After many years of using the SBU-TV sports truck, St. Bonaventure’s athletic department and journalism school has a brand new toy: ESPN+. The decision, announced by the Atlantic-10 conference this past spring, will broadcast more than 500 live A10 events each year. ESPN+ will now be at every A10 school.
Tim Kenney, St. Bonaventure University’s athletic director, is thrilled about the opportunity for the school to use a new platform.
“We knew we had to get an upgrade regardless of who we went with,” said Kenney. “The best thing about this is branding with ESPN. The name ESPN is synonymous in sports. Getting with them is huge. There were some issues when we were going through a third party platform, but with ESPN, it’s fairly simple. You download the app, sign up for the subscription and you get to watch a plethora of our teams compete outside of basketball.”
Kenney is excited about the light that ESPN will shine on St. Bonaventure athletics, and St. Bonaventure journalism students who will have the opportunity to get early experience with ESPN networks.
“The true partnership between the journalism school and athletics, which has been in place gets even stronger now,” said Kenney. “I think the number one thing is to provide for students who want to get into this business [broadcasting] the high-end equipment that they will be using during their training. That to me is the first and foremost. It may even help attract more students to come to our journalism school. If you have bad equipment, broadcasting becomes less of a draw. To have this equipment and the branding with ESPN, you’re training on a high platform.”
Kenney also states that the new dean of St. Bonaventure’s journalism school, Aaron Chimbel, saw the immediate value of adding ESPN+.
“Aaron Chimbel saw the value of this right away,” said Kenney. “He didn’t want to see this opportunity go to waste.”
Kenney also said that the ESPN+ broadcasts will provide a positive reflection on the school.
“When you’re putting out a shotty broadcast, it reflects poorly on the school,” said Kenney. “Now we have high end, high definition content being put on ESPN.”
Rick Karnath, professor of the sports production class that will be running the production for many athletic events this year, sees many upsides of ESPN+.
“The sports truck that we were using was getting very old,” said Karnath. “The university realized that they had to spend some money here to upgrade us to high definition, which is light years ahead of the standard definition truck that we have been using. We’ve really improved out program by doing this.”
While Karnath is excited about his teaching experience being enhanced, he also expressed excitement toward the experiences students will get this year and beyond.
“I think the students will get real life experience. It’s not like we’re broadcasting over the internet anymore. This is going somewhere. There’s going to be a lot of eyes on what we do here, especially during basketball,” Karnath said. “What the students learn in this class will be something they’ll be able to use in their portfolios and resumes. The younger students that are starting out as sophomores this year will be able to continue on with this and get better year after year. The experience that our students get here is the same game day experience that they would get in the real world.”
Karnath also admits that the new and improved sports production class is something that could potentially attract a lot of students.
“I think this is a huge asset to the J-school,” said Karnath. “I think this will be a huge draw for future students. This going to be absolutely awesome for the J-school, and the university.
You can catch the Bonnies on ESPN+ throughout this year. The subscription costs $4.99 a month and comes with a seven-day free trial. You can watch games live from any platform, including smart phones, laptops and tablets.
By Mike Hogan, Sports Assignment Editor
hoganm17@bonaventure.edu
