A sport management course fit for the world’s most valuable team

Just months before being named as the world’s most valuable sports franchise for a ninth consecutive year by Forbes, the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys enjoyed another table-topping success in the highly competitive field of higher education. 

The Online Master of Business Administration (MBA) Sport Entertainment Management programme the University of North Texas (UNT) developed in collaboration with the Cowboys was named as the No.1 online sport management course in SportBusiness’ prestigious Postgraduate Course Rankings. 

While other sports organisations around the world are aligned with MBA programmes, the mutual engagement between the Cowboys and UNT’s G. Brint Ryan College of Business for its online and in-person, full-time programmes, is unusually powerful. 

The Cowboys engage with the programme in various ways, including: 

• Participating in at least two class projects per semester 

• Hosting online students for three bootcamps per year 

• Ensuring team executives take part in question and answer Zoom sessions each semester. 

“Additionally, the Cowboys take UNT students on as interns, provide guest lectures, and show up for other student initiatives, such as student groups,” said Bob Heere, director of the MBA Sport Entertainment Management programs at UNT’s G. Brint Ryan College of Business. 

A curriculum built for the business of sport 

The MBA Sport Entertainment Management (SENM) programme was founded in 2018 with the aim of building a curriculum that would be focused on developing competency within the most common jobs in sports business. The syllabus is therefore focused on areas such as marketing, sales, event operations and analytics. 

The online course consists of 12 MBA courses – six core and six that focus on the business of sport. Core courses include Financial Management, Business Planning and Organisational Behaviour and Analysis. Sport Entertainment Analytics, Corporate Partnerships in the Sport Entertainment Industry and Sport Event and Venue Operations are among the sport business modules. 

Providing networking opportunities  

While networking opportunities are plentiful for the full-time course at the UNT campus, this is typically one of the challenges of any online or remote-learning programme. With this in mind, UNT course leaders have tackled the issue head-on by hosting three professional training bootcamps each year at either the Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium or the team’s global headquarters in Frisco, Texas. Here, students also attend guest lectures from industry-leading business professionals within the Cowboys organisation and project-based learning opportunities related to the team. 

“By nature of online education, we are not able to provide the same networking opportunities to our online MBA students as our cohort MBA students, because they complete the coursework itself in their own time,” Heere said. “The bootcamps address this shortcoming to some extent, as students are able to use these weekends to network.” 

Working on major sports projects 

As well as the involvement of the Cowboys from the start, UNT has also forged links with other major sports organisations as it seeks to actively build a strong industry network to engage with students on an ongoing basis. 

By the time a student graduates they will have compiled a portfolio of up to seven projects with major organisations. Among 2024 graduates, completed projects included a brand campaign for Mexico with the Cowboys, a new sponsorship pitch deck for golf’s PGA of America and a FIFA World Cup event activation with retailer Genesco. 

“While working on these projects, they probably met 30 to 40 industry executives as part of these classes,” Heere added. 

“What makes our programme truly unique is that we make a commitment to our students that every sport concentration course in their degree programme is with an industry partner, for whom the students conduct semester long projects.” 

Instilling the right mindset in graduates  

UNT’s SENM programme offers opportunities for those already established within the sports industry, as well as those looking to enter the sector. The full-time programme focuses on traditional students, and some career switchers, who are currently not in full-time employment and who are generally still looking to explore avenues into the industry. Some 38 per cent of students over the last seven years have been female. 

The highly acclaimed online programme primarily appeals to working professionals, many of whom are already employed in the sport sector. The course has also attracted others who work in finance, insurance, sales, or high school education who hope to either switch into a career in sports or leverage the MBA degree to get a promotion at their current employer. Of those to have completed the programme since its founding, 34 per cent were female, while around 25-30 per cent of SENM graduates are black or Hispanic. 

Some 90 per cent of full-time degree graduates received a job offer on completion of the course, with 61 per cent working in the sport industry within a year of graduation. As for the online degree, 59 per cent were working in the sport industry within a year of graduation, while 70 per cent received a promotion or a new job offer after starting the degree. 

“We currently have graduates working at every sport entity or team in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and generally employers focus their praise on both their professional demeanour and their expertise,” said Heere. 

“Many of our students are hard-working first-generation students, who like to roll up their sleeves and put in the work. That, combined with our focus on competencies in a project-based curriculum, has made our programme a first choice for many sport organisations within the region.” 

FIFA World Cup opportunities 

Looking ahead, the programme is planning on collaborating more closely with sport technology companies in the Texas region. Course leaders are also in touch with FIFA World Cup 2026 organisers about potential opportunities for their students. The Dallas-Fort Worth area is hosting nine FIFA World Cup 2026 matches – more than anywhere else in the US – and will likely host the tournament’s media centre. 

Heere added: “Students love their experience in their programme, evidenced by our active alumni association, and their willingness to interact with current students in the different classes, or at our events. 

“The two things they most often refer to are the projects they completed while in the programme, and the networking opportunities we provided them with.” 

To find out more information about the course, head here.