Sport Management Program Ranks in Global Top 10

Sport Management Academic Director Dan Rascher said, “Our faculty, staff, and even alumni help develop the next generation of sports business leaders to be effective and ethical leaders in the industry. These rankings recognize the impact being made — in our students’ classrooms, in their multiple internships, and in their careers.”

Leading sport management industry network and mentorship

The alumni surveyed gave the USF program a perfect score of 100% for mentorship, and it ranked 6th in global programs for its alumni and industry network. Each year, USF sport management students participate in the Alumni Mentor Program, in which they build and foster relationships with alumni that focus on professional and personal development. In the past several years, nearly 200 mentorship pairings have been made, with over 150 of the program’s alumni actively participating. Associate Program Director Ashley Sloper, also the head of professional development, believes that the Alumni Mentor Program “creates an infrastructure of student support outside of the classroom from our community of alumni working in the sports industry, leading to networking, internship, and job opportunities across California, the U.S., and around the world.”

Mentorship played a significant part in Mia Tolliver’s MS ’24 career development: “My program alumni mentor, Eddie Maisonet MA ‘16, challenges me to connect with people that I would’ve been afraid to reach out to, and keeps me accountable along the way. Eddie does not shy away from giving me honest and supportive feedback about my classwork, and letting me know what more I can do beyond being a student. Through mentorship, I learned how to advocate for myself in my work and gain confidence in my studies.”

Through mentorship, I learned how to advocate for myself in my work and gain confidence in my studies.”

A-grade sport management faculty and job support

Alumni surveyed for the SportBusiness rankings gave USF program faculty a score of 93 percent, and the program received the third-highest job support score of the 10 top-ranked global programs. The award-winning full-time and part-time faculty in the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles have been recognized as combining academic knowledge and skills with industry-relevant practices and connections. One example: Professor Dan Rascher’s, who has taught courses including sports economics and finance and business research methods, has used his expertise in sports economics and finance in legal cases involving the NCAA and athlete's rights for over 20 years, including in expert testimony in lawsuits like O'Bannon v. NCAA (2014) and NCAA v. Alston (2021), which was decided by the Supreme Court. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Applied Sport Management Association, and the Antitrust Enforcement Award for Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Economics from the American Antitrust Institute.

The SportBusiness rankings were based on two surveys, one completed by course leaders and another taken by alumni who graduated in 2020. The rankings considered student measures of teaching, support, access, and value, the extent to which alumni were employed both 12 months and three years after graduation, and the demographics of the students and faculty in the program.