Legal Issues in Sport – SMGT 505

Course Description

This course provides an examination of risk management and the current legal principles which affect sport and recreation organizations.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Rationale

Sport managers need to understand the legal concepts encountered in the operation of sport and recreation programs, events, and facilities. This increased awareness of legal issues prevents liability, promotes safety, and reduces exposure to risk.

Course Assignment

Textbook readings and online articles

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Quiz: Introduction to Sport Law

This quiz covers the Textbook material from Module 1. It contains 25 true/false questions and Is limited to 1 hour.

Discussions (3)

The student will participate in 3 graded Discussions intended for interactive reflection. Each Discussion assignment will be completed in two parts: 1) the student will post a thread in response to the instructor’s prompt and 2) the student will then post replies to the threads of 3 other classmates. Each thread must be at least 400 words and the three replies must be at least 200 words each.

Sport Law Project: Annotated Bibliography Assignment

Before beginning the Legal Issues Paper, the student will create an annotated bibliography consisting of 10 peer-reviewed sources. It must not summarize the article or book, nor must it list the article's content; rather, it must briefly explain 1) the author’s main point or argument; 2) the author’s method or approach; and 3) the place of the piece in the literature as a whole (e.g., does the author agree with other scholars?). The bibliography as a whole must provide a solid overview of the existing state research in the area that the student is studying.

Sport Law Project: Paper Assignment

The student will research a legal issue topic in sport, tourism, or recreation and write a 10 to 15-page paper that integrates the research with one specific sport or recreation of his/her choosing. Once the research is complete, the student will compose a thesis that unifies the research, using the findings to support the paper’s main ideas. Ten peer-reviewed articles and five legal cases must be cited. The paper must have a title page, abstract, and references page (these are not included in the total page count); all content must be formatted in current APA style.

Quiz: Special Events Contingency Planning Certificate

The student will take a 5-hour web-based mini-course offered through FEMA's Emergency Management Institute, which will provide information related to pre-event planning, forming the planning team, event hazard analysis, and responding to incidents during special events in any community. This mini-course will provide universal guidelines regarding contingency planning for special events of all sizes, and it will provide instruction for how to use the Incident Command System (ICS) as an efficient way of managing special events. Upon completion of the mini-course, and successfully passing the accompanying exam, students will submit the FEMA certificate as proof of course completion.

Sport Law Project: Risk Management Presentation Assignment

The student will submit a 15 to 20-slide PowerPoint presentation that applies a portion of their research paper to the process of risk management. More specifically, the student will use the identified legal issues (from his/her previously completed paper), and develop a risk management plan to mitigate the issues for managerial practice. The presentation will be submitted as if it is intended to train employees on the process, plan, and practical treatments of risk management.

Sport Law Midterm Assignment

The midterm assignment will be utilized to measure the student’s ability to recall, analyze, and apply the concepts covered in the first four modules of the course. The student must choose 4 essay questions out of 13 questions provided. Each essay answer must cite 2 peer-reviewed resources beyond the textbook. The midterm’s answers should be submitted in a Word document per the quiz instructions.