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After seeing demand from students and families and in the sports management industry, Syracuse University will launch its new undergraduate dual degree program combining sports and business in the fall 2024 semester.

The Sport Management dual degree program, which will be offered through The Falk College of Sport & Human Dynamics and Whitman School of Management, will allow undergraduate students to earn a degree in four years with a minimum of 148 credits in the respective schools,
according to a Falk news release from March 29.

The program has been “bubbling under the surface” for over a decade, Whitman Director of Undergraduate Recruitment Rachel DuBois and Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs Lindsay Quilty wrote in an email to The Daily Orange. The two expressed anticipation for the program’s further development and launch.

“We are excited to provide this opportunity to combine programs to meet the demand and growth of the sports business industry,” DuBois and Quilty wrote.

Falk and Whitman are also launching a dual program in public health and business, which will also begin in the fall 2024 semester. DuBois and Quilty echoed the Falk College release’s emphasis on the collaboration between the two schools as a step up for students’ overall educational experience and opportunity.

“Right now, we are focusing on establishing a strong foundation with the new duals we just announced… but we believe this opens the door to exploring new and exciting partnerships between our Schools,” they wrote.

Falk College and Whitman have collaborated on logistics and the approval process. The program will require the Whitman core, along with a sport management specialization and liberal arts requirements, DuBois and Quilty said. They added that the schools have worked to reduce redundancies in course requirements and structured the curriculum to complement both business and sports management programs.

Through capitalizing on the relationship between sport management and business disciplines, Falk College Dean Diane Lyden Murphy said in the Falk release that the dual degree will give students a competitive edge in the job markets.

“By gaining specialized skillsets in both sport management and business, students will be well-equipped to meet new emerging and evolving sectors of the thriving global business of sport,” Murphy said in the release.

Potential career opportunities stemming from the dual degree program include sports administration, sports marketing and promotion and sports communications and community relations, according to the email.

The new program’s establishment follows NCAA’s approval of the current NIL policy in July 2021 allowing all NCAA D1, D2 and D3 student athletes to receive compensation for their name, image and likeness.Whitman School Interim Dean Alexander McKelvie said in the Falk release that the NIL policy is an example of how sports and business continue to overlap.

He highlighted the emergence of the business of esports as emerging careers for students, pointing to the commercial aspects of sports and related events.

Current and prospective students have already expressed “extensive interest” in the dual program, DuBois and Quilty said. They expect interest to continue to grow as more people learn about the program.

Micah Taylor, a freshman studying sports management, said the addition of the dual program with Whitman will benefit students like him who currently have their curriculum based in Falk in branching beyond just a sports-based understanding of the industry.

“(The program) definitely helps with the business side of working in a sports organization,” Taylor said.

Despite the demonstrated interest from Falk and Whitman students, the dual degree’s high credit requirement and limited space mean it won’t be available to current students, DuBois and Quilty said.

The program’s admissions credentials include a high level of school and community involvement, high school course work that can lead to college credits for statistics and calculus and demonstrated interest in sports and business, DuBois and Quilty said.

Falk and Whitman will be focusing on the two new dual programs and monitoring their progress before considering and potentially moving forward with other collaborations, DuBois and Quilty said.

Beginning in the fall 2024 semester, incoming freshmen in Whitman and Falk College can apply for both the 148-credit Sport Management dual program and the 152-credit Public Health dual program.

Published on April 19, 2023 at 3:58 am