How to become a college athletic director?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My junior has locked in on this being a great job for herself someday. I can see it - she loves sports, loves coaching, loves helping people, has an extroverted and outgoing personality.

I have no idea how to get from A to B though. I assume going to a university with a robust athletics department that you could intern for would help? Better to play a club sport at a big D1 school or to play on a D3 team? What would one major in? Should she be looking at schools that tout their "sports management" programs?

Any thoughts or advice from people who know college athletics better than I do would be really helpful!

This is a great q.

I feel this is way more opaque than how to become a GM, sporting director in pro sports which I have lots of knowledge about.

College sports jobs otoh are so opaque.

I wil say do not get suckered into sports management programs.

M7 mba will help way way more, especiallly mit sloan (sloan connection to the sport world ironically is immense), HBS,GsB.

Can you say more about sports management programs? I see them cropping up more and more.

Most students gets to brag about interning with some national league team... for free or low wages, of course, but then have a REALLY hard time getting a job.
Ask about job placement from a sports management program. I just keep hearing "my son/daughter majored in sports management and can't find a job."
The degree doesn't translate into much use if you can't get a job in the field.


Looks at the employment section of sports' teams website. Generally they hire social media/accounting/marketing/. Esports - what that is, is becoming popular.
MIT Sloan hosts a big sports management/data analytics convention. Worth looking into.

Analytics/IT is one path that shouldn’t be overlooked. Everything is data driven these days. I have two family members who work for professional sports organizations, and one majored in marketing, and one is in IT.

[Anonymous]

Play on a team. Then it’s a long climb to AD somewhere. Lots of moves and stops in between. Have to demonstrate results. But it all begins with being on a college team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Play on a team. Then it’s a long climb to AD somewhere. Lots of moves and stops in between. Have to demonstrate results. But it all begins with being on a college team.

yep, this. I'm the pp who posted the list of majors for various college ADs. The majority of them (I want to say vast, but I don't remember and don't feel like going back and looking) were college athletes.