USA TODAY International Edition
Women are driving ACC Network launch
The long- awaited launch of the ACC Network surely will invite comparisons to channels associated with the other power conferences in college athletics.
But even before the switch flips Aug. 22, the ACC Network already has distinguished itself from any project in the history of sports television: It has been built almost entirely by women.
“In a perfect world, this wouldn’t be
Dan Wolken
a story,” said Amy Rosenfeld, a senior coordinating producer for ESPN who is heading production for the ACC Network. “Victory for all of us is when this isn’t a story anymore. But right now it is a story, and it’s probably an important story.”
By this point, the idea of women blazing trails in male- dominated sports spaces isn’t new. Front offices and coaching staffs in the NBA have recently hired women in key roles. Professional and college sports have increasing numbers of female referees. ESPN has promoted Doris Burke, Jessica Mendoza and Beth Mowins to high- profile analyst and play- by- play roles for men’s sports, breaking even more barriers for women in sports media.
But this measure of progress has taken place in a more behind- the- scenes manner as ESPN entered negotiations for the ACC Network and eventually assembled a team that would be tasked with a project that was both similar and yet very different from previous launches of the Longhorn and SEC Networks.
“I remember being in a meeting one day a couple years ago and looking around, and I noticed it then that I was sitting at a table full of women,” said Rosalyn Durant, the senior vice president of college networks for ESPN. “I paused and said, ‘ Look around the room here. Do you notice this?’ It felt different, it felt very strong and it felt like tremendous progress from where the industry had been and it showed progress from where the company had been.”
Though there was nothing intentional about it, the ACC Network had women as the top executive ( Durant), head of production ( Rosenfeld), head of remote production including on- campus broadcasting facilities ( Meg Aronowitz), programming ( Stacie McCollum), creative services and animation ( Carol Boyle), marketing ( Michelle Berry and Jill Husak), affiliate marketing ( Susan Mattia and Linda Cabral), public relations ( Keri Potts and Amy Ufnowski) and sales ( Jennifer Tsong).
“I have not worked on another team that has looked like this or felt like this,” said McCollum, whose 15 years at ESPN have encompassed programming and scheduling for the NBA and NFL as well as rights acquisition for golf properties like The Masters and the British Open. “I had the opportunity to work alongside many women in my career, but to this extent is certainly something new.”
Though ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro came aboard in March 2018, well after the ACC Network project was underway, he said the makeup of the executive team is aligned with a key priority during his tenure of growing female viewership of all ages.
“We talk about our core priorities at ESPN, and they include direct to consumer quality storytelling and innovation, but one of the ones we usually lead with is audience expansion,” Pitaro told USA TODAY Sports. “That means a bunch of things, but it includes being more relevant to girls and women, and if we’re going to be more relevant to girls and women we need an executive leadership team and an employee base on all levels that reflects that audience.”
While the average person who flips on a Notre Dame- Virginia Tech basketball game isn’t necessarily going to notice the gender of the person producing the show from a broadcast truck or the person who slotted that game into the programming lineup, it does represent a meaningful achievement for someone like Durant. When she started at ESPN right out of college in the affiliate sales and marketing department, it was important for her to see women and people of color in executive- level positions as affirmation that she could advance at the company.
Now, she has the opportunity to do the same for the next generation.
“I knew I needed to be in a place that embraced me, and I saw that,” she said. “The picture wasn’t as impressive as our diversity picture is today, but it was there and it really gave me the confidence that I could be at ESPN.”
Aronowitz, who has helped launch three networks within the ESPN family, remembers starting as an event producer many years ago when very few women did that job, which often requires more than 100 nights of travel per year and unconventional working hours.
“It takes a lot to stick it out and advance and set a mark in that role, male or female,” she said. “It isn’t an easy journey.”
The demands have been similar to launch this project, as Aronowitz has spent significant time at all 15 schools over the last three years helping design, build and staff state- of- the- art facilities on campus that will allow on- site production of live sports, features and studio shows for ACC Network and ESPN.
But as she and Rosenfeld have gone around the league training some of the students who will help staff these events, they’ve noticed that about half of them are women interested in television production as a career.
“It’s really refreshing to see because now I’m paying attention to it, and these kids today, it’s just like, hey if you’re good ( enough to) sit in this chair, it doesn’t matter,” Rosenfeld said. “There’s not that sort of stigma that it’s sports and it has to be guys, but what’s really interesting and eye opening for me isn’t just the young women but the young men ( who) come up to us and they’ll make a comment about all the women ( at the network), and that means something to me because that says you can do this. It resonates.”
Though the ACC Network’s relevance in the sports media landscape is ultimately going to rest on the games and the content surrounding them, the women who have been part of the fiveyear journey to launch it will look back fondly on this period of their careers because of how unique a working environment it has been.
They hope at least some part of that translates to the screen, as they have intentionally gone for a look and a feel that will separate it from other conference networks, rely heavily on exclusive access programming, lean into technological flourishes and cater to an ACC fan base whose tastes are different from other leagues.
“If we mirrored another conference network, we failed because the ACC is so different,” Durant said. “We threw all templates away early on.”
The same could be said for the management team that will bring this network to life.
“We want to get to a point where having women in leadership positions isn’t an anomaly but it’s routine,” Pitaro said. “What we’re seeing on the ACC Network side is really fantastic, but we’re talking about it right now because it’s the exception. We want to get to the point where it’s no longer news, it’s just commonplace. That really is the goal.”
JIM DEDMON/ USA TODAY SPORTS