Haslam MBA Students Participate in SEC Case Competition

Haslam College of Business MBA students participated in the third annual SEC Case Competition at the University of South Carolina on April 10.

Allen Pannell, faculty advisor for the group, said the students did well, even though they did not make it past the first round. “Our students had the most innovative answer I saw all weekend,” Pannell said. “They just lost a close judgment call to a very good Florida team, who went on to win the competition.”

Florida has won the competition all three years, and Haslam students’ experience against them has been much the same. “Last year the judges went out of their way to give our team feedback and encouragement,” Pannell said. “They said it was basically a coin flip.”

Haslam’s team consisted of John Born, Marcus Jeter, Brock Lambert and Samara Sadrin. They were given the name of a company to research before the event then presented with a case question once they arrived on-site for the competition.

The SEC Case Competition is hosted by SECU, the academic initiative of the Southeastern Conference. It pits SEC business schools against each other in a friendly competition, providing an opportunity to test students’ skills at solving simulated, real-world business scenarios across the spectrum of disciplines.