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The university announced that the new degree would launch in fall 2014 and is set to "prepare students for the myriad responsibilities and required skill sets of sports media professionals in the 2010s," according to a news release from the university.
The new program "will take advantage of the professional experience of several existing communication and media studies faculty members, including Andrew Miller, who worked in Los Angeles in film and production; Brian Thorne, who works with the Golf Channel, NFL Films and Major League Baseball; and Paul Pabst, executive producer of DirecTV’s The Dan Patrick Show," according to the release.
“Sports media has seen incredible growth, and the industry is still growing even more,” said Miller, director of the new program and associate professor in SHU’s Department of Communication and Media Studies, in the release. “It’s gone from about $90 billion annually in 1989 to close to $250 billion in 2010. With its ideal location in the geographic center of the sports media industry, the sports communication and media graduate program will be able to offer a unique educational experience that will prepare students for fantastic opportunities in this growing industry.”
Pabst noted that the Connecticut area is primed for the degree as it is also home to several sports media entities, including ESPN in Bristol.
“No school in the country is in a better position location-wise to embrace a sports media major and master’s degree,” said Pabst in the release. “SHU is directly in the middle of the hub of sports media in our country. Also, the timing of NBC, CBS and FOX starting 24-hour sports networks to compete with ESPN — all stationed less than an hour away — means that there is no better time to establish SHU as the place to go to school for sports media. Our students can study just down the road from all these sports media outlets. That isn’t the case at Syracuse, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana and the other top sports media schools.”
The master’s degree will consist of 36 credits that can be earned in one or two years by full- and part-time students, according to the release.
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