Assistant Professor - Sport Administration

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UNC-Chapel Hill offers full-time employees a comprehensive benefits package, paid leave, and a variety of health, life and retirement plans and additional programs that support a healthy work/life balance.

Primary Purpose of Organizational Unit

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a major research university in the University of North Carolina System with student enrollment exceeding 29,000 students. The Department of Exercise and Sport Science (exss.unc.edu) supports an undergraduate program of over 1,400 undergraduate majors with three specialization areas (Exercise and Sport Science, Fitness Professional, Sport Administration); a Master of Arts graduate program enrolling ~60 students also with three specializations (Exercise Physiology, Kinesiology, Sport Administration); and a doctoral program in Human Movement Science in partnership with the UNC-CH School of Medicine (hmsc.unc.edu). The mission of the Department of Exercise and Sport Science (EXSS) is to discover, create and promote knowledge of human movement to improve the quality of life of individuals and society. The mission of EXSS is further enhanced through interdisciplinary cooperation and departmental faculty securing competitive extramural funding in the form of contracts and grants. These endeavors enable the department to advance knowledge and thus serve the state and nation.

The teaching, research, and service efforts of the EXSS Department are supported by an outstanding faculty and staff, which currently includes: 39 full-time faculty, 9 part-time (fixed term) faculty, 20 joint appointment/ adjunct faculty, 8 emeritus faculty, and 27 full-time EXSS staff members.

Position Summary

The Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invites applications for a 9-month tenure track Assistant Professor faculty position to deepen and expand research and teaching in Sport Administration. We aspire to recruit a faculty colleague who will engage in innovative and impactful scholarship that will diversify and enhance our research, teaching, and public outreach missions, and who can translate this research to teaching undergraduate and graduate level courses in sport law and other sport administration courses.

Responsibilities:

• Establish a focused line of research, publish articles in top-tier, peer-reviewed journals at a rate commensurate with an R1 institution, and seek intramural/extramural funding to support research.
• Teach graduate and/or undergraduate courses (2/1 load) in sport administration including sport law and at least one other core undergraduate curriculum course (sport administration, sport economics/finance, sport marketing, sport facility and event management, sport revenue generation) or at least one graduate-level course (NCAA governance and compliance, legal issues in college athletics, intercollegiate athletics administration, marketing college sport, college facility and event management, economics and finance in college athletics, research methods, and statistics).
• Serve as a research advisor / thesis committee member for undergraduate and master’s students in sport administration.
• Participate in departmental and university service and governance functions.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the department chair.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements

• A terminal degree (e.g. PhD, EdD) in sport administration/management or a closely related field. All degree requirements must be completed before the position start date.
• Ability to teach sport law and at least one other core course in the sport administration curriculum.
• Demonstrated ability to advise undergraduate independent study and/or graduate student research.
• Demonstrated commitment to, or record of, student professional development and learning success.
• Demonstrated ability to produce research publications in a clearly defined area of sport administration
• Demonstrated record of, or potential for, securing external research funding (demonstrated fundable research interests).
• Demonstrated interest in developing impactful collaborative opportunities within the Department, across the College of Arts and Sciences, and/or across the greater UNC community.

Preferred Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience

• A juris doctorate (preferred)
• Collegiate level teaching experience in sport law is preferred.
• Experience working within the sport industry is preferred.

Campus Security Authority Responsibilities

Not Applicable.

Special Instructions

The application should include the following: 1) a cover letter, 2) a statement of previous and future research interests (3-page maximum), 3) a statement describing teaching methods commonly used and strategies for meeting the needs of students with a variety of learning styles (1 page maximum) and 4) a curriculum vitae.

At the time of application, candidates will be required to identify the names, titles, and email addresses of four professional references who may be contacted by the search committee during the search process.

For additional information, please contact the search committee chair Barbara Osborne at sportlaw@unc.edu.

Deadline: Review of applications will begin on Nov. 15, 2026. Zoom interviews will likely begin in the first few weeks of December, and on-campus interviews will begin in January. Position will close on December 18, 2026.