From the Colts to Notre Dame with a Sports Business Degree

By Elizabeth West (BA 26)

Meet Noah Cole, a 2019 Grace graduate with a sports business degree, former ticket sales employee at the Colts, and now associate director of sales at Notre Dame.

Sports are (and always have been) a passion of Cole’s. The first time he stepped foot on Grace’s campus, it was for a middle school soccer camp. Years later, he was a four-year track athlete at Grace. Choosing a sports-related major was a no-brainer for Cole.

“Sports have taught me valuable skills like how to take instruction from others, how to show up on time, how to work with a team and how to be a leader. I knew I wanted to do something with sports because I wanted to give that same experience to others,” Cole stated. 

On the first day of school, Cole walked into a sport management class taught by Dr. Darrell Johnson. Before a book was opened or a lecture was given, Johnson taught his students to be a P.R.I.Z.E. — People-Oriented, Responsible, Innovative, Zealous, and Exceptional.

“I kind of laughed it off at first,” Cole admitted, “But slowly over the years, I’ve realized that these attributes are truly what people are looking for in the sports industry.” Since day one, the skills he needed to thrive were right in front of him. Cole used this acronym every single day as he worked for the Colts, and now uses it in his position at the University of Notre Dame when he looks to hire new employees. 

During his senior year of earning his sports business degree, Grace’s Center for Career Connections helped connect him with a Career Fair at Bankers Life Fieldhouse with the Pacers where he met countless people in the sports industry and received the advice “to start low and move your way up. Take any in you can get.”

Cole took that advice and ran with it. He soon applied for and accepted a game-day position selling 50-50 tickets in the Colts’ community relations department. After claiming the title of “top seller” three weeks in a row, he approached his manager about moving to a sales position.

Then, Cole began working as part of the night sales team for the Colts and loved it. 

“Even though it’s a large organization, it somehow felt like a family-owned business. Everyone was so supportive,” said Cole. His favorite part of the job was when people who he has watched on ESPN and admired for years casually walked past his desk as his colleagues!

After four months on the night sales team during the 2019 football season, Cole started looking for guidance on where to go next. He discovered that Legends, a company that does ticket sales for college athletics, had posted a role for Notre Dame’s inside sales program. Because his fiancé, (now his wife), was from Warsaw, he decided to apply for the position to be closer to her and her family. 

Cole’s work with the Colts had equipped him with baseline knowledge of the ticket sales process, and when he began working with Legends for Notre Dame, he hit the ground running. Within the first few months of his position, he received an award from Legends for the amount of revenue he had generated. 

Around a year and a half of working in his position, Notre Dame decided to end their partnership with Legends. Cole became anxious about whether he would still have a job or not. He and his wife had just put in an offer for a house in Warsaw and it was accepted, but now they might not be able to follow through. 

“I didn’t know if we were going to lose the house that we wanted in Warsaw, and God definitely provided through that,” said Cole. “Notre Dame actually said, ‘Hey, we want you to go in-house.’ And I was the only person from that transition that stayed at Notre Dame.”

Not only was Cole the only employee offered to stay with the university, but he was also asked by the second-in-command in the athletic department to help rebuild the sales program. 

“I got to be on some really cool committees to help hire my boss and my boss’s boss,” said Cole. “God definitely was in that, because I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Oh, am I going to lose my job,’ and it turned into, ‘Hey, like we’re going to give you some extra responsibility.’”

From inside sales, Cole moved on to senior account executive, which was a two-level promotion. He spent four years in that job and recently became the associate director of sales in January 2026. He handles administrative work, employee sales training, the schedule for an inbound phone line for questions about tickets, game day responsibilities for his team, and premium sales, such as stadium boxes and club tickets. But Cole’s job goes beyond selling tickets and training employees. He contributes to the stadium experience directly. 

“I think the biggest thing that is cool in our job is when you have a really good year, you walk into the stadium on game day, and it’s completely filled. You made the difference in that, and it’s super tangible,” said Cole, “It’s just really cool to see all these different backgrounds of fans and seeing people from all over the country come and rally behind one team, and you made a difference in helping those student athletes feel like they had a home field advantage.”

Now that Cole has been immersed in the workplace for several years, he reflects back and recognizes the preparation he received from his sports business degree. “Grace taught me to view work as a gift from God. Being able to go into a workplace with that mindset really sets you apart.”

Another big takeaway from Grace was the importance of finding a mentor. For Cole, that person was Chad Briscoe, director of athletics at Grace who was nominated two times as the best NAIA athletic director by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). Cole specifically recalls Briscoe telling him, “No matter where you go, there is a ministry opportunity — whether you are a janitor or a CEO, you can make an impact.”

This will be Cole’s sixth year with Notre Dame in January, and he is excited to see how God will continue to use his skills in the future.

Are you curious where God can take your degree? Apply to Grace College and check out our programs!