Sports Education

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Abilene Christian University prides itself on being a strong advocate for national sports teams, professional athletes, and industry-leading organizations seeking to increase their employees’ education levels while enhancing their organization’s legacy and impact in athletics. 

Leading the way toward more robust educational avenues with our existing degree programs, customized courses, and fully online pathways catered toward meeting your organization’s educational priorities, Abilene Christian University offers an immersive curriculum to professional athletes and sports management leaders through ACU’s Sports Education program. 

Building lasting relationships with sports partners throughout the country, ACU is prepared to provide a quality education for your athletes, team or organizations’ maximum success. 

Read more about our Sports Education program and featured partnerships below.

About ACU's Sports Education

sports education

The Vision for the Sports Education Program

Focused on fortifying sports culture, ACU is proudly working toward equipping athletes and sports leaders with educational resources to reach new heights mentally, spiritually, and physically grounded in these tenets: 

INNOVATE education consistent with the rhythm of sports
EMPOWER athletes and sports leaders to achieve their best performance
GROW the world of sports through a culture of human flourishing
DEVELOP critical skills and competencies that support holistic leadership

sports education

Expanding Our Educational Reach

The ACU Sports Education program is deeply committed to providing comprehensive online education for professional teams searching to enhance their employees’ leadership and academic development. Our highly-experienced teams of instructional curriculum designers, subject matter experts, and faculty are squarely focused on creating content to generate new skills for our learners to use in their careers beyond the field of play.

Strengthening the Sports Culture

Understanding the complexity within sports organizations and corresponding leagues, our Sports Education program seeks to change the game behind the unspoken culture of sports. With the increase in glamorized competition, athletic prowess, and individual achievement, the world of sports has expanded, resulting in new career opportunities and new found challenges for athletes looking to balance their health and sense of self. 

In response, the ACU Sports Education program intends on solving these issues through: 

  • Innovative learning for the education required to keep up with the flourishing culture and industry growth
  • Training athletes and managers to reframe their perspective on how sports professionals should be assessed based on personal and organizational values
  • Offering emotional well-being skills to combat crises triggered by changes in organizational culture without returning to self-preservation behaviors related to emotional coping, surviving, or remaining silent during conflict.

Featured Partnership

RangersU

An Online Learning Community Created Just For the Texas Rangers

RangersU powered by ACU is a unique partnership between the Texas Rangers and Abilene Christian University to shape educational content for Texas Rangers players and staff. The educational products have been jointly developed and all courses are delivered using ACU’s expertise in online learning making courses flexible and accessible for players and staff regardless of their location. Taught by ACU faculty members, Rangers staff and executive guest speakers, RangersU seeks to provide players and front-office staff members with the unique opportunity to advance their education and future careers.

RangersU Players Pathway Courses

RangersU Player Pathway courses are custom-designed courses for Rangers players and baseball staff. Students receive three hours of college credit for each course (six hours for each block). They are designed to be offered during the off-season and are delivered in both English and Spanish language sections. 

Press Coverage:
MLB.com: Class is now in session at Rangers University
The Athletic: ‘Rangers U’ partnership with ACU offers players, coaches chance to earn college credits

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Hear from RangersU Students

sports education

Texas Rangers Staff Continuing Education

This fall, a group of Texas Rangers management staff participated in the first of four courses in a custom-designed management training program created in collaboration with Texas Rangers management.

Currently, more than 20 baseball coaches and operational staff members are enrolled in ACU’s Introduction to Conversational Spanish course. 

RangersU

RangersU Public Courses

RangersU powered by ACU public courses provides opportunities for Rangers fans and other participants to foster their professional development and personal enrichment – all from the comfort of their homes. Taught by a diverse array of Texas Rangers management, Major League Baseball experts, and ACU faculty, each course offers engaging modules and discussions lasting seven weeks. Participants will interact with the same curriculum as current Rangers players who are aiming to improve their academic potential and career. 

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Offer your team the academic experience of a lifetime

Your team is worth investing in. And ACU can deliver a top-ranked education built on a market-driven curriculum and a holistic outlook on Christian service and leadership. Whether you’re looking to offer specific courses geared toward your team’s field of interest or want to provide others the opportunity to earn their college degree, ACU is committed to supplying a high-impact, low-cost education in an inclusive, virtual environment.

Dr. Daryl JonesInterested in partnering with ACU for your team’s educational opportunities? Contact Dr. Daryl L. Jones, vice president, sports leadership and learning, at daryl.jones@acu.edu to learn more. 

About ACU

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Degrees to fit your career goals. Online to fit your life.

Through ACU’s more than 40 online undergraduate and graduate degree programs, you’ll receive a powerful learning experience that combines Christian values, real-world skills and career-boosting connections. Our accredited degree programs are designed with busy working adults in mind. That means you can further your education at a nationally recognized university without the need to relocate – all while balancing the demands of work, life, and community.

View Our Online Degree Programs
Newsweek 2023

One of America’s Best Colleges

This year, Abilene Christian University has been named one of America’s Top Online Colleges by Newsweek. Additionally, U.S. News & World Report awarded ACU in the top 10 of three categories – the only Texas university to do so – and was ranked in six out of eight highlighted categories, more than any other Texas college or university. Combine this educational excellence with the flexibility of an online format, and it’s easy to understand why earning your degree from ACU Online makes sense.

See Our Recent Rankings

Sports Education News

ACU Student Internship Spotlight: Holly Reichling, Nouwen Craft and Gabriella Lopez

Three Abilene Christian University students completed internships for the TV production The Chosen over the past two summers and acquired new connections as well as tangible skills for their future careers. Holly Reichling, senior multimedia major from San Antonio, was a production intern for The Chosen at the set in Utah this summer. Reichling started … Continued

Dr. Sotelo

Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Marcia Sotelo

Dr. Marcia Sotelo might be new to her role as the program director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice for ACU Online, but she is certainly not to the field of nursing and education. Self-proclaimed as a lifelong learner, Dr. Sotelo has allowed her life’s work and experience to guide her to where she is … Continued

Last years' Gutenberg recipients at the 30th annual Gutenberg Celebration.

31st annual Gutenberg celebration set for homecoming weekend

The 31st annual Gutenberg celebration for the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 12 at the Hunter Welcome Center on the campus of Abilene Christian University to honor outstanding alumni of the department. This year’s recipients are: Preston Watkins (’12), Sales Director at WebMD in New York … Continued

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