Playing for a Good Grade

Simulation games are common in business classes, where they often focus on manufacturing and selling generic products like widgets. But when a Sports Business faculty member decided to run a simulation game pilot project, he skipped the widgets and went straight for an XBox 360.

Paul Swangard, Managing Director of the James H. Warsaw Sports Marketing Center, is using Madden NFL’s franchise mode to help his SBUS 199 students grasp marketing and business decisions faced by NFL franchises.

“Students make off-season decisions that an owner would make,” Swangard said. “Things like coaches, front office staff, stadium amenities, and sponsorships. They have limited choices on players.”

About half of the students in the class participated in the pilot project. They formed teams of four and were given the same team, the Seattle Seahawks, to manage through ten seasons. Students were graded on the decisions they made and the rationale behind those decisions.

Chris Dukeminier, the course’s Graduate Teaching Fellow, said the game helps students recognize beginner’s mistakes. For example, Qwest bought the naming rights for the Seahawks’ home field. In the game, Dukeminier said, “the students can sign Sprint as a sponsor. In real life you can’t do that.”

Swangard said the pilot project has two main criteria: “Does it keep the kids engaged? Does it provide a better understanding of the business of sport?”

Dukeminier saw it as a success, with a few caveats. “It certainly kept the students engaged and I think that overall they learned quite a bit from the combination of the Madden project and Paul’s course. It also proved to be much more engaging than the typical business simulation where you sell widgets,” he said. “It was not at all uncommon for the students to be cheering when their team did well, or yelling when it did poorly.”

Dukeminier said that the simulation required using information from lectures and supplemental instruction. “The teams that did the best were the ones that were able to effectively bridge the gap between the classroom and the simulation,” he said.

Looking to the future, Swangard said that if this pilot project is successful, they will expand its use in class. “The fall term course would be built around football, with basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring,” Swangard said. The winning team traveled with Swangard and Dukeminier to Seattle for a Seahawks game and a tour of the Qwest Field and the Seahawks front offices.

The pilot project was made possible by a grant from the Northwest Academic Computing Consortium.