Wide world of sports: BGSU sport management students build successful careers in NCAA, NBA, NFL and more

BGSU alumni and current students discover rewarding and successful careers in the sports industry

As an alum of the sport management program at Bowling Green State University, the workday for Brent Papenfuss ’10 often takes place on one of America’s grandest sports stages.

The director of ticket operations at the University of Michigan, Papenfuss is helping to fill “The Big House” on Saturdays, replete with more than 100,000 fans, “The Victors” blaring and television broadcasting to homes across the country.

It’s an undeniably attractive job in the highly competitive world of major sports, but embracing the bigness of the role – Michigan has more than 70,000 season ticket holders and tickets are its second-biggest source of revenue behind only TV contracts – is part of the fun for Papenfuss.

“We’re fortunate so many people want to come to Michigan athletics events, and it’s a good thing, but it comes with its own set of challenges,” Papenfuss said. “You have to manage your inventory and manage how you budget your time.

“What’s spoken to me as I’ve continued to move forward is to figure out creative ways to generate revenue through ticketing, whether that’s working with our group sales team, our ticketing partners or continuing to move Michigan forward on the technology side.”

Papenfuss, who graduated from nearby Anthony Wayne High School, grew up in the heart of Michigan’s rivalry with Ohio State. In his current role, he helped implement the department’s move to fully digital ticketing, which featured 98% of the school’s football tickets being held on a mobile phone in 2024.

But prior to playing a key role inside one of the country’s top college programs, Papenfuss was a BGSU student using his experience in the sport management program to map a course in the professional world.

“My classes were excellent at providing tangible examples of what’s out there in the sports industry,” he said. “You can even be in sports and not necessarily work for a team or an organization. There are so many different paths, and the variety of classes and speakers always coming into our classes were really helpful.”

Now a group event specialist for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Thyran Nowden ’15 said he finds himself excited to go to work every day in a team-oriented culture within an organization in the National Basketball Association.

Long before his present reality working for an NBA team, Nowden was once a BGSU undergrad who wasn’t quite sure how to take the next step.

After his freshman year, Nowden knew he didn’t have passion for his original major, but he wasn’t quite sure what to do next.

So he decided to take advantage of the many opportunities available to every BGSU student and sought help from what is now called the Kuhlin Hub for Career Design and Connections.

“I said, ‘I’ve got to utilize my resources here,’” Nowden said. “I met with a career counselor, and we went over my likes and dislikes. I mentioned that I thought it would be cool to work for a sports organization like a pro sports team or a college program.”

His counselor told him that he had come to the right place.

The BGSU sport management program holds top accreditation from the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation for both its bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and its expert faculty is there to guide students through the process of entering a deeply competitive field.

After hearing about the program, Nowden said he was ready – and he never looked back.

“That same academic year, I filled out the paperwork to change my major, and ever since then, I fell in love with the industry,” Nowden said. “I made sure to get involved because I remember pretty much all my sport management professors saying how important it was to network. I did as many volunteer projects as possible.”

Dr. Amanda Paule-Koba, the sport management program coordinator at BGSU, said experiences are the heart of the major.

The University is home to many opportunities for sport management students, starting with the Falcons’ 18 NCAA Division I sports teams. Paule-Koba said sport management classes regularly bring in industry professionals as speakers to help students understand career paths in sports and reinforce the idea of getting involved early.

From working with local youth sports programming to Sport Management Alliance’s annual Super Bowl trip and everything in between, field experiences often mold students’ careers while they are still in college.

“Through those experiences, students often get a good sense of what they like and what they don’t like,” she said. “You might have all this creativity, but decide you don’t really like speaking in front of thousands of people. Maybe you want to run social media for a team or work in data analytics.

“Your skill set fits in somewhere, and it’s our job to help you figure out how it fits.”

For current BGSU senior Darius Coleman, an on-campus opportunity helped lead directly to a job in the National Football League.

Coleman began working with the BGSU football team’s equipment staff during his freshman year, but also stayed involved by volunteering for multiple Mid-American Conference championship events, attending the NBA All-Star Game and traveling with SMA to Super Bowl LVIII.

The experiences helped Coleman secure a role with the Chicago Bears’ equipment staff prior to his BGSU graduation day.

“One thing I would say is that there are so many opportunities and things around campus to do for sport management majors, and all kinds of events to get involved with, big and small,” Coleman said. “It was great to be part of things that I had never thought about before, but that really helped me.”

The ultimate goal of the program, Paule-Koba said, is to help students find a career path they enjoy within the sports industry.

Paule-Koba said the process of networking and trying new things in the sports world often leads students to career paths they never considered previously.

“One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is seeing students have that ‘a-ha’ moment – like when they hear from a high school athletic director or a professional in minor league sports and suddenly grasp the behind-the-scenes work,” she said. “Our goal is to equip you with the tools to seize opportunities so that when you leave BGSU, you’re set up for success, because then we’ve done our job.”

Fifteen years have passed since Papenfuss earned his undergraduate degree, but he said he remains grateful for the experience he had at BGSU.

Now in the heart of one of college athletics’ major brands, Papenfuss said the role he performs every day was the type of dream job for which he hoped.

“I don’t think 20 or 21-year-old Brent would have ever believed he’d be on the team plane going to the Rose Bowl or the national championship or standing on the sidelines in Columbus or Happy Valley,” Papenfuss said. “It’s crazy to think about, but not something I ever take for granted, that’s for sure.”