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CoSIDA.com/CoSIDA360 Magazine Archive
Note: This story appeared in the Summer 2019 August edition of CoSIDA 360 Magazine. To view the full magazine, click here.
Cover Story
Framing Our Future
Members from across the CoSIDA membership weigh in on the future of the college athletics communications profession and what they think you should be thinking about now ... to be ready for what’s next.
by Beau White – CoSIDA Director of Creative Services
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: “Things have changed so much since I got started in this business. We used to use typewriters and fax machines. I bet you don’t even know what a mimeograph machine is! Social media has changed everything!”
When you ask most people what the future may hold, it’s common for them to fall back on the past. This mindset does not discriminate based on age.
While you have to have a certain number of years behind you to think it’s funny to talk about the good old days of faxing, we all settle in to our comfort zones. Maybe for you, you were an early adopter of Twitter but later didn’t see what all the excitement was for Instagram or Snapchat.
It’s human nature to dismiss the unknown for the known. In this case, the known is all those experiences, tools and ideas that got us to where we are. Many of those things have served us well and will continue to serve us well. Being a good writer — long or short form — will never go out of style. If we want to be relevant, as individuals and collectively, we have to always be at least considering what’s next.
It’s also human nature to see the world in a vacuum. When it comes to CoSIDA programming, the two most frequent complaints are that we focus too much on the NCAA Division I schools (from all the non-Division I members) and we focus too much on the small colleges (from the D1 members). Hmmm.
As an organization, the future and what it looks like has been top of mind lately. How can we as an organization get better and move forward? How can we advocate better for our members? How can our members do the same in their individual situations where they work?
With all that in mind, and already knowing that one size doesn’t fit all, we set out to gain some perspective from people on the front lines at different divisions within our membership.
We looked for people who are leaders, who have been honored for their work, who have already had a history of being innovative. They had some interesting stuff to say. And, they weren’t allowed to say “social media is changing everything,” because, you know what, we already know that.
The question: What do athletics communications pros need to be doing now to be ready for what’s next? What is next? Specifically, what does the future hold for your division?
NCAA Division I
Thomas Chen – Seton Hall University
Associate Athletics Director for Digital Media & Communications
With more than 10 years in the field, Thomas oversees the Pirate Sports Network, which is one of the most impressive student-powered video operations you’ll find. Find the series “A Pirate’s Life” on the Seton Hall Pirates YouTube channel.
Almost every athletic communications office has student workers, but in today’s world where strategic content is king, how are you using them?
Sure, we all need our students to capture press conference quotes, hand out statistics, write a press release or two; but today’s students are so incredibly creative and savvy that it’s upon us to maximize their potential, just like it’s a coach’s responsibility to get the most out of her/his student-athletes.
At Seton Hall, our office oversees all video content. We don’t have a director of video production or multimedia. Not a single full-time staff member came up the ranks as a video editor, broadcaster or television producer. Yet, we have been able to excel in both live event production and feature storytelling because of a talented base of students who are eager to work in sports. They come to us seeking opportunity, and we give them access to fuel their creativity.
Members of the Pirate Sports Network senior class of 2018 were honored during a men’s basketball game at Prudential Center. Photo courtesy Thomas Chen.
The end result is that we are able to promote our student-athletes and tell their stories, and our student workers graduate from Seton Hall with a portfolio of work that they can put in front of future employers.
This past year was a banner one for the Pirate Sports Network. We delivered 60 live game broadcasts, showcasing our talented student-athletes and coaches. We put on a live men’s basketball preview show in the style of College GameDay called “Morning Madness” that featured the great Bill Raftery as our guest. We fired up our fans with visual recaps of our men’s basketball victories. And we developed a series called “A Pirate’s Life” which tells great stories about our student-athletes.
In that series alone we uncovered stories about student-athletes overcoming injuries and family tragedies, walk-ons sending handwritten letters to coaches asking to join the team, a men’s basketball player rediscovering his passion for playing the sport after transferring and an Israeli who was competitively swimming in 10-kilometer open-water races at age 15.
None of that would have been possible without the 20 students who make up the Pirate Sports Network. I’m thankful that their experiences telling the Seton Hall story have led to stories of their own: PSN graduates have gone on to broadcast games on national television, become reporters at top-100 market television stations, land positions in fellow Division I athletic communications offices and earn opportunities to produce live events professionally.
"For my D-I colleagues trying to find their content niche in a budget-conscious world: if you haven’t done so already, it’s time to recruit and develop your student workers into content creators."
Every campus has motivated students interested in sports who can benefit from experiential education. Give them an opportunity to take on a larger role in your strategic plan and give them the chance to be leaders. Their passion and creativity will help you achieve your communication goals, and after assisting you, they will be better prepared for life after graduation.
NCAA Division II
Romanda Noble-Watson – Claflin University
Sports Information Director
Romanda has worked in more than one division and is highly involved in CoSIDA, NCAA and other committee work. She was recently honored as a 2019 Black College Nines Sports Information Director of the Year.
Sports information on all levels is generally the same. The major difference between D-I and D-II is personnel.
When I think of what it’s going to take to move forward in sports information at Division II institutions, one thing that comes to mind is the addition of extra personnel.
While I can’t speak for all Division II sports information offices, I will say that quite a few offices are a one-person shop with minimal, if any, student-staff support. New technology is dictating the direction of our profession and it’s up to us as SIDs to make the necessary change that will allow us to move into the same direction.
"The technological changes intensify the need for more personnel to meet the expectations. Often when new technology is put into motion, we suffer from lack of adequate staffing, thus at times handicapping our ability to keep up and adequately promote our student-athletes."
Noble-Watson (left) with incoming CoSIDA 3rd Vice President Jessica Poole.
Another point of emphasis that comes to mind when thinking about the future of Division II sports information, is maintenance of social media platforms. While most of us are accustomed to maintaining our athletics websites, we must now juggle the social media platforms for our departments. The best way for the smaller shops to deal with this is using student-interns whose sole responsibility is to maintain the social media platforms.
As the student-athlete and technology changes and evolves, it’s necessary for sports information on all levels to change along with it. While writing and statistics are still two of the most important aspects of our profession, understanding social media and its usage is a close third.
Social media along with the websites we already maintain have become outlets to disseminate information to the community faster, making it imperative that the SIDs on all levels keep pace.
NCAA Division III
Danielle Percival – Piedmont College
Director of Athletic Communications
With just five years in the business, Danielle is one of the newest members of the CoSIDA Board of Directors, and an active member of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee. She previously won awards as a television anchor and reporter as an undergrad at Troy.
D-III athletic communications is better summed up as D-III athletic communications, creative content, game management, operations and anything else that happens to be under “other duties as assigned” that day (tarp pull included).
One of the main challenges of D-III is exactly the aforementioned. You can be pulled in many different directions with high expectations in each area. Maybe your staff is under the direction of an AD or campus communications department that has unrealistic expectations or no feel for athletics. You could be fighting for a seat at the table in administrative discussions and feeling overlooked.
So what do we do about it?
Discover. Develop. Dedicate.
The D-III way.
"Discover what you’re best at. Strengthen your strengths and don’t try to be something you’re not."
Put effort into getting better at all areas of your job, but if you excel at writing, then write the best feature you can. If you excel at graphics, own that content and make your department a leader in that area. Whatever you’re good at, be the best at it and make that your brand.
Percival courtside with a student-assistant. Photo courtesy Danielle Percival.
Develop relationships across campus. Join committees within the campus community. Increase your currency on campus by pouring into yourself professionally and providing diverse opinions in discussions. Once you’ve become known and visible, you may earn more face time with administrators and begin to have a voice in other conversations.
Dedicate yourself to learning. Branch out and attend training sessions that broaden your perspective whether those are leadership, diversity and inclusion or student success/development. Find new ways to grow and if funds aren’t available, find free webinars, TED talks, or read articles on higher education. There are ways to better yourself even if resources are limited.
One of the main limited resources is time. We never stop. The curse of this profession is the fact that the job never ends and you’re never “done.” You can work until your fingers bleed and you’ve driven yourself into the ground. Burnout is real. What we as SIDs need to do to be prepared for what’s next, is to stop and invest in ourselves. What good are we if we’re on empty all the time?
If you’re on empty, you aren’t looking for ways to improve. You’re dwelling in dread over what is left to complete. If you’re on empty, you never have enough time to focus on yourself.
You are not defined by the job. The job is not more important than you.
We need to be equipped to carry on in this profession and instill in the next generation that it’s a worthwhile endeavor. I’ve had bad days on the job, but I keep coming back because we work with incredible people.
There is always room for improvement when it comes to salary discussions, environment and expectations within our field, but if you start with the controllable variables, you may be able to entertain deeper, tougher discussions through those conversations.
NAIA
Donnie Smith – Southeastern University
Director of Athletic Communications
Still with under 10 years of full-time experience, Donnie was named the NAIA National Sports Information Director of the Year in 2017. He has won numerous awards for publications and broadcasting. He is a member of the NAIA-SIDA Board of Directors and will oversee the NAIA programming committee this year.
When David Gibson asked me on SIDCast what the one skill I’d like to develop is, I probably had the all-time most awkward answer.
I wanted to be ahead of the curve and already developing what the next trend was going to be. At the small college level, more often than not, we are reacting to what is being done at the university level. I felt if our team could be the one to set the trend, it would set us apart.
In just six seasons at Southeastern University, we’ve seen so many trends come and go and responsibilities change quite a bit.
The biggest change that’s happened, in my opinion, has been media coverage. The SID has gone from soliciting outlets to cover the athletes and games at their institution to creating that content and distributing it digitally.
At the small college level, this was especially challenging to generate media coverage. Now, the resources are available to create the content yourself and publish it.
"Looking to the future, I think the biggest change coming (if it hasn’t already) is tailoring our work to attracting students and keeping students. The SID will move from statistician and sportswriter to marketing agency."
This will involve a little bit of everything (like we already do). It will challenge PR skills. It will require graphic design and video skills.
Here are a few things to consider as you embrace these changes and this new/additional way of thinking.
1. Promote your student-athlete experience.
What is gameday like? What traditions do your teams have pregame, postgame, or during practice? What makes your team unique? What makes your school stand out? Examine the tools and channels you have available to you to show potential students what it’s like to be at your school and a part of your team.
2. Share what your former student-athletes are doing now.
Most of us are hard-up for summer content. Talk to your coaches about what some of their former players are doing now. The low-hanging fruit would be to reach out to someone who’s been able to continue their playing career. But what about the former player who has gone into coaching at the high school level? What about those former Academic All-Americans that have great jobs, or have gone onto law school or medical school?
3. Get your coaches on camera.
This is a win-win-win. First, it gives fans and future students an opportunity to hear from your coach and see what they are like. Second, you will probably want a quote to use for your release (those probably won’t be going away quite yet). Interviews can be used as standalone social media posts, can be incorporated into a highlight package, and or embedded into your recap. This doesn’t require a 4K camera, the Plexiglas sponsor panel to put up behind the subject, or portable lighting. It’s perfectly acceptable to do this on your phone. After all, I’m guessing the vast majority of your website hits and social media views are via mobile platforms.
In our position, we have the opportunity to share an inviting and exciting narrative to the next wave of student-athletes. Our work gives high school students a chance to see what the next four years of their lives will look like at your institution.
Donnie Smith broadcasting a Southeastern football game (on the scoreboard).
U Sports/Canada
Mary Beth Challoner – University of Toronto
Manager, Events & Marketing & Athletic Communications
Mary Beth is a former Toronto student-athlete working at her alma mater. Early in her 12-year career, she was responsible for 44 sports by herself.
This was a very interesting piece to write. When first asked the question: what should SIDs be doing now to get ready for whatever is next — and what is coming next?” — I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to say. However, as I thought more about what the future of this profession looked like, particularly in Canada, it really had me thinking. So much has already changed in my 12 years. Things have drastically changed — so what else is coming?
To be honest, and if nothing else rings true in this editorial, change is the constant in this profession. That part we do know, and it won’t stop changing.
All of us in the North have small departments so flexibility and adaptability are key elements to our job. As the lines between marketing and communications blur more and more, we are having to adjust to not only how we deliver the content, but now we also have to focus on creating elements of it.
The all-encompassing role of the sports information person is now expanding beyond communications. We must focus on acquiring the necessary skills of videos, photos, design, icons or emoji, to effectively push our stories, broaden our impact, and attain our reach and to gain the over-stimulated attention of our audience.
Challoner speaking at a Toronto Varsity Blues event. Photo courtesy Mary Beth Challoner.
As the profession adapts to produce said content applicable to the relevant mediums, feeding into the new and growing world of instant information will require us to be even more creative in how we produce it for whatever channels come up.
"It is, and I believe will continue to be, all about the moment — shot, goal, win, loss, etc. — and what’s in the now."
So we’ll need to know the best way to communicate it, how people are consuming it, and how best we use it to get the necessary hits and likes.
We have always told stories, and we will continue to do so. We will still be storytellers, but our methods and tools will continue to change. There will be more automation, but the stories themselves will still be there, we just may need to deliver them differently.
We’ll need to be flexible and stay on top of the tools being used to convey our stories as well as understanding the trends on how people consume it and the speed with which they expect to receive information.
As the audience changes, we must change. As the medium changes, we must adjust our use of it. As the messaging changes, we must cut, edit, reduce, and adapt to how the audience is consuming it. Telling stories is our core business but how we tell them, and ultimately deliver them, will continue to evolve.
With input from Ben Matchett (University of Calgary) and Ari Grossman (University of Waterloo).
Two-Year Schools
Adam Fornwalt – Harford Community College
Manager for Sports Information and Game Operations
Adam is brand new to sports information as he closes in on completing his first year in the business. He caught our attention with his thoughtful questions and comments during a panel at the #CoSIDA19 Convention.
Esports
According to an article done by Forbes back in July, the esports industry is worth roughly over $1 billion dollars in marketing revenue alone. The NJCAA decided it wanted a part of that back in March of 2018, announcing a partnership with National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE), home to more than 71 institutions offering competitive video gaming at the collegiate stage.
Despite the NCAA tabling the idea of overseeing esports themselves for the time being, four-year universities such as Boise State, Ohio State and Oklahoma are already on board. While some may still view gaming as just a couple of nerds playing Dungeons and Dragons in their parent’s basement, the reality is that it’s just a matter of time before colleges and universities will have to take esports seriously.
Ever-Evolving Stat Tracking Software
The sky is the limit for the future of stat tracking products and software. As technology advances, so should we as professionals in the sports information world. Genius and its partnership with the NCAA were the talk of the CoSIDA Convention this year.
It’s not unrealistic to think a camera could be scoring basketball games in the near future. Other sports may be more difficult but are likely to follow.
Short and Sweet
One of the presentations I took the most from at the convention was Dawn Dugle’s “We Are Writers.” Gone are the days of lengthy game recaps and feature stories. Fans, student-athletes and their families just don’t have the attention span anymore for the play-by-play of how a game went. Quick bullet points, pictures and video seem to be the way to drive eyeballs to our websites.
Fellow 2YSIDA member and McLennan Community College SID Candice Kelm mentioned to me that she feels recaps will become an ongoing process during games, where those following the action will witness the post-game article being completed in real time while the athletic event is still being played out. Some SIDs write recaps during games already, so why not show this process off to our fan bases?
Social Media
Facebook is only 15 years old but has lost nearly 15 million users since 2017. Twitter just became a teenager this year. Snapchat and Twitter have been around for less than a decade.
"As one speaker put it at this year’s CoSIDA Convention, the social media platform we will all be using in five years has most likely not been invented yet."
A couple of apps to keep an eye on are Tik Tok and Vero. The former is all about short viral videos, while the latter is essentially Instagram minus the ads and algorithms of a major social app.
Fornwalt announcing a Harford game. Photo courtesy Adam Fornwalt.
Conference Offices
Mike Kern – Missouri Valley Conference
Associate Commissioner
Mike is a veteran of the profession having served the MVC for over 28 years, before the prevalence of the internet. He has extensive experience hosting NCAA events and serving as the FCS Managing Director. He’s been honored for his use of technology in sports.
One underlying theme of the 2019 CoSIDA Convention was that the convention is much more than a convention. It’s more than a sharing of ideas. It’s more than an opportunity to socialize and learn with old friends and make new ones. It’s a family reunion.
Let’s face it, it’s different for those of us at a conference office. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a family reunion for us, too, but we have a different narrative. We don’t have that special daily connection with student-athletes and head coaches; we don’t experience special bonding opportunities with a team or staff; and we aren’t in the trenches (at least not all the time).
But we are all in this together. We are all working hard at telling our stories and promoting our teams, student-athletes and coaches. Throughout that process, we are also in the business of building relationships with our friends in the media and administrators on our campuses.
I’ve had the pleasure of working at the Missouri Valley Conference with the same two leaders (Doug Elgin and Patty Viverito) since 1991. My life in this profession began six years prior at Missouri and Missouri State as a student and graduate assistant, respectively. Despite the consistency of personnel and the immediate surroundings at my office, a lot has changed. (Yes, when I started my journey, there was no internet.) We need to understand that evolution will continue. It’s our job to be ready.
One thing is clear — technology will continuously be introduced, and it will transform how we operate. It seemingly happens on a yearly basis. We can’t be afraid to embrace it. Surround yourself with others who can. If you are in a smaller conference office and don’t have that luxury, develop a support system. That can be your family, other SIDs, and of course, your spouse. Not all of them can help you make the technology leap, but all of them can help make your life better.
Kern at the NCAA Division I Men’s Final Four. Photo by Doug Vance.
There will be other external changes, too. Step back and remember why we do what we do. We will always be in the people business. Let’s continue to work hard at building new relationships and strengthening existing ones. In the future, there’s a chance that we’ll have to tell our own stories and “be our own media,” and of course, that’s already happening.
It’s important to constantly evaluate what we are doing and how we spend our time. Have a plan and visualize the outcome of your project. Set priorities and understand the audience you are trying to reach; it’s always evolving. Please don’t just do the same thing year after year. It’s important to think out of the box. If you’re not the most creative person, don’t be bashful about borrowing ideas that can work for you.
"Things will be different in the future, but the changes ahead could be the ones we make, and not the ones we react to."
Keep calm and carry on.
The Takeaways
by Beau White – CoSIDA Director of Creative Services
All seven of our respondents come from a very different point of view. What works for one may not work for another. But, you can learn and be inspired by anyone. If any of us knew what the next big social media phenomenon was going to be, we’d be wise to refocus our time on going out there developing it rather than talking about it. Keep in mind these takeaways as you consider how to frame your future.
The demands on your time not only are not going to go away, they are likely to increase. How are you going to respond?
According to Thomas Chen at D-I Seton Hall, the help you need is likely already right under your nose. There is an army of students eager for an experiential learning opportunity who probably have skills you can only dream of. Danielle Percival of D-III Piedmont says you don’t have to be all things to everyone. Figure out what you do best and do it better than everyone else.
The challenges at mid-size schools to produce like a larger school are real.
Romanda Noble-Watson of Claflin has worked at both D-I and D-II and says the job is the same but the resources in the form of staff don’t add up. Have the conversations with your leadership about the balance between the demands, and the future demands, and who is going to do that work. As Percival noted, you need to build that relationship first. Don’t let your ask for more staff be the first time you’ve ever talked to your AD or president. And, as Chen said, everyone is dealing with budgets so be creative about where you look to get that help.
Change is constant and disruptive.
As alluded to by Adam Fornwalt of Harford Community College, it doesn’t matter what you think of esports...they are here and are only going to grow. Two-year schools are ahead of the curve on this. Do you want to be ready to meet it head on or are you going to be forced to react when your school gets a team?
Donnie Smith from Southeastern thinks the future in the NAIA is going to include attracting and retaining students in general. You would be wise to build relationships across campus, perhaps with other campus recruiters.
Mike Kern from the Missouri Valley Conference says we have the ability to help shape the future rather than react to it. Mary Beth Challoner from Toronto adds the key is flexibility and adaptability. Those who are stuck only in what has worked for them before will inevitably feel frustrated and burned out.
Never stop working on your writing.
Ask any communications professional and they will tell you that above all else we are storytellers. If you want to be future-proof then you must be able to write and communicate. Whether it’s a long form feature, a tweet, text for a graphic, the sequence of a video, a GIF, a meme, a string of emojis, or something cool we haven’t even thought of, you need to be able to tell your story.
Percival may have said it best when she said, “One of the main limited resources is time. We never stop. The curse of this profession is the fact that the job never ends and you’re never ‘done.’”
But, spend some time every now and then pausing to evaluate what you’re doing and think about how you can prepare for what’s next. How can you do things better next year? What can you do to make yourself more valuable? What can you do to promote the things about your institution that make it unique and attractive? How can you anticipate what will be needed in your department? And, maybe most importantly, what are those things you’re hanging onto that you don’t need to do anymore?
Want to add something to this topic? Add your thoughts on the
CoSIDA Connect Open Member Forum.