Sports have always been central to Jeanne Boyd’s life.
Her passion for sports as a child led her to her eventual career as managing director of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The hard work of planning major sports events, she said, pays off tremendously when college athletes walk into the Final Four arena, awed by both the spectacle and the excitement of their accomplishments.
“I just can’t see myself doing anything else,” Boyd said.
Soon, Boyd will be able to share her industry experience with students as executive director of Purdue’s new master’s degree program in sport management.
The program, which will be offered in both Indianapolis and West Lafayette, aims to give students hands-on work experience in sports so they’re well-positioned to get jobs when they graduate — preferably, Boyd said, in Indianapolis.
Sport management is one of several new programs being added to Purdue’s new Indianapolis campus in the fall, including a master’s degree in sports engineering. Purdue is not the only local college to add a sport management program — Butler University announced this year it would launch an online sports management master’s degree.
Mirror Indy talked to Boyd about the program’s potential for Indianapolis and what students need to succeed in the sports industry.
Here is the interview, edited for length and clarity.
On program structure
Why add this master’s program at Purdue in Indianapolis, and what do you think it demonstrates about the direction that Purdue in Indianapolis is headed?
Indianapolis is where it’s happening. Purdue in Indianapolis is perhaps the most important component of this program. West Lafayette offers the traditional college experience for students — our partnering athletic department is literally 50 feet away from our back door. But where better to take courses than at our state-of-the-art new building opening in Indianapolis. It’s STEM-centric, it’s cutting-edge. We definitely want to be at Purdue in Indianapolis.
It perfectly positions us in the heart of the sports capital of the world.
Why not go just get a master’s in data analytics, for example, and then work in sports? Why is it important to have that lens of sports within the program?
Sports is such an interdisciplinary field. I started out as a business major, and then I went to accounting, and then I went to education. I think I went to sociology. Sports is a culmination of all of those things. There are absolutely sociological components to it, and there are absolutely business components. The newest trend is all the technology and the STEM-centric advancements that are taking place.
We wanted to focus in on students who had a little bit of time under their belt, a little bit of experience under their belt, who were perhaps a little bit more focused and had a broader understanding of what their specific area of expertise should be. We want these hands-on experiences not to be stuffing envelopes for all the volunteers or creating nameplates. We want these to be meaningful, hands-on learning opportunities.
On student success
What type of student do you see as being really successful in this program?
I think that there’s a perception out there of what working in sports is. But then there’s the harsh reality of what working in sports is, if that makes sense. People see the glamour and everything on social media, with people behind the scenes and having access. Sure, there are a lot of perks and it’s fun and exciting and all that, but it is also very demanding. When you get in at the entry level, there’s not a lot of money. It is life consuming. It is long hours. There are a lot of sacrifices that people go through to be able to work their way up through the hierarchy, but it’s a job that you know, a lot of folks love and understand.
Honestly, if somebody comes in and says, ‘Hey, I’m a really big sports fan, and that’s why I want to do this,’ I’m not going to admit them. I wouldn’t want to admit them to the program, because, to me, they do not have a clear understanding of what it takes.
The jobs are so competitive that we want to do whatever we can to best position these students so that they’re ready as soon as they graduate, or they already have something lined up because of the hands-on opportunities that we’ve provided them.
On Indianapolis’ sports scene
How is this program going to help the city of Indianapolis?
We have developed this program in all ways with the hope and the thought that we’re going to retain top talent in the state.
We’re going to retain the top talent in the state because of all of the fabulous and wonderful, different events and opportunities that are provided right here in this beautiful state. I don’t understand why people would want to leave. We also want to recruit people from out of state to come in-state, and then stay here.
We’ve got something going on that just is unmatched across the United States, and we want to capitalize on that.
Claire Rafford covers higher education for Mirror Indy in partnership with Open Campus. Contact Claire by email claire.rafford@mirrorindy.org, on most social media @clairerafford or on Signal 317-759-0429.
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