MACON, Ga. — Mercer University emerged victorious at the 2025 Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) Student Case Competition, held at the IMA 25 Accounting and Finance Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. Rising senior Colin Ralph, an accounting and management double-major, and Jacob Woods, a graduate assistant in sports marketing with a minor in finance, took first place in the competition, besting 35 student teams representing 27 colleges and universities.
The Student Case Competition is sponsored annually by the IMA to provide students an opportunity to interpret, analyze, evaluate, synthesize and communicate a solution to a management accounting problem. The 2025 case, “NBA Player Acquisition: Cost-Benefit Analysis and Visualizations,” tasked teams with using data to identify players who would round out their team’s roster and better their chances of bringing home an NBA championship ring.
“Colin and Jacob used their differences and contrasting viewpoints as assets,” said Dr. Carol Springer Sargent, associate professor of accounting in the Stetson-Hatcher School of Business. “When no one pushes back on an idea, it is not ‘tested’ yet. They ‘tested’ everything. Coachable, hardworking, open-minded, feedback-hungry students, like Colin and Jacob, are hard to beat.”
Presenting as the only two-person team, Ralph and Woods said they welcomed the experience of speaking in front of accounting and business professionals outside of a classroom setting.
“One of the reasons I feel we worked so well as a team was the diversified skillsets,” Ralph said. “Our different experiences and knowledge contributed to having a different presentation, bringing outside knowledge of sports, finance and accounting together.”
Woods said the varied skills on the team were helpful. “It’s not like accounting is never going to speak to marketing. How are we going to center ourselves for success? How do you find different ideas? We found a team with different perspectives to help put the best fork on the table,” he said.
Rising senior Alecio Salas-Suzarte, an accounting major, wasn’t able to attend the presentation in person but provided additional accounting background and contributed to the visual design of the presentation.
IMA Global Board Chair Emeritus Sunil Deshmukh described case study competitions as more than academic exercises, calling them “rehearsal grounds for real-world leadership, where students learn to think critically, act ethically and collaborate under pressure.”
