New Frontiers in Sports: How Northwestern’s Master’s in Sports Administration Keeps Pace with an Evolving Industry

Like Remco Evenepoel’s tour de force at the 2025 Tour de France or Jordan Stolz’s record-setting speed skate performance at the 2026 Winter Olympics, sports industry trends move fast.

Consider the sudden American fascination with Formula One, for example, or fans’ evolving digital preferences for catching a game; if you’re just a casual observer, you might have a tough time keeping track of the score.

But if your dedication to sports goes beyond passion into profession, Northwestern’s Master’s in Sports Administration (MSA) program can help you stay abreast of industry changes—and land a career in the competitive business of sports.

Q&A with Brice Clinton, MSA Faculty Director

To learn how the MSA program prepares graduates to succeed as the sports industry evolves, we spoke with faculty director Brice Clinton. A 2008 graduate of the program, Clinton is the director of solutions engineering for global interactive media company CSG, in which capacity he has worked with ESPN+, Formula One, Bundesliga, La Liga, and numerous other global sporting organizations.

So, what’s next for athletics and the MSA program? Here’s Clinton’s take.

How is the sports industry changing in 2026?

On a macro level, Clinton notes a subtle but tremendous shift in the sports industry since his enrollment in the MSA nearly two decades ago: “It’s definitely become more of an industry. Sports has always been a really big business, but now it’s an enormous one.”

From youth sports all the way up to the professional leagues, there’s revenue to be made, and teams’ management strategies now mirror the best practices of successful businesses in other sectors. “Back in 2008, a lot of times general manager jobs went to somebody's nephew,” recalls Clinton. “Now those roles are filled by people with Harvard MBAs or experience at McKinsey. It has all become much more grown up.”

And of course, in every different sport (and even in different leagues within the same sport), new trends and waves emerge almost constantly. Some of the most talked-about topics in the first half of the 2020s include:

• Attention and structural growth for women’s professional leagues
• Internationalization of leagues like Formula 1
• Name-image-likeness (NIL) rights and athlete brand building
• Streaming, bundle collapse, and consumer cost fragmentation
• Digital-first fan engagement
• Sports betting

By their nature, some trends fade as quickly as they appear. For example, at least in the pure-play model of eSports, prospects have “contracted significantly,” according to Clinton. “Overwatch League folded, several franchised leagues have shrunk, and franchise valuations corrected hard,” he explains. “For students, this is a lesson in hype-cycle discipline, distinguishing audience attention from sustainable economics.”

How does the Master’s in Sports Administration curriculum adapt to trends in the sports industry?

How the MSA Curriculum Evolves

To keep pace with the industry’s evolution, the MSA program faculty make calculated, consistent updates to the curriculum, both adding in new topics and regularly refreshing existing course content. They also attend industry events such as last year’s TEDSports conference in Indianapolis.

Through these connections, program faculty identify “what’s relevant and what’s coming in the future—instead of just reacting to the industry itself,” Clinton says.

Bringing Current Sports Trends Into the Classroom

MSA faculty are always on the lookout for ways to bring the immediacy and excitement of sports to the classroom in innovative ways.

Often, this includes inviting guest speakers to their in-person classes or virtual sync sessions. Past guest speakers in the MSA program have included Martijn Verhoeven, the applied biomechanics and performance data lead for the Washington Wizards, and Evan Boyd, a data scientist for the Golden State Warriors.

With such a long legacy and extensive network of successful alums, faculty occasionally bring back a familiar face: “There’s a great swath of students from the program that now have exciting roles in the sports industry, so they can come back and be great guest speakers.”

In coursework, students engage with the latest sports industry trends via case studies, from the player stats coming out of last night’s loss to the buzz around a bold PR success.

“It's not something you can pull from an archive,” Clinton says. “We update our case studies in real time.” In his course MSA 451: The Technology of Sport, for example, students are examining recent developments in sports gambling apps and agentic AI among fans. As an example of how Northwestern stays ahead of the curve, some of the topics they’re discussing—such as agentic commerce—haven’t even achieved widespread use yet.

What distinguishes Northwestern’s MSA from other master’s in sports administration programs?

With many master’s in sports administration programs to choose from, prospective students need to consider what sets each program apart. Northwestern’s MSA program offers several distinctive advantages for students pursuing careers in the sports industry, including:

• Access to expertise across Northwestern: Students in the Master’s in Sports Administration at Northwestern University School of Professional Studies have the chance to learn from and collaborate with faculty from across Northwestern, including the Kellogg School of Management, the Pritzker School of Law, and the Medill School of Journalism.
• Connections to Chicago’s world-class athletic scene: The Master’s in Sports Administration program takes full advantage of Chicago’s rich sports culture, which features six professional teams across five leagues. In early 2026, for example, MSA students attended a Chicago Bulls game and met with an executive who gave them a tour of the facility and spoke with them about operations.
• Proximity to major sports employers: Apart from its roster of professional and collegiate teams, Chicago is also home to the Big Ten Conference as well as prominent brands and sponsors, such as Wilson and McDonald’s, for whom the Northwestern name holds local cachet.
• A robust alumni network: Since 2005, Northwestern’s Master’s in Sports Administration program has graduated more than eight hundred highly-qualified students.

Among these, Clinton names four who are now athletics directors in powerful conferences, which in addition to the networking opportunities, paints a vivid picture of the career paths available to MSA grads.

In addition to the experienced faculty and cutting-edge curriculum, these program features give students the opportunity to build skills that will set their resumes apart for future employers.

What careers does the Master’s in Sports Administration prepare you for?

While jobs in media strategy, sponsorship analytics, event operations, and league governance are some of the most coveted among athletics professionals, the business of sports extends far beyond the stadium, requiring knowledgeable people across industries to bring competitions to fruition and deliver premium fan experiences.

Following the program, graduates of Northwestern’s Master’s in Sports Administration often take on roles in team operations, brand or agency-side analysis, sales, or brand partnerships, then work their way up to more competitive positions over time.

“The job of an MSA program is to build the foundational capacities that let graduates reach those more specialized roles over a five- to ten-year career arc,” Clinton says.

These foundations include transferable skills, such as:

• Financial literacy, like how to read a P&L, value a sponsorship, understand salary cap mechanics, and model a media rights deal
• Contract and deal literacy, including understanding term sheets and picking out what matters
• Technological fluency, like how to evaluate a vendor's claims, ask the right questions about data infrastructure, and distinguish capabilities from marketing
• Analytical judgment under uncertainty: “Sports is full of decisions made with incomplete data,” Clinton says. “The MSA program builds comfort with that.”

The program is also in the process of rolling out a more structured mentorship program, with one or more “mentors in residence,” to use Clinton’s term. “This program will do a lot of things for students, like guiding them in the direction they want to go by helping them get internships or build exposure in the sports world,” he says.

Taking the Next Step

No matter what industry you work in, the game—especially nowadays—is constantly changing, which can sometimes make it hard to see the finish line. That said, the structure and support systems built into Northwestern’s MSA program can help make it easier to find your path forward.

The sports industry will continue to evolve as technology changes how organizations operate and fans engage with teams. Northwestern’s Master’s in Sports Administration is designed to evolve with it, giving students opportunities to learn from industry practitioners and examine current developments in the classroom.

Whether you’re considering a career pivot or looking to advance in the sports industry, Northwestern’s MSA degree can get you there. Graduates are prepared to pursue opportunities across the business of sports and build toward fulfilling long-term careers.

To learn more about how Northwestern University's MA in Sports Administration prepares graduates to advance their careers, fill out the form below.