First thing’s first, thank you athletics for proving me wrong this weekend. Last week I wrote how bad the Florida Gulf Coast University’s athletic program was doing in the month of September. So what did they do in the last weekend of September? They all won multiple times of course.
Volleyball defeated Kennesaw State and Mercer this weekend going to 3-1 in conference play. Men’s soccer got its first wins last weekend taking down Pennsylvania and Princeton, which was on national TV, both on the road. Women’s soccer started 2-0 in conference play after defeating Jacksonville and North Florida.
So I couldn’t be happier to be proven wrong. But moving on…
FGCU will be going national this year. With an agreement with the Atlantic Sun and ESPN every home men and women’s basketball game not already scheduled for TV will be broadcasted live on ESPN3.com. That means the remaining 10 home games this year will be available live online all over the country.
Instead of designating a control room inside Alico Arena, FGCU decided to buy their own production truck to broadcast the games from. This is a brilliant investment made by the school because that gives the option of broadcasting multiple sports and other events on campus.
FGCU will be the fourth A-Sun school to be featured on ESPN3. USC Upstate, Lipscomb and Kennesaw State are the others.
The A-Sun chose FGCU not only because of their recent success in the NCAA tournament but also because of their success over the last five years.
The best part about this whole operation is the fact that instead of paying ESPN staff the school decided to let the journalism students run the production truck.
Not only will FGCU get the national attention from broadcasting the games but for giving its students the opportunity of a lifetime. Jason MacBain, the Director of Athletics Communication, helped start the program at St. Bonaventure and said it became the most popular class on campus.
That has the opportunity to be that class here. There are plenty of students here who want to be broadcast majors who don’t have the chance since there is no broadcasting major here.
This is going to give students the real world experience necessary to get a job when they graduate. They can put on their resumes that they worked for ESPN and that is pretty awesome.
This is a testament to how much this school is growing. A few years ago, we were lucky to get regional coverage but now millions of Americans can watch FGCU from their homes.
I can’t even begin to imagine what that’s going to do for this program. From revenue to recruiting, it’s going to do wonders for FGCU.
The best part about this deal is that it isn’t exclusive for basketball. In the upcoming years, all different sports can be broadcasted and that is awesome.
I can’t wait to be able to watch FGCU on ESPN with a few clicks of a button and hopefully everyone else will too.