Colleges face increasing demand to produce more and better sports webcasts
SAN DIEGO – In RIMAC Arena at UC San Diego, banners of blue and gold hang below a massive new video board to commemorate the achievements of teams from the past.
They are important reminders of where the Tritons have been, but their significance now pales to the long, white banners with red lettering draped on the railing of the grandstands. The logo on them is recognizable to just about anyone who has turned on a television. ESPN. “Those are four important letters,” UCSD Athletic Director Earl Edwards mused on an evening in early January while he watched a Tritons men’s and women’s basketball doubleheader.
There is a touch of pride in Edwards’ voice, and by all rights, there should be.
In a county that has five four-year universities – San Diego State, University of San Diego, Cal State San Marcos, Point Loma Nazarene and UCSD – only the school in La Jolla has the right to hang that ESPN banner every time its teams play in the arena.
In fact, very few NCAA Division II programs in the country can make the claim, and none can do so in the Big West Conference, to which UCSD is moving next year as it begins its transition to Div. I.
In a deal forged with ESPN before last school year, UCSD produces all of its basketball games, as well as men’s and women’s volleyball, for ESPN3 – the streaming platform for the most powerful sports network in the world.
Next up in the coming years – both soccer teams, baseball, softball and water polo will be on ESPN3.
Before even arriving in their new conference, “we’re already leading and pushing the Big West in that direction,” in terms of quality production, said UCSD’S Steven Calista, associate athletic director, video production. “We want to set the standard.”
There is a digital arms race of sorts going on throughout all of college athletics. As video streaming becomes more sophisticated and commonplace, universities are facing greater demands – and higher costs – to produce their own live content.
In turn, viewers have the ability to see every play in an entire season, whether they live in New York or New Zealand. Gone are the days when parents had to scour newspapers or the internet for tidbits in a box score.
“I’ve seen it,” said Jason Bott, SDSU’S coordinator of multimedia productions for seven years. “Swimming and tennis matches are being streamed now. They’re streaming boxing at Air Force. They’re streaming sports that I thought would never be streamed.”
All five of the major universities in San Diego have webcasts for a number of their sports, with plans to do more, and they can hardly fathom a new world in which they could leave their fans – mostly parents of athletes – in the dark.
Including press conferences, Bott said SDSU will do about 140 live streams this school year. CSUSM, which included a video production room when it built its Sports Center, said it will produce more than 100, and UCSD has about 60 planned, with a goal of reaching 160 in the next few years.