This month, roughly 2 million students will cross a commencement stage, shake a hand, and step into the job market with a diploma and a plan. For the ones who dreamed of working in sports or entertainment media — and there are more of them than you might think — that plan may have been spoiled a long time ago. Not by choice. By default.

Because by May, the most competitive students at America’s top universities have largely already committed to their first employer. They accepted those offers last fall, or the spring before that. Banking and consulting companies recruited them as sophomores. Sports media, sports marketing, and entertainment media, for the most part, were not in the room.

By the time our industry posts entry-level jobs, the best candidates have already said yes to someone else.

A structural problem, not a passion problem

This is not a story about students lacking interest in sports and entertainment media and marketing careers. When I launched the inaugural Business of Sports class at Vanderbilt University this year, it filled to its 40-student maximum in the first of four registration windows. A waiting list formed before the second window opened. The interest is real, but the opportunities are limited.

The problem is structural. Investment banks begin recruiting sophomores for junior-year........

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