What Can I Become with a Bachelor’s in Sports?

Interested in a career in the sports field? Sometimes, all you need is a bucket of talent and some player experience. But there are other ways to enter this field — and it all starts with a Bachelor’s degree in Sports.

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What can you study to make a career in Sports?

Bachelor’s programmes in Sports will help you understand and learn about the different aspects surrounding sport both on and off the field. These programmes allow you to learn from key players and professionals in this industry.

The main categories of Sports studies are:

• Sports Management – the focus is on planning, organising, budgeting, and evaluating aspects (events, competitions, etc.) related to different types of professional sports.
• Sports Sciences – the focus is on the relationship between physical activity and health, teaching you about the human body, nutrition, and how to optimise athletic performance. 

Career choices after a Bachelor’s in Sports

A Bachelor’s degree in Sports gives you the freedom to opt for a career on the field as well as off field. By doing undergraduate Sports studies, you will gain industry experience and real-world skills.

These are some of the job options available after graduating with a diploma in Sports; we’ve also included the average salaries in the US based on data from PayScale:

• Fitness specialist – 38,450 USD/year
• School teacher – 50,600 USD/year
• Sports manager – 57,700 USD/year
• Sports coach – 43,600 USD/year
• Sports therapist – 72,000 USD/year
• Sports Dietician – 51,000 USD/year

If you are the type of person who, besides liking sports, is also highly ambitious, then you should know that the highest paying jobs in the sports industry are:

• Sports manager — as an entry-level sports manager, you will start at around 50,000 USD/year, but if you become an experienced professional, you can make even 200,000 USD/year. Top football managers earn over 10 million USD/year.
• Sports agent — as you’ll negotiate contracts for professional athletes, you’ll work on commission. On average, you can make about 88,000 USD/year + substantial percentages from player transfers.
• Sports therapist — making sure athletes stay healthy and recover fast will earn you at least 70,000 USD/ year. 

Skills you’ll develop during your Sports Bachelor’s

During your undergraduate studies in Sports, you will learn or improve a series of practical, psychological, financial, and organisational skills. You can learn a bit of everything, especially useful things like:

• how the human body works
• how motivation works
• how to manage a team 
• how to work with kids
• health and fitness tips and tricks
• how to run a sports team as a business

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Best universities offering degrees in Sports

According to the latest QS Ranking by TopUniversities, these are the best schools for Sports-related subjects:

• Loughborough University, the UK
• The University of Queensland, Australia
• University of British Columbia, Canada
• University of Florida, the US
• University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• University of Otago, New Zealand
• Seoul National University, South Korea
• KU Leuven, Belgium
• Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore
• University College Dublin, Ireland

Here are other Sports universities we recommend checking out:

• The University of Western Australia, Australia
• University of Nicosia, Cyprus
• Lithuanian Sports University, Lithuania
• Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, the Netherlands
• Leeds Beckett University, the UK

Keep in mind that you can always opt for an online Bachelor’s in Sports Sciences or Sports Management and graduate with a Sports diploma from the comfort of your home.