Collegiate Sports Ethics Case Study

On Monday, March 23rd the 7th Annual Business of Sports Conference: Ethics in Collegiate Sports was held in the Villanova room. The event brought together current Villanova employees, Villanova alumni, and outside professionals. The first two hours of the event were designed to educate the students that attended and to allow them to ask questions. Following this there was a forty five minute networking segment with food and refreshments.

The first panel discussed ethics in Collegiate Sports. The panel was headlined by Villanova Head Football coach Andy Talley alongside Katie Legrand, Kevin Mulvey, and moderator, Bret Meyers. The Ethics panelists discussed both teaching and enforcing rules. They all seemed to agree that a positive culture is imperative to having a team successfully follow the rules whether on the field or in the workplace.

Coach Talley told students that ethics started from the top and had to be followed through the entire organization, there are no exceptions. This attitude was reiterated by Mr. Mulvey and Ms. Legrand, both discussed the importance of teaching through actions. Mrs. Legrand then added on that if students are to break rules, punishments must follow suit. Mr. Mulvey and Coach Talley said that when students make mistakes they use punishments

as a teaching method because their job as coaches is to grow their athletes as students and people first.

The second panel was centered on Careers in Sports.

The panel was comprised of people employed in all different sectors of Sports Business. They said that this career path is a particularly challenging one because it requires extensive hours, travel, and takes time to move up. Jobs in the sports industry are not all glamour, they are hard work. Now that being said, if it is something that students are passionate about it is an amazing experience, well worth the time, and initial lower starting salary. Each panelist described their path to where they got and stressed the importance of networking. They concluded this panel by emphasizing the importance of the informational

interview.

Students were then directed to the other side of the Villanova room to eat and begin networking. I talked to Jon Joaquin, the Director of the Youth Baseball Development for the Philadelphia Phillies and Pete Powell, the Talent Acquisition Manager for Comcast-Spectator. I asked about their day to day jobs and asked if they had any shadow opportunities available so I could get a firsthand experience in the field. Fortunately, they both said they would try and set up a time where I could shadow one of them or someone else in their organization this summer. I sent them an email to thank them and will be following up again with them this summer.

Thanks for reading and I will keep you updated on how these opportunities play out.