Maha Zubairi
The Big Business of Sports
Maha Zubairi’s time at Haslam has created a bridge between her two passions of sports and business, opening the door to a unique path combining both fields.
Zubairi always had a knack for business, but her interest in football came as a surprise to her. Her parents came to the U.S. from Pakistan in the early 2000s, and she didn’t grow up around the sport. In high school, she assisted her school’s football coach with administrative tasks, discovering she truly enjoyed the process. Zubairi also learned a lot about working with others. “When teams came to play us, I’d talk to other coaches and hear about their experiences,” she recalls. From that experience, she developed an interest in football scouting.
Zubairi and her father toured UT and Haslam when she was applying to colleges her senior year of high school, and she instantly felt at home. “We were immediately impressed,” says Zubairi, who plans to graduate in May 2025 with a degree in marketing and a collateral in supply chain management. “Once I stepped on campus and completed the tour, I was like, ‘I’ve got to go here.'”
As a UT student, Zubairi connected with Scott Altizer, the university’s director of football relations, to discuss working with the team. Zubairi assumed she would work in recruiting since that appeared to be where most female student workers were assigned. “I spoke with Scott and he told me, ‘Just tell me what you think you want to do,'” Zubairi says. When she expressed an interest in scouting, Altizer introduced her to Brandon Lawson, the university’s director of scouting, who decided to bring her on. “I’m the only female working in scouting, but from the start, everyone has been so open to teaching me and to my interests, which has been great.”
For the past two years, Zubairi has worked with coach Willie Martinez to identify potential recruits. Her role includes reviewing videos of high school games from across the country, evaluating and tagging player performance, writing summary evaluations, and meeting with Martinez and the scouting staff to discuss potential recruits. She also communicates with high school coaches and schedules scouting visits from Martinez. “There’s a lot of building and maintaining relationships between coaches and assistant coaches on our side,” Zubairi says. “And on game days, I keep Coach Martinez updated on all the kids who are there so he can meet with them.”
Bringing her skills to the scouting process is exciting for Zubairi. “After three years, there are kids playing for Tennessee now and that will be here beyond my graduation that I helped to find,” she says. “Being part of someone’s story is really rewarding for me.”
Zubairi interned with Adidas over the summer in Oregon. She worked in football product marketing, and traveled to events, toured the company’s Los Angeles office, and gained a holistic view on how she might blend business and sports in a future career. “I didn’t know combining these two interests was even possible,” Zubairi says. “It was an incredible experience.”
