Washington University in St. Louis will offer a master’s degree in the business of sports beginning in the fall of 2026, building on the popular undergraduate minor that its business school has offered for the past decade.
Designed on a similar academic calendar to most leading sports administration master’s programs, the 16-month, full-time offering will begin with two semesters of classes, followed by a summer internship and then a final semester.
Standard required curriculum will include 14 hours of core business courses, 18 hours of sports business core courses, two experiential immersion learning trips and a weekly workshop on topics chosen based on industry trends.
WashU will target cohorts of 20-30 students for each year’s entering class.
“As we have fostered these relationships with our alumni and with people in the industry over the years, it just became very clear that we can provide something, in terms of educating these kids and creating these connections and then being able to place these kids,” said Patrick Rishe, executive director of the business of sports program at WashU.
“A lot of schools have ventured into the sports management world. They think it’s a sexy degree and it attracts students, and I get that. But you really want to be able to place these students. And we are extremely confident that with our network and with the quality of education, which will be taught by some of the people in that network, that we’re going to be able to do that.”
Though costs won’t be finalized until the fall, the school projects tuition to land between $20,000 and $22,000 per semester, Rishe said.
Core sports courses likely will include the standard menu of sports marketing, media, law and analytics, but also more topical classes on sports betting and the business of women’s sports.
The immersion trips add a for-credit component to those offered to undergraduate students minoring in sports business, who last year visited Kansas City, Indianapolis and Chicago, as well as making what has become an annual spring break trip that hits both Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
“Just being able to see industry practitioners, meet them where they work and talk to them in their environment absolutely changes the vision of these students,” said Rishe, who typically organizes the visits with help from some of the 190 WashU alums now working in sports, as well as other industry connections he’s made over the years.
“They see themselves being in those shoes someday.”
