NCU Dumped by SMWW for Concordia

[Albert Hidel]

Back in 2005 Sports Management Worldwide announced it had partnered with the highly suspect Northcentral University to offer online graduate degees in sports management.
http://www.degreeboard.com/forums/Distan...-ncu-t829/

Now SMWW appears to have dumped NCU in favor of a more stable and reputable operation:

SMWW has partnered with Concordia University Chicago (CUC) to offer you a regionally accredited, online and affordable opportunity to earn your MASL, Ed.D, or Ph.D in Education/Sports Management & Leadership.

https://www.sportsmanagementworldwide.co...nt-degrees

More program info here: Master’s and Doctoral Programs in Sports Administration and Leadership

Online, RA and affordable seem like a tough combination to beat, although I'm not sure how true the latter boast might be.  Maybe "less expensive than some places."  The cost for the doctoral courses appears to be discounted from the usual $625/credit doctoral tuition: "The cost is $525 per credit (must apply via SMWW link in the online application)."

Also note that Concordia seems to be very military friendly, offering free tuition to veterans at five of its campuses, including Chicago: Concordia Offers Free Tuition to Veterans
Now that's what I call affordable.

[Martin Eisenstadt]

SMWW has partnered with Concordia University Chicago (CUC) to offer you a regionally accredited, online and affordable opportunity to earn your MASL, Ed.D, or Ph.D in Education/Sports Management & Leadership.

Thanks for that Albert.  It looks like a true sleeper program, since I'm not finding specific mention of it on the Concordia website itself.  

As more and more first rate schools begin offering online programs--and innovative or unique ones at that--schools like NCU become less and less relevant.  NCU is beginning to look like a one-trick pony whose trick wasn't all that good to begin with.

Speaking of ponies, NCU reminds me of an early Mustang I nearly made the mistake of buying on eBay.  It was a local car with a fresh coat of “resale red” paint and purported to be a V8.  I ran the VIN through a decoder and discovered it originally was a 6.  

This is important because the factory V8’s had improved spindles, brakes, rear end, radiator, etc., all to handle the increased weight and power properly and safely.  

I looked a little closer at the pictures and realized that while the wheels may have had 5 spokes, they had only 4 bolts, meaning the original lighter duty spindles were still being used.  Apparently the seller had just bolted in a 302 but had not upgraded any of the other components.  Buying this car (or more accurately, driving it) could have been an expensive and potentially fatal mistake.

NCU is constantly announcing all these affiliations and agreements and memberships and whatnot, which sound good until you start to look more closely at the underlying structure.  It’s just Hecht’s time-tested standard diploma mill operation with a coat of resale red to make it look good.  He fooled the NCA and somehow got it accredited, he’s fooled lots of students into buying in, but he’s still running the same exploitative, bottom-rung correspondence school even if his name isn’t on the marquee any more.  

Somebody at SMWW must have figured it out, probably after some of their students learned the hard way that they had bought a lemon.  SMWW's Lynn Lashbrook has a real PhD (Kinesiology, University of Northern Colorado), so I imagine it didn't take him too long to catch on.  

Online degrees are a great idea, just like upgrading an early Mustang to V8 power can be a great idea.  But the devil is in the details.  If you don’t know what you are doing, or get hooked up in a corrupt, jury-rigged program, you can crash and burn in Janko-like ignominy.  

Props to SMWW for upgrading its program to something with some actual value and long-term credibility.