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Colleen Evans
Director of Athletic Academic Services, San Diego State University
Steve Schnall
Associate Athletic Director, Operations, San Diego State University
On June 1, 2006, Colleen Evans and Steve Schnall joined our Sports MBA class for a lunch hour discussion about the business of collegiate athletics. As a precursor to professional sport (save for the occasional high school-to-pro superstar), collegiate athletics represent a critical phase in the evolution of a professional athlete. Understanding how the system works, and how best to maximize the experience, whether professional aspirations are attained or not, is the goal that Ms. Evans sets out to instill in all of the athletes at SDSU.
Through the Student-Athlete Academic Support Services (SAASS), the SDSU athletic department provides its athletes with academic support and advising, life skill programming, mentors, and tutors. Student athletes are required to attend seminars in areas such as financial planning, drug and alcohol use/abuse, eating disorders, career planning, and personal motivation.
After discussing her role with SDSU, Ms. Evans went on to discuss various NCAA rules that place an incentive on Universities to support the academic achievements of its student athletes. She highlighted the Academic Progress Rate as the key determinant of an athletic program's success or failure in this NCAA mandate. Individual sports within a university are awarded points for returning athletes, and athletes that return eligible to compete. If the percentage of points earned out of points possible does not meet NCAA regulations, scholarships are taken away from the responsible team.
Changing gears slightly, Steve Schnall then took the opportunity to teach the class about his role as Associate Athletic Director, Operations. Several students in the Sports MBA class have Athletic Director as their ultimate goal, thus this represented a great opportunity to learn about a position they may be required to fill along the career path to that goal. In his current role, Mr. Schnall oversees media relations, TV, radio, website, and facilities and event management. He also assists with marketing, promotions, and corporate sales. He shared with the students his background and how he evolved into this current role. Through a question and answer session, Mr. Schnall provided focused advice to those most interested in this avenue of a sports business career.
The students, faculty and staff of San Diego State University's Sports Business Management MBA program would like to thank Colleen Evans and Steve Schnall for joining us for lunch, and sharing with us their professional experiences.
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