The Super Bowl is this weekend, and yes, there’s a class for that.

At first glance, “SPM 199: The Super Bowl: Sport, Culture and Entertainment” may seem like an easy A, at least for football fans. But the professor of the Syracuse University class wants people to think otherwise.

The course is taught by Dennis Deninger, who, before becoming a professor of sport management, notched several Emmy Awards as a producer at ESPN. He said only about half of his students score an 80 percent or higher on the first exam.

“You cannot coast in this class if you’re just an NFL fan,” he said.

In its sixth year, SPM 199 gives students an in-depth look at the world’s most-watched media event of the year: the Super Bowl.

Students explore the various effects the game has on the economy, culture and society overall, Deninger said. Like students in most other classes, SPM 199 students analyze sections of a textbook, take exams and quizzes and complete weekly writing assignments. At the semester’s end, they hand in a seven-to-10-page final research paper.

“There’s some work,” said Chris Venzon, a freshman broadcast and digital journalism major taking the course. “I had to explain this to my parents and they’re like, ‘You’re taking a class on the Super Bowl? What are you doing?’ And I said, ‘You don’t understand, this is a serious class. We write papers, we do all that sort of stuff.’”

Michael Veley, chair of SU’s sport management department, came up with the idea for the course more than six years ago. Veley met with Deninger and said he was considering a class on the Super Bowl, especially as the event’s popularity and impact continued to rise, Deninger said.

Deninger refers to the game as “America’s secular holiday,” and a rival of Thanksgiving. He said the football game is only part of an event that unifies groups of people, and that’s what students study in the class.

“It’s gone from being a sports competition to an event that defines America in so many ways,” he said. “It’s one thing that we can all say we do together.”

In March, students will hear from Frank Supovitz, former senior vice president of events for the NFL, and Kathryn Petkevich, a senior sport management major and international business minor at SU. Petkevich is currently working at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California — this year’s Super Bowl venue — on the event’s Host Committee.

In prior years, Veley has spoken as a guest lecturer in the class on the event’s history. One fact students learn is Roman numerals were used for no reason other than to “add purpose and gravity” to the event, Deninger said.

He added that the class began just before Super Bowl XLV and that using Roman numerals for the title of his class — which is now in its “sixth edition” — is not out of the question.

“We haven’t started denoting it in Roman numerals,” he said, “yet.”

The NFL did break its tradition of using Roman numerals for the Super Bowl this year, though, when it decided to brand its 2016 championship game as “Super Bowl 50” instead.

Matthew Soule, a junior film major, said he’s enrolled in the class because he, like many of his classmates, has a passion for sports. But when he tells his friends who are not taking the class about it, he often hears the same words echoed.

“They’re like, ‘Oh, the Super Bowl? That must be a class for jocks or something,” Soule said.

Deninger said the class may be perceived as unconventional, but regardless of a student’s interests — all years and majors can enroll — it’s practical and applicable to all, jock or not.

There are no prerequisites to take the course, but there’s usually a waiting list, Deninger said. Enrollment maxes out at just above 90 students because, as Deninger says, “that’s all the seats I got” in the room, which is named the “Dennis and Gail Deninger Lecture Hall,” in his family’s honor.

On Sunday night, millions will watch when the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos clash. Deninger favors Carolina, but said there are so many unknowns that could keep viewers on the edge of their seats and affect the result — just the things he said he strives to do in class.

“We try to make it interesting so I don’t have people falling asleep on me here,” he said.

Published on February 3, 2016 at 11:15 pm

Contact Matthew: mguti100@syr.edu | @MatthewGut21