The Sports Video Group (SVG) and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) unveiled the winners of the Seventh Annual College Sports Media Awards in a special ceremony May 27at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta.
For the fifth consecutive year, students in Ball State Sports Link captured the nation’s Outstanding Special Feature with its feature on men’s tennis sophomore Andrew Stutz called “Broken”.
Stutz, an Indianapolis native, suffered a severe injury after a freak accident in high school which should have ended his tennis career.
However, with the support of his mother Gale, Stutz has returned to the courts at Ball State.
The feature was produced by junior Tyler Bradfield, sophomore Tim Resuche and freshman Nick Panozzo.
“This is a tremendous honor,” Bradfield said as he accepted the award. “Thank you to all the student-athletes at Ball State, especially Andrew and his family, for giving us the time and allowing us to tell his story. It’s also a credit to Ball State University and Sports Link for allowing students to learn and create an environment for us to be successful year after year.”
With the win for the fifth straight year, Ball State Sports Link became the winningest school in the history of the College Sports Media Awards with seven total awards, spanning two categories, since 2011. Ball State Sports Link earned four nominations (in three categories) this year to bring its total nominations since 2011 to a record 21.
In this history of the SVG College Sports Media Awards, ESPN has a total of nine awards in the professional category, while Ball State Sports Link has seven in the student categories.
Hosted by FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt and sponsored by Ross Video, the ceremony celebrated winners in five categories (Live Game Production; Live Studio/Remote-Hosted Programming; Program Series; Special Feature; and Promo, PSA, Tease, or Marketing Campaign) across four divisions (National Networks/Professional, Regional/Local/Conference Digital Networks, Collegiate Athletics, and Collegiate Student).
This year’s CSMAs was the largest competition to date with more than 400 entries submitted, which is an all-time high and approximately a 30% increase over last year’s field.
“The passion for and the familiarity to not only college football but college athletics runs deep in everyone here. You live it. It’s the fabric of each fan base,” Klatt said. “What’s so cool about this room is we get to be the conduit, the connectivity for fans back to that time of their life. It’s a remarkable experience to be the connection for fans to their university.”
College Sports Media Awards winners and finalists are selected by a blue ribbon panel of industry peers and celebrate the very best in college sports video production. For more information on the SVG/NACDA College Sports Media Awards, visit www.svgcollege.com.
