STRUCTURAL CHANGE AND

INFLUENCE IN
INTERCOLLEGIATE SPORT

Abstract
Analyzing the role of sports media and the affects it has produced on collegiate sports.
Beginning with the television era, with the birth of ESPN and transitioning to the digital
age, where social media has altered collegiate sports ranging from a coach, player, fan,
and administrator’s viewpoint.

Marcus Moss
Marcus.moss@cortland.edu
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4/16/21
Marcus Moss
EXS-425
History in College Sports
Structural Change and Influence in Intercollegiate Sport
Timothy Bryant

Intercollegiate sport, just like many other facets of life have had to change with the times to

survive and move forward. The role of sports media has adapted and survived simultaneously with

sports themselves. This started in the early 1900’s with the Muckrakers writing on sports reform

and questionable sports methods at certain universities across the country. Moving on to the radio,

broadcasters giving a live play by play on Knute Rockne’s Fighting Irish. Next, came the creation of

the television, which lead to millions of more viewers tuning into collegiate contests. The birth of

ESPN in 1979, provided access to game highlights, news, and updates on multiple teams and

multiple sports. Finally, there was the birth of the digital age. Social media allows athletes, coaches,

and fans more interaction than ever, along with access to scores, news and updates occurring in

real time. This has essentially eliminated the waiting period. This paper will focus specifically within

a 40-year time frame. It will begin with the television age and the creation of ESPN and then

transition into the digital age and social media. An analysis of the ways these types of sports media

have contributed to the evolution of collegiate sports will also be provided.

When thinking about sports and sports news, it is hard not to think of one organization who

has risen above all the rest, ESPN. “The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN),

based out of Bristol, Connecticut was launched September 7th, 1979 in 1.4 million homes and is a
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subsidiary of the Getty oil company (Nagle, 1981, p. 1).” Making a niche for themselves and not

wanting to be branded as just another news company, ESPN focused on news that solely

surrounded sports, at both the collegiate and professional level. Peter Ellis, a journalist who wrote

the article the impact of ESPN and Sports television went onto say that “First the idea of a sports-

only network separated the subject from the rest of the news. Where traditionally sports journalism

was presented alongside other subjects in a newspaper or nightly news broadcast, ESPN made

sports the sole focus (Ellis, 2010, p. 1).”

ESPN has dedicated decades to the sporting world and along the way revolutionized how

and where we watch sports. The month of march is widely known as march madness, because of

the men’s and women’s division one basketball tournaments. Many people create their own

brackets and bet with family, friends, and coworkers on who’s bracket will have the most success,

while also rooting for their favorite team they may or may not have. Thanks to ESPN “the network’s

programming lineup featured many first: extensive coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball

tournament (23 games) as part of 20 NCAA championships during the March of Champions (Nagle,

p.1).” With division 1 college football creating a 4-team playoff in 2015, ESPN once again was in the

forefront with providing the coverage of the games, constant updated reports and expert analysis

leading to their quarterly viewing reports showing this media titan’s effect on collegiate sport. For

example,

ESPN scored a ratings touchdown during the first quarter of 2015 as its January coverage of

the college-football playoffs helped the sports network to its second straight primetime

quarterly ratings victory. ESPN posted a 4% year-to-year increase in Qi, averaging 2.2 million
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viewers to finish as the most watched network during the period of Dec. 29, 2014 to March

29, according to Nielsen (Umstead, 2015, p. 1).

Prior to the creation of the college football playoff, ESPN was at the top of cables prime time

ratings. In November of 2013 “college football matchups, including the 5.76 million who watched

Stanford upset previously unbeaten Oregon on November 7th, also lifted ESPN, which held more

than a 1 million edge in average audience over its nearest November competitors (Reynolds, 2013,

p.1).” ESPN, the number one outlet for sports media has undoubtedly changed the way

intercollegiate sports from the way and making it accessible to millions more. Drew Hancherick, in

his article Tweet talking: How Modern Technology and Social Media are Changing Sports

Communication, laid the groundwork for what ESPN has done and continues to do to revolutionize

sport. Hancherick went on to say

In over 30 years of existence, ESPN broadcasts 65 sports over a variety of channels, 24 hours

a day, in over 150 countries. In addition to its sports programming, the network breaks

news on SportsCenter and ESPNews, one of its sister channels. ESPN employs many of the

top reporters for their respective sports. The network consistently breaks top stories more

frequently than its competitors; with their unparalleled programming and top-notch

reporting, there is no real argument when the network refers to itself as the “Worldwide

Leader in Sports” (Hancherick, 2011, p. 17).

As stated earlier, the only thing that is constant is change. In the world of sports media, we

most recently made the transition from the T.V. era into the digital era. Thanks to technological

advances in mobile devices including cellphones, tablets and laptops, our sports news is not

stationary and solely based on television. In Logan Levy’s article The Evolution of Sports Media:
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Ethnography, Levy went on to explain that “The TV era which has exploded into the social media era

has changed the entire game day experience. Now, sportscasters, reporters, announcers, and

everybody else has an Instagram account, Twitter account and a Facebook (Levy, 2017, p. 3).” The

use of these social media accounts is not just being used by the people who bring us the news,

“coaches use social media to help recruit players and promote their programs, while athletic

departments can use various platforms to connect to fans and media members (Talty, 2011, p. 1).”

An example of this would be Xavier university, a small catholic school in Cincinnati who relies

strongly on social media to promote their athletic programs against some of their bigger

competitors, partly because of the school’s lack of a FBS football program. Without football drawing

heavy interest to the college in the fall, Xavier and other schools in similar situations can use social

media platforms such as Facebook to post photos of other in season fall sports, while also using

twitter to “break news, offer little insights into the program, or deal with a crisis like Xavier did after

its basketball team got involved in a brawl with rival Cincinnati (Talty, 4).” However, social media also

gives college athletes an outlet from their sports and allow them a way to express themselves by

“allowing players to show off a different side of them, which can help with branding purposes (Talty,

5).” Danny Jennings, a basketball player for Long beach State, stated in an interview

The media just shows you as a basketball player, but I just want people to follow me to see

what type of person I am. The more people that know about it, the more people that don’t

just know Danny the basketball player, but Danny the person (talty, 5).

With examples of social media plat forms being used in a positive light, sadly there are

instances where social media can affect both players and coaches negatively. With social media

allows for fans and viewers more accessibility than ever to players and coaches, fans are leaning on
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social media to vent their feelings, whether good or bad. However, coaches and players, more

specifically coaches, must be extremely careful if and when responding to any criticism they may

receive via social media because “It affects coaches as far as their perception and their job security

(Elfman, 2013, p. 1).” Also, with athletes themselves social media can provide “players who were

formerly limited to local stardom could now gain national exposure on a nightly basis (Ellis, 1).” With

new national attention can put players under a magnifying glass and being cautious with what you

share with others through social media is more important than ever. An example of this would be

At Xavier, Mercurio says that the program teaches its players to not say anything on Twitter

that you wouldn't be willing to say on a podium to the media. Recent comments by Xavier

guard Tu Holloway show that tweets can often get some players in a bit of trouble but does

allow players to show a bit of their personality -- for better or worse (talty, 5).

Sports media has come a long way since the days of Muckrackers writing about sports reform

and questionable practices conducted by colleges and universities in the late 1800’s and into

the 1900’s. Television allowed for millions more of viewers to tune into collegiate contests

while the creation of ESPN opened the door and led to a television channel that provided

collegiate and professional sport news around the clock nationally. ESPN provided coverage of

the men’s NCAA basketball tournament as well as the college football playoff and ratings clearly

speak for themselves. Social media has taken collegiate sports to another level, providing

coaches and players with platforms to interact with fans and viewers more personally and

easier than ever before. With this era of easy accessibility, it is still important for collegiate

players and coaches to limit personal feelings or viewpoints to stay out of controversy and
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remain employed or part of the team. Television and social media have transcended collegiate

sports to another level and there is no looking back.

Reference

Elfman, L. (2013, January 27). Social Media’s Undeniable Impact on College Sports - Higher Education.

Retrieved from https://diverseeducation.com/article/50932/

Ellis, P. (2010, November 15). The Impact of ESPN and Sports Television. Top Shelf.

https://petersportsblog.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/the-impact-of-espn-and-sports-television/

Hancherick, D. (2011). Tweet Talking: How Modern Technology and Social Media Are Changing Sports

Communication. https://www.elon.edu/u/academics/communications/journal/wp-

content/uploads/sites/153/2017/06/02Hancherick.pdf

Harris, N. (2014, October 14). The impact of social and digital media on sport.

https://www.latrobe.edu.au/nest/the-impact-of-social-and-digital-media-on-sport/

History of ESPN. Mental Itch. https://mentalitch.com/history-of-espn/

Levy, L. (2017, July 10). The Evolution of Sports Media: Ethnography. Medium. https://medium.com/media-

ethnography/the-evolution-of-sports-media-ethnography-26a0b5939f4
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Nagle, D. (1981, January 2). ESPN, Inc.: 1980 in Review. ESPN Press Room U.S.

https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/1981/01/expanded-programming-household-

growth-highlight-espns-first-full-year/

Reynolds, M. (2013). Football, Pro and College, Lifts ESPN in November. Multichannel News, 34(45), 30.

Stoldt, C. G. The Impact of Social Media on College Athletics Communications. Retrieved April 9, 2021, from

https://cosida.com/media/documents/2012/7/Social_media_impact_2012_Stoldt_study.pdf

Talty, J. (2011, December 15). How Social Media Affects College Athletics. International Business Times.

https://www.ibtimes.com/how-social-media-affects-college-athletics-383910

Umstead, R. T. (2015). Sports Rules in Ql Primetime. Multichannel News, 36(13), 4.