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Isenberg School of Management Department of Sport Management

The Doctor of Philosophy Degree

Dr. Neil Longley, PhD Coordinator for Sport Management

The PhD program in Management with a concentration in Sport Management is designed to prepare students for an academic career. It provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to excel as scholarly researchers and outstanding teachers.

The UMass Sport Management Department’s PhD program began in 1971, and is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. As a leader in the field, our doctoral program has long played a key role in meeting the need for faculty members in sport management and business throughout the United States and around the world. The program’s past graduates have been in great demand and often receive multiple job offers upon graduation.

A Management-School Approach

The Department of Sport Management is housed within the Isenberg School of Management. As such, our program takes very much of a “management-school” approach to the study of sport management – the foundations of our program are strongly rooted in the traditional management disciplines of marketing, organizational behavior, finance, and business law, and in related disciplines such as economics, sociology, and psychology.

In addition, because the program is designed to provide students with the tools necessary to become successful scholarly researchers in their field, it places strong emphasis on training in statistics and research methods.

“This experience has exceeded my expectations. My development in instruction has been focused and individualized. My advisor has been intimately involved with my research goals, collaborating on work and publishing projects while being a strong steward for my success. The reputation of the program has enabled me to quickly develop relationships with others in the academic field and the industry.”

Jeffrey Mott
PhD in Management Candidate ‘08
MBA, Univ. of Michigan Ross School of Business ‘95

For more information on the PhD in Management with a concentration in Sport Management, email us at sportphd@som.umass.edu.