Resumo
Introduction: College sports has been used by private institutions of higher education (IHE) as communication tools in marketing strategies in the face of competition for attracting and retaining students. Objective: this study aimed to analyze the profile of professional sports managers of IHE participating in the quinquennium 2005-2009 College Olympic Games. Method: this is a qualitative research with results based on Content Analysis (Bardin, 1977). Result: as a result, we found that the profile of these managers are guided by past experience of coordination; the area of operation differs from the area of academic expertise, and his or her primary function is to disseminate the corporate brand through these events especially with media coverage. Discussion: sport is still seen as a linear department and without integration with other sectors for a total utilization of return possible, especially the marketing and communication. Conclusion: considering the potential of exploring all the resources generated from sport and understanding it as a business and promoter of numerous benefits to, as an auxiliar, to improve and to enhance the brand of the higher education institutions, we stress the need for further research in the area, given its contribution to institutional development and the little material to understand it, in fact, as a marketing tool, inasmuch in a decade where the sport is the segment that should have great repercussion in the country
