The Department of Sport Management will host its annual symposium on Wednesday, April 28. The virtual event, featuring a keynote address from influential sport industry figure Oliver Luck, will run from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.
This spring’s Elon Sport Management Symposium will kick off on Wednesday, April 28, with a keynote address from Oliver Luck, an influential sport industry figure with past roles leading the NCAA, West Virginia University athletics program and XFL. With a theme of “Perspectives at Play in College Athletics,” the symposium will include several panel discussions featuring prominent individuals in collegiate sports.
The free, virtual event will run from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. For more information on registration, visit the symposium’s website.
Drawing from his decades-long run in college and professional athletics, Luck will address topical issues facing the sport industry. Following Luck’s conversation, the symposium will shift gears to panel discussions, beginning with the “#NotNCAAProperty: Inside the NIL Debate” panel. Participants include Kristi Dosh, sports business reporter and analyst; Gabe Feldman, director of the Tulane Sports Law Program and Tulane University’s associate provost for NCAA compliance; and Shelby McKay, assistant director of athletics for student-athlete development at Washington State University.
A second panel, titled “Unlevel Playing Field: The Gender Gap in Athletics,” will discuss the discrepancies between men’s and women’s athletics, and current issues that universities face in 2021. Panelists include Amy Yakola, deputy commissioner – chief of external affairs for the Atlantic Coast Conference; Amy Perko, CEO of Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics; and Debbie Yow, AD emeritus at North Carolina State University.
Lastly, “The Student-Athlete’s Point of View” panel will include perspectives and opinions from current student-athletes representing different sports, divisions and institutions.
“College sports is played by hundreds of thousands of student-athletes and loved by millions of fans and alumni,” said Bill Squadron, assistant professor of sport management at Elon University. “It also presents a number of challenging issues that we will explore in this year’s annual Sport Management Symposium, including perspectives from student-athletes themselves and a one-on-one conversation with Oliver Luck.”
The event’s programming is free, but donations will be accepted to support the Positive Attitude Youth Center in Burlington.