What is the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation?

What is the Commission on Sports Management Accreditation? If you work within or receive education in the areas of college sports or physical education, you may be familiar with this important accrediting body. COSMA, as it is commonly referred to, provides an essential function to these areas.

COSMA and Accreditation

Everyone knows that colleges offer many different majors. However, not everyone is aware that each particular major, and the programs providing education under that major, are subject to a particular accrediting body. This can be viewed as active standards enforcement as well as quality assurance for each individual major taught at any given accredited school.

The governing body for sports management major programs is COSMA, or the Commission on Sports Management Accreditation. COSMA came to power in 2008 after several years of planning, and was formed by a number of physical fitness and educational committees, including SHAPE America. The creation of COSMA effectively filled a glaring hole in standards enforcement in the teaching of this particular discipline that had existed for many years before.

Guiding Principals

As with any official governing body, there is a set of stringent principles that COSMA is bound to. In general, these principles reflect the COSMA mission to maintain standards, excellence, fairness, impartiality, and legitimacy within this particular slice of the educational industry. Some examples of COSMA’s stated principals include:

“The content of sport management courses is delivered in a manner that is appropriate, effective, and stimulates learning”
“The sport management program has meaningful and effective linkages between the classroom and practitioners in the sport management community, thereby providing assurance of relevancy and currency in the academic programs”
“The sport management program has developed and implemented an outcomes assessment process that promotes continuous improvement in the sport management programs and operations, and that is linked to the strategic plan of the sport management program”
“Students in the sport management program develop, both personally and professionally, into well-educated, ethical, competent sport management professionals”

COSMA Resources and Website Offerings

Aside from simply acting as a governing body, COSMA is quite forthcoming and active in the provision of resources relevant to affiliates of the field. Those seeking to learn more can find a number of webinar and training workshops offered by COSMA. In addition, COSMA provides reviewer training and any personal assistance one may need.

COSMA also maintains a healthy website for members, applicants, and all others to navigate. Visitors can expect to find a plethora of information organized into easily perused sections. In addition, important contacts within the commission can be accessed here as well.

COSMA Summarized

COSMA acts as the sports management education field’s regulatory body. College programs within its jurisdiction, the graduate and baccalaureate levels, must be accredited and overseen by COSMA in order to possess any redeeming credibility in the industry. This is the function of COSMA, the Commission on Sports Management Accreditation.