College students have plenty to balance in their lives. Classes, school work, and studying alone leave them with little time for relaxation. Add to that delicate balance the amount of time needed to participate in college sports for athletes, and things start to slip through the cracks.
Founded in 2009 by Vin McCaffrey, Game Theory Group, is an organization providing college athletic departments tools designed to supplement the time athletes spend on their sport. Game Theory Group provides each athlete with access to a software platform called Game Plan, which provides an assessment to student-athletes that’s part aptitude test and part personality quiz.
Game Plan is designed to steer athletes in the right direction and help them find a major that best matches their skills and interests. The second part of Game Plan is acting as a go-between for the athletes and companies, such as Allstate or Nike, that like to hire college athletes.
There are three stages to Game Plan’s online platform; Prep, Play, and Pro.
Prep is designed to help prospective student-athletes’ transition into college life; and setting them up with eLearning modules designed to identify his or hers intangible characteristics, such as leadership ability as well as their learning type.
Play consists of more online modules, including personality and career assessment. Play also contains a master calendar that can be edited by coaches and academic advisors, sending the athlete notifications via social media, text messaging, or e-mail about set appointments or reminders.
Pro puts student-athletes’ profiles in the hands of participating organizations and acts as a platform for the two to converse and discuss opportunities for internships and entry-level positions.
An international relations major, McCaffrey played basketball for Lehigh University from 1994-1998. After college, he found that college athletes were desirable assets in the corporate world.
“Student-athletes have features that the workforce likes. They’re team-oriented, goal-oriented, take feedback positively; everything someone looks for in a model employee, an athlete has it,” says McCaffrey .
“They’re so busy, they don’t have time to think about their career, and sometimes they look up and their playing time is over and no idea what to do afterwards.”
McCaffrey described his Game Plan platform as “LinkedIn on steroids”, allowing users to display their personality with potential employers and make a better impression. This is especially important, because athletes often are not able to meet with recruiters face to face when they come to campus due to practice or other team activities.
When he was a student-athlete, the former guard felt stress and anxiety about his future while playing basketball. He entered Lehigh studying computer science before switching studies twice to international relations. McCaffrey referred to himself as, “an expert in changing his major.”
Based in North Carolina, Game Theory Group first launched Game Plan in 2009, but it was not smooth sailing from the get go.
“I got kicked in the teeth every day,” McCaffrey said.
“Starting a company is a real challenge.”
McCaffrey said that he drove his car “until the wheels fell off”, touring various universities and meeting with their athletic departments, putting 100,000 miles on it in the opening year.
GTG’s first clients were North Carolina State and Kentucky; also signing on Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin. Today, they have a partnership with more than 40 colleges and universities.
“I think we’re really doing a great thing, and if we continue we’ll have a chance to not only change the way people think about athletics, but also about education.”