The opportunity arose through an established relationship with SP+ GAMEDAY, a transportation management company that also partners with the Kentucky Derby.

Students enrolled in the Sport Administration special topics course 鈥淜entucky Derby Logistics鈥� volunteered at the event in the Spring of 2021, transporting those with mobility needs to and from Churchill Downs. Doctoral student Michael Clemons taught the course and has seen the partnership flourish.

鈥淚n the class, more than 20 students worked with the Mobility Assistance Program outside of Churchill Downs,鈥� Clemons said. 鈥淪ince SP+ GAMEDAY partners with multiple mega sporting events, they contracted our students from the class to assist with the same Mobility Assistance Program at this year鈥檚 Super Bowl.鈥�

Student volunteers will serve as contractors, stationed outside of Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles to assist those with mobility needs.

鈥淭he Sport Administration program at UofL is nationally known as a top program providing opportunities for its students, including experiences like this,鈥� Clemons said. 鈥淎s I teach both during my PhD program and after I graduate, I plan to incorporate examples and real-life lessons learned from my time at the Super Bowl. It鈥檚 nice to be able to talk about mega-sporting events, but being at an event and experiencing it firsthand adds another unique element to class discussion.鈥�

Junior Emily Bridges anticipates the opportunity will advance her understanding of the field of sport administration.

鈥淚鈥檓 interested in seeing the elaborate, precise preparation and coordination that goes into major sporting event planning,鈥� Bridges said. 鈥淚 am most familiar with collegiate sporting events, so working at a professional sporting event, especially one of this magnitude, will broaden my experience.鈥�

She also thinks the opportunity will increase her confidence in her future career.

鈥淸The opportunity] will also encourage me to look at other unique sport opportunities to diversify my skill set, which will directly impact my future career endeavors in terms of confidence, knowledge and experience in the sport industry,鈥� she said.

The rare opportunity is one that the students are not taking for granted.

鈥淲hile I鈥檝e worked a lot of major sporting events, the Super Bowl is at a whole new level. It is the most-watched, most-anticipated annual sporting event in the United States,鈥� Clemons said.听鈥淭o be on site and playing a part in event operations is truly special, and something that very few sport administration students and faculty receive.鈥澨�

鈥淯nfortunately, even the strongest and most conditioned athletes are susceptible to suffering ACL tears,鈥� said a University of Louisville sports medicine specialist and sports team physician. 鈥淭he ACL is an elastic ligament听that can succumb to injury, not only in the face of trauma, but also during non-contact plays.鈥�

Immediately following ACL tears, athletes usually experience swelling, pain and weakness in the knee. The injury often requires surgery to repair and a formal physical therapy program.

While Wentz will miss the Super Bowl because of the season-ending injury he experienced in December, Pohlgeers advises that lower body exercises can help prevent injury to the stabilizing ligament in the knee by building and maintaining strength and stability in the lower extremities.

Improving balance, following safe running and jumping techniques and incorporating closed chain exercises 鈥� which include squats, lunges and leg presses 鈥� into an athlete鈥檚 training program can dramatically reduce the prevalence of ACL tears, Pohlgeers said.听

Brandon Ally, PhD, and researchers at the UofL Center for Sports Cognition have demonstrated that elite college and professional football defensive players have a greater ability to show steely focus, shielding their actions against interfering information on the field. Ally, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery, has looked at the speed with which elite defensive players read a play and close on offensive threats.

In research recently accepted in , Ally and his colleagues compared reaction times in NCAA football players with non-athletes. The athletes and non-athletes show similar reaction times to simple stimuli. In an experimental task requiring the subjects to respond in the same direction as a series of five arrows, again there was no difference between NCAA football players and non-athlete controls.

However, when the center arrow is pointed in the opposite direction of the four other arrows (which were all moving in the same direction), the NCAA football players respond to the direction of the center arrow much more quickly than the non-athletes.听

鈥淭his means that football players are more proficient at shielding motor response execution speed from the interfering effects of distraction than non-athletes,鈥� Ally said. 鈥淥n the field, this will translate to the ability to more quickly spot key movements amidst the visual chaos of the offense and respond with decisive action.鈥�

鈥淚 am super pumped,鈥� said Bruce Dougherty, who will graduate in May with his master鈥檚 degree in SPAD. 鈥淲hen Dr. (Megan) Shreffler emailed us about possibly going to the Super Bowl, I had to read the email like three times because I didn鈥檛 think it was real.鈥�

Shreffler, an assistant professor in the department of health and sport sciences, said she wanted to see if there was any chance her students could be a part of the Super Bowl and in December contacted a colleague at the University of Minnesota, where Shreffler received her PhD in kinesiology in 2013. There were opportunities available, but she was just days from the application deadline for the PepsiCo gig.

Shreffler spent the next few days frantically emailing students, compiling applications and figuring out transportation and housing. 鈥淭he whole week was a whirlwind,鈥� she said.

In the end, she pulled together a group of three professors (including herself), eight master鈥檚 degree students, three undergraduate students and a doctoral student for the Super Bowl trip, a first for the SPAD program.

鈥淲ithin the SPAD program, we really try to show students what class concepts look like in real-life settings,鈥� Shreffler said, and the Super Bowl is about as real-life as you get for major sporting events.

The Super Bowl trip will give students a view from the 鈥渆vent manager perspective, everything that goes into an event and working a game day, but will also provide a glimpse into corporate social responsibility as students will serve as green ambassadors,鈥� she said.

PepsiCo will have the team working a 12-hour shift encouraging fans to separate trash from items that can be recycled or composted. Team members will also act as 鈥済oodwill ambassadors鈥� for fans throughout the day by helping them take selfies, guiding them around the stadium or helping them seek medical or security assistance. They will also get paid an hourly wage.

鈥淲e will get to learn more about recycling and green initiatives with sport,鈥� Dougherty said. 鈥淚 think that鈥檚 really important. In the future, green initiatives in facilities and operations are going to be really big.鈥�

According to a , partners the NFL, PepsiCo, Aramark, U.S. Bank Stadium and the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority have a goal to recover more than 90 percent of stadium waste at Super Bowl LII. That鈥檚 more than 40 tons of waste, and it includes recycling bottles and cans, composting food waste and service ware and repurposing items like discarded handbags, signage and construction materials through local community organizations.

Shreffler said she hopes to be able to take SPAD students to more major sporting events in the future.