Expanding Curriculum: Program Begins Offering New Special Topics Class Each Semester
With a sports landscape that is ever-changing, the KU Sport Management program has started a new initiative to offer a unique special topics each semester. This class is open to any undergraduate student at KU, but the student must submit an application to take the course explaining their interest and how they plan to use the material in their future careers. Masters Student Sam Klein details the first few classes that have been offered thus far.
Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics
One of the new classes offered to our students in Fall 2019 was titled Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics. Chris Brown, a Doctoral student in the program, has taken on the opportunity to develop the course and taught the inaugural class. The course itself is comprised of different learning areas that cover a variety of topics within intercollegiate athletics, including a history of college athletics, the differences between NCAA Division I, II, and III, and how major infractions work. Brown especially wanted to make the students aware of various elements of intercollegiate athletics beyond the “Power Five” schools that often receive much of the attention and media coverage.
Brown’s background has helped him with the development of the course and how he approaches his teaching. Brown graduated from Colorado State University (CSU) in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and went on to receive two master’s in communications and Health and Human Performance from Austin Peay State University. Since graduating from CSU, he has worked in all three NCAA divisions in some capacity. While at Austin Peay State University, Brown began working in college athletics as a tutor. After graduating in 2013, he served as an intern for the Ohio Valley Conference. After less than a year with the OVC, he then began working as a full-time compliance administrator at Southeast Missouri State University before taking a job with the NCAA at their National Offices to continue working in compliance. While with the NCAA, Brown worked in both Division II and Division III to support member schools with rule interpretation and waiver processes. Since coming to KU, Brown has continued his work in college athletics. He is still employed through the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (Division III) and is the founder/owner of Brown Athletics Consulting.
In the Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics course, students are asked to engage and work on an array of projects in the course. Initially, students are introduced to the topic through lecture as well as open discussions. After students have a general understanding, they are asked to practically apply what they’ve learned through in-class activities. The final project for the course asks students to pick a topic of their choosing and identify issues, as well as solutions, for the problems facing intercollegiate athletics. Brown tries to emphasize the importance of learning over grades. Brown acknowledged that even though he graduated in 2011 from undergrad, he “can still remember paying more attention to what my grade was going to be over what I was actually learning. My aim is to ensure that students in my class do the opposite.”
When asked which part of the class he enjoys most, Brown highlights the class discussions. “While at times, it took a while to get the room engaged, I felt like we had great discussions on complex issues. I was awestruck by the knowledge and willingness to challenge each other as peers to think deeper. Those discussions rank right up there with discussions I had on staff regarding cases at the NCAA.” This certainly demonstrates high praise from someone who has dedicated years of their life to intercollegiate athletics.
Grayson Brucato, a senior from St. Charles, Illinois, was able to take the course during the Fall 2019 semester. “Throughout the course, I learned a lot about a bunch of different topics. Mainly, I got to see a lot of scandals and how they are viewed from the NCAA’s perspective for a change as opposed to the players’ or teams,” said Brucato. “On top of that, I began to understand how and why the NCAA operates, as well as the connections they have to the schools themselves.” When asked about his favorite part of the course, Brucato cited the in-class activities. “For almost all of them, we played the role of a senior in the NCAA or an athletic director at a bunch of different schools and had to attack a wide range of situations. Then, we would share them with the class and see what all people came up with to deal with the same issue. Not only was it interesting to see how other people went about it, but Chris played Devil’s Advocate a lot and really made us think about how our decisions would affect everything else.” Brucato enjoyed his time in the class so much that he said he would “100-percent recommend” the course to anyone, regardless if they had an interest or not in sports.
One of the goals for Brown is to continue refining the Issues in the Intercollegiate Athletics course and looking to see where he can add more depth in the classes content. “Moving forward, I’d like to give a deeper dive into each of the three divisions, go even further in-depth on eligibility requirements and include more guest speakers.”
Personal and Athlete Branding
Another new class offered to our students in Fall 2020 is Personal and Athlete Branding. Dr. Brian Gordon, an Associate Professor in the program, has played a huge role in the development and design of the course. The course is designed to help give students a better understanding of their brand and how they can learn from athletes to help differentiate themselves from others. Students will be exposed to a variety of hands-on opportunities to develop their brands throughout the course.
Gordon had a head start in developing this course as he has a background in branding research. “Most of my work has delved into understanding and building sport team brands. However, many of the principles that we apply to sport team brands can also be applied to individuals as well,” says Gordon. In addition to his research, Gordon was fortunate enough to have learned a fair amount about athlete branding and research directly related to the topic as a recent graduate student of his completed their dissertation on athlete branding.
To begin the course, students will be introduced to the basics of personal branding and proceed quickly from there. There will be several application-based assignments where students are to assess the various components of athlete brands to obtain a better understanding and positioning of their brands. After students have thoroughly examined the components of athlete brands and have a firm understanding of the various concepts, they will begin to dive into their brands. They will do this through a variety of activities that include creating inventories, building self-branding strategic plans, and even the execution of the plans.
One of the reasons for the creation of this new course, as Gordon cites, is because of a demand from students who are wondering how they can differentiate themselves from their “competition” as their careers progress. “I have heard over and over again from students, especially seniors looking for an internship, that they are wondering how they can stand out or differentiate themselves from their competition. I think this course will help students understand their own personal characteristics better, what their “mission statement” would be, and how they want to project themselves/build their reputation to outside stakeholders.” Gordon continues by citing how vital athlete branding is to the course and how it will provide numerous case studies and framework for students in-person brand building. One of Gordon’s main goals for the course is to provide students with the necessary tools for them to build their brands digitally which will, in turn, help them professionally.
The part of the course that Gordon is most excited for is for when students are to bring their self-branding strategic plans to life by creating and further developing profiles and accounts on various platforms to promote their brand. “By platforms, I mean the construction of a blog, personal website, podcast, or other digital architecture that best fits the brand-building objectives of each individual student.” Not only will Gordon be teaching the class, but he also plans to participate in the assignments, too. “I am going to be engaging in every personal branding assignment with the students so we will take this branding journey together. I plan on building a personal website as well as a complimentary social platform to go with it. In this sense, both the students and I will have a personal stake in it and will be learning best practices from each other. I cannot wait for that project!”
Future of Sports Wagering
In Spring 2020, Dr. Jordan Bass and Chris Brown teamed up to offer a course on the future of wagering in sports. The course detailed the important vocabulary and uniqueness of wagering in this arena. Additionally, students heard from industry professionals and researched scandals that occured previously.
Morgan Couch, a junior for Olathe, Kansas, is currently enrolled in the course. Couch has a goal to one day work in professional sports and saw this class as an opportunity to learn about an emerging industry within professional sports while also challenging herself by taking a class in a subject she knew almost nothing about.
Despite the semester not being over yet, Couch already has a few takeaways from the course. First, she has been intrigued with the evolution of sports betting. “I find it fascinating to see that one of the earliest forms of organized sports wagering for the masses started out as pari-mutuel betting on horse racing… Fast-forward to the present day, and technology has made sports wagering much more complex, especially with having online sportsbooks.” Next, Couch touched on how important an efficient business model is for any organization in sports. “If one is wishing to work in sports, they must understand the business side of the industry and how to essentially ‘manipulate’ the system in order to generate the most amount of revenue from their organization.” Two additional takeaways from the class for Couch are the various gambling scandals within sports (e.g. Tim Donaghy, a former NBA referee who engaged in point-shaving) and how they impacted the way sports betting currently takes place in the United States, as well as PASPA, which stands for the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act.
Couch’s favorite part of the class has been learning about the various sports wagering scandals throughout history. “One of my favorite cases we learned about was the Pete Rose scandal. Growing up, I had always heard my parents talk about the famous ‘Pete Rose Scandal,’ however, I never really understood the motivation behind his actions and how it has continued to affect his career and personal life today.” When asked if she would recommend this class to another student, Couch responded enthusiastically. “I would definitely recommend this class to another student! I think that if one is wanting to work in sports, they need to understand the various aspects that affect the industry at every level (amateur, intercollegiate, professional). Every class is very engaging and hands-on!” Couch continued, confidently, by saying that this course has been one of her favorite classes she’s taken in college thus far.
