Ball State Sports Link is an immersive learning experience. The program allows students to write, report, shoot, produce and host a variety of sports programs.
The program is the FIRST and ONLY program in the NATION where students are totally immersed in sports and electronic media.
In the 2009-2010 academic year, each student logged nearly 1,000 “real-life” sports experience to combine for well over 14,000 student hours for sports media and production.
As a whole, in three semesters students have dedicated nearly 20,000 hours for sports production.
Ball State Sports Link -- By The Numbers:
15,000+
Online view count of SL videos (through all outlets)
14,000+
Combined hours to Sports Link since August of 2009
2,000+
Fans through social media outlets (like Facebook and Twitter)
200+
Total SL features produced (packages, webcasts, audio reports, highlights, melt reels, interviews, etc)
60
Link-ed In webcasts for ballstatesports.com
40
Audio reports aired on WMDH Radio
21
Sports Media Professionals who have contributed or visited with students
18
Total productions & live remotes, including 10 live events with production truck
About Ball State Sports Link:
Ball State Sports Link will be supervised by a TCOM faculty member (Chris Taylor), graduate assistant (Steven Albritton) and a Teleplex professional staff member (Bill Bryant).
During the semester, students will produce a broad range of media from live remote productions, live-to-tape events, television programs (WIPB-TV , Comcast Indiana, ESPN Networks, Fox Sports Net, Cardinal Vision 57), student-athlete features and webcasts. Other facets of the immersion program include radio, newspapers, podcasts and the use of mobile technology and interactivity via the web.
To maintain a focus on cross-platform promotion, students repackage the feature stories they create for local use at Ball State and send them to local news stations and outlets in the hometown of the featured player—on any platform the station may require.
TCOM is a member of one of the largest undergraduate communication colleges in the country -- the College of Communication, Information and Media.
The Sports Link offices and studios are located in the Ball Communications Building, while the David Letterman Communication and Media Building is a world-class facility offering state-of-the-art options for all students.
