Sports Management Faculty Now Contributing Writer for Forbes
From television contracts and endorsement deals to a growing movement to compensate amateur athletes, college sports are a big business.
Karen Weaver, associate clinical professor of sport management in Drexel LeBow, has been observing college sports for decades as a former collegiate coach and athletics administrator. Now, she’ll be sharing her analysis as a regular contributor to Forbes.
Weaver says that two 2019 op-ed articles she wrote brought her to the attention of Forbes’ editors. The articles centered on the two newest universities to join the Big Ten — Rutgers University and the University of Maryland — and appeared in The Star-Ledger and the Baltimore Sun, respectively.
“They liked what they saw, and after they contacted me and we talked about what I was looking to do, they were even more interested,” Weaver says.
The new contributor position coincides with the launch of Weaver’s podcast, Trustees and Presidents: Opportunities and Challenges in Intercollegiate Athletics, in which she interviews high-level administrators and officials overseeing college sports programs and conferences. Weaver says she expects that the topics she explores in her interviews will inform and intersect with her Forbes columns.
“In higher education, we’re at the precipice of changing demographics, where there will be fewer high school students,” she says. “I want to layer that discussion over top of college athletics.”
Weaver’s Forbes columns are available here.
