The National Sports Forum (NSF) is the ‘must-attend’ sport business event for professionals working in the front offices of professional sports organizations. Innovators in revenue generation, marketing, content creation, and more gather to share ideas and discuss what is next in professional sports. Student attendance at NSF would mean a head start to securing a position in sport and recreation.
However, there is a problem: students can’t register to attend NSF. So how might they be able to attend?
Enter UISRM faculty member, Packy Moran, captain of the UISRM Case Cup Competition team. He is joined by UISRM colleagues and co-captains Anna Jensen and Jeremy Parrish. Together, they prepare and lead a team of graduate students to compete in the NSF Case Cup Competition, which unlocks the only path for students to participate in NSF.
Teams of graduate students arrive the Friday before the conference begins and are assigned a current sport business problem. From there, teams have 24 hours to develop solutions before delivering their recommendations to a panel of judges. Since 2019, Packy, with the support of Anna and Jeremy, has led six teams of UISRM graduate students to compete in the NSF Case Cup Competition. On leading teams of students, Packy had this to say:
Our UISRM graduate students have brought their enthusiasm and creativity to the NSF Case Cup for the past six years. This year’s group brought an organization and preparation that was second-to-none when it comes to Iowa teams. They represented themselves as worthy competitors, but then the NSF family got to meet them as the great people for which Iowa is known.
This year, UISRM formed their first all-female team: Olivia Gehrke, Kyren Rudolph, Laney Fitzpatrick, and Liz McGarvey. Their charge was to map out the first five years of an NBA expansion in Europe – a giant task with far reaching implications. While team UISRM is still looking for their first advancement to the NSF Case Cup Competition final round, the team continues to raise the bar in recommendations at the competition through their creativity and use of data. On the competition, Kyren had this to say:
The competition was challenging and exhausting, but it was an incredibly rewarding experience. We had just 24 hours from the moment we received the case to when we presented it to the judges. Those 24 hours felt long. We worked on the case from the morning until 2:30am and got a few hours of sleep. Then, we woke up at 7:30am to get ready, practiced our presentation, and finally presented to four industry professionals. Our entire team learned so much and we are all extremely grateful for this experience!
After the competition closed, Olivia, Kyren, Laney, and Liz participated in NSF alongside professionals working in all levels and sectors of professional sport. The 2025 NSF program featured main stage programming that discussed new media platforms and maximizing revenues; breakout panels that discussed fan engagement to business intelligence and everything in between; and networking while attendees toured Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium.
Thank you to the UISRM community for their support of the program through the UI Center for Advancement. Contributions to the fund helped reduce the cost of the team’s participation in the 2025 NSF Case Cup Competition. We encourage you to check out behind-the-scenes footage of the experience captured by Olivia, Kyren, Laney, and Liz. From the entire UISRM community, congratulations on participating in this exclusive competition and using the opportunity as a head start toward success in your professional careers.