to campus criticism over their budget with and first class, above the belt, knockout punch.  If you haven't seen the video posted on Ohiobobcats.com, please make your way there now.  The video is called Ohio Athletics: A Learning Labratory.  I don't think the athletic department could have captured their value any better than they did in this video.

I have long wanted the department to respond to the critics and stand up for itself.  I know they aren't able to do that in the publicly, but they found a way to do it with this video and do it in a classy manner!

Outstanding job and vision from the athletic department!

Well done!

http://youtu.be/4AboE8KZjzw

That was outstanding!

Great work by everyone involved in making this. Enjoyable to watch, and really showed an aspect of Ohio athletics that the average person may not think about. And all of this is also better for the fans. These students also make for a more enjoyable time following the Bobcats, with the ever-growing amount of ways to keep up with the teams.

And best of luck to all of the graduating seniors as they prepare to enter the job market.

Great video!  Very well done!




Really???    The video clearly discusses all the students involved in the production of multiple NATIONAL telecasts as well as Troop discussing his side line coverage broadcasting into 3 states on multiple radio stations.  His live cut in was his first ever television experience and it was broadcast nationally on ESPN.  Two maybe four  D3 or even I-AA teams ever get any exposure.  Take a look at how many Bobcat football games will be broadcast on  National TV this year alone.  Ms. Laforce ended up doing multiple regional broadcast for Fox Sports seen nationwide on many networks.  As the video mentioned the national exposure for students is rare at this level and adds great credibility to their resume.  Not to mention the advertising value to the university. 

This is a great video that produced more National academic rewards than many of the other academic majors combined. 

Very well done!

I'm not sure what path one could take outside of being a former star athlete to break into the professions you mentioned. The students mentioned work harder than probably 99 percent of the campus and are being rewarded for it. Moving away from one of the programs that is consistently regarded as the best in the state would be huge mistake.

"Academic credibility" is a subjective term and one has to tend very carefully when implying that a major--especially one that our university has excelled in--is not worth our time. It's a refrain that you hear a lot about from the school up north, and part of why I love our school is the practice of being proud of what we have and what we excel in. I constantly preach that OU's academics are underrated, especially within the state, and the prestige of the broadcasting program is one reason for that.

I'd like to know what the difference is between training to present play by play commentary and training to present quarterly financial results to a corporate board.    If anything (judging by my experiences in Corporate America) providing play by play is a far more honorable profession.

When you get right down to it, these students have to take the core curriculum all Ohio students do.  The underlying purpose of Liberal Arts institutions is to turn out well rounded young adults who are prepared to support society in varied ways.

As far as "disciplines with a bit more academic credibility"  the only people that are currently required to read Keats for six months are those that intend to either write professionally themselves or eventually turn around and teach it to other future young minds.  I'm not saying that's not honorable and useful to society...It most certainly is...But it's just as much a "trade" as broadcasting.

I'd like to see this be a serial production, with the next being the importance of ICA in outreach and marketing to the Alumni base.  For most Chapters and Societys, their most popular events are athletics oriented, and most of those are Ohio game watch parties.  Graham Stewart and his staff talking about the value derived at the Bobcat Bashes/Caravans would be a nice component of that as well.

Neat;  I want to go back and change my major!

Let me clarify a few points:

I agree that "academic credibility" is difficult to quantify and probably a condescending term. Instead, lets call it X for lack of something more accurate. I don't think that anyone would argue against the statement that physics has more X than (lets say) broadcast journalism. X being a stand-in for academic attributes such as breadth and depth of a given field and the complexity of the subject matter. Tiny sub-areas of physics are sufficiently complex to keep dozens of very smart researchers busy for their entire lives. Broadcast journalism cannot say the same. It is a major designed to send people out in the world to do a job. Broadcast journalism, business and other majors provide Y which is a measure of real world skills and the ability to get a job. Then there are degrees that have both X and Y such as engineering fields and some sciences.

Now of course our university exists to supply educated graduates (and workers) to the state. If we cranked out a thousand kids with bachelors degrees in physics that would be a very bad thing. My concern for the university is primarily about priorities. I have to question the expenditure of tens of millions of dollars to provide a learning environment for a small subset of Y degrees. Is that worth the investment?

Finally, I agree that these students work harder than 99% of the rest. They will all certainly do well for themselves after they leave Athens.

Sports anchor or play by play commentator a trade or field of academic study?  Hmmm...If a trade, what does that make:
* Engineering?
* Medicine?
* Business administration?
* Law?
* Nursing?
* Teaching?
* Architecture?
* Divinity?

Believe me, Barnes et. al. barely scratch the surface of the number of people, in front and behind the camera from OU all across the state and country in sports and other areas of journalism.

I'm with Mike and the rest here, obviously.  I don't see it as any more of a "trade" than virtually any other traditional field of study at a University.