(FORTUNE Magazine) – CBS SPORTSLINE WANTS TO draw more customers to its online fantasy sports games. So the company brought in consultants to suggest ideas. But these "consultants" aren't from Bain or BCG. In fact, they just got back from spring break.

CBS SportsLine has tapped the Wharton Sports Business Initiative (WSBI), an organization founded last fall to forge a tighter link between the multibillion-dollar sports industry, corporate America, and University of Pennsylvania's business school. For the entire spring semester, CBS SportsLine gets two teams of five students led by professor Bruce Allen, an expert in pricing economics.

Five years in the making and led by legal studies professor Ken Shropshire, the WSBI is the latest attempt to capitalize on the sports-business frenzy exemplified by Michael Lewis's 2003 bestseller Moneyball and the increasingly corporate nature of professional sports (witness the "branding" of top athletes like Tiger Woods and Venus Williams).

The WSBI is not a formal academic concentration, so Wharton students can participate in its activities--which include forums, research, consulting, and high-level schmoozing with the likes of Nike CFO Don Blair--while pursuing traditional degrees in marketing or finance. The WSBI has also spawned an affiliated, student-run sports-business club that has 35 active members.

Wharton is the first top-tier business school to step up to the plate in such a big way. "We're in this for the long haul," says Shropshire.

The first batch of Wharton-trained sports nuts are now exploring the job market, only to find it's as inviting as the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field. The industry has relatively few openings, entry-level pay stinks, and employers don't do the sort of on-campus recruiting that investment banks do.

In such a climate, Shropshire says, only "the most creative and aggressive" MBAs need apply. "It's been challenging getting a foot in the door," agrees Dan Reich, an MBA candidate who dreams of working for a Premier League soccer club.

Selling English football to Americans? Now, there's a challenge for today's brightest business minds. -- Matthew Boyle