Dennis Green is not the professor you thought he was. We couldn’t resist that joke, even though we’re sure that everyone else that’s covering this story is writing the same thing.

But we digress. We’ve just learned that Green, the former Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings head coach, is now an official professor at San Diego State University, teaching impressionable young minds the way of sports business management.

The College of Business Administration at San Diego State University (SDSU) announced today that former National Football League head coach, Dennis Green, has begun teaching the SDSU Sports Business Management MBA program’s Strategic Management (BA703) course which has been offered during fall 2008 semester.

“The opportunity to tap into Dennis’ incredible knowledge of sports management is a major coup for the SDSU Sports Business MBA program.” said Scott Minto, director of SDSU’s Sports Business MBA program. “As a head coach in the NFL, Dennis was required to exhibit the same management skills required of a major corporate executive. His leadership experience in one of the most high pressure situations in the sports business and his knowledge of all aspects of the football business makes Dennis the ideal person to head this unique academic exercise.”

“I’m thrilled to be a part of SDSU Sports MBA program and enjoy working with students who want to be a part of this industry,” said Green. “I want to see these students succeed in the sports business profession, so great to be a part of the process. But you have to work hard to be a winner, so I’m not ‘letting them off the hook’.”

See, even Dennis made the joke! For the uninitiated, here it is:

This is a graduate level course, and we would be pretty psyched to see one of the more well-known NFL head coaches amping things up from the podium. Green’s a successful author, football analyst and, we’ll say it, head football coach. As long as the class doesn’t deal very much with avoiding the press conference meltdown, this is a pretty sweet academic offering. See, we said it again.

If anyone has a syllabus, please send it along. And we’ve made a request to speak with Professor Green. We anxiously await his response, though we refuse to wait for office hours.

Former NFL Head Coach, Dennis Green, Teaches Sports Business Management Course at SDSU [Business Wire]