Fall is the best season, with the colorful array of leaves on the trees, or crunching underfoot during a cool walk across campus. There is energy and excitement and a little urgency due to mid-term exams and knowing it kicks off the final stretch of the semester. And, of course, Halloween, with the creative outlets of costumes, pumpkin carving, and seeing decorated houses. And then there is sports.

For sports fans, there is the return of three major things:  The Fall Classic (World Series, for the non-baseball initiated), the National Football League, and the Saturday favorite, college football. Chances are, you have taken these in once or twice, or been around someone who watches one or all of these sports with a cult-like passion. Most people don’t get to see every game in person, and instead watch them with friends around the television, with nary a notice as to the complexities that go into pulling off a seamless viewing experience.  

Homecoming weekend, I spent some time with a very special group of Bulldogs who know firsthand how much goes into delivering the sports content we love to watch: Butler Sports Live. Constituted of students from CCOM’s most populous major, Sports Media, Butler Sports Live produces between 60-80 Butler Bulldog sporting events every year, including Football, Men’s and Women’s Soccer, Volleyball, Women’s Basketball, Baseball, Softball and Lacrosse.  Butler Sports Live, or as it is commonly called BSL, has around fifty students who work with CCOM faculty member Nick White and engineer David “Dutch” Duchnowski to stream all of this content to families, friends and viewing audiences around the country.

What does a day look like for this crew? On the day I stopped by, the Bulldogs were set to play a 1pm Women’s Soccer match, but call-time for the BSL crew was 10am—even before the athletes reported! They arrive early to ensure all the cameras are set up and working properly, running lines around the field, and testing communication among a number of other tasks. 

Live production is rewarding but it is not for the faint of heart. Even if a viewer doesn’t realize it, the process is not always smooth, but then again, experiencing how to handle these challenges is part of the learning laboratory that is BSL. Like any production, something invariably needs to be fixed, and tensions can even get a bit testy at times because a game’s start time is a fierce master. In reality, the crew has two hours to get things working because they start broadcasting pregame content an hour before the game action begins. There is always something going on in the CCOM Live Truck that serves as the base of operations for the broadcast, and our students are in the thick of it, learning from Nick and Dutch almost every single game.

The students run each broadcast, setting up graphics, calling camera angles, cutting fast-turnaround replays to “air” so those watching have a great experience. When the game is over the crew is not done. They finish postgame programming and then pack up the gear—a process that is not easy, nor short. Finally, about an hour after the game, the BSL crew are some of the last to leave, battle-tested, but proud of another broadcast.

Homecoming weekend is busy for many of us. For BSL it meant four broadcasts in three days. But even on consecutive days they do it with joy and enthusiasm. Students know how prepared they will be to get an internship or a job after graduation thanks to the opportunity they are afforded by BSL through the strong partnership CCOM has with the Butler Department of Athletics. That partnership grows stronger by the day—The Butler Way of working together shows the unique and awesome potential of our academic-athletic partnership.  

And no matter what season we’re in, make time to watch a BSL broadcast—and I hope you can appreciate what Nick, Dutch, and the team of BSL students in our experiential learning landscape are accomplishing with each event.