for the MBA portion of this program.  Up to 6 transfer credits from prior graduate study may be applied to the MSA portion of this program.