While school starts to roll back into session, the Moody College of Communication is kicking off its fall semester with a new Sports and Broadcasting minor. This minor specifically focuses on the production of sporting events and how those events are broadcast, providing students with hands-on experience. This minor is open to all students of any major.

On campus, there are opportunities for students to learn sports broadcasting, such as in the Daily Texan, Texas Student Television or Texas Studios, but this minor will allow students to get a greater understanding of how the industry works and the history behind it. The minor will also collaborate with Texas Studios, a broadcast production center inside Darrel K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, for students to gain first-hand experience. 

“A minor gives [students] a chance to sample the world of sports and sports production and get some practical experience that would be attractive to employers,” said David Schneider, an associate professor of practice in Radio-Television-Film. “They can get their hands in on how this kind of stuff is produced and created and find out if it is something they're into.”

Over the last couple of years, the importance of sports-related content has grown, and the number of students interested in sports broadcasting has also grown, according to Professor of Practice Jordan Levin. The increase in popularity after UT moved to the Southeastern Conference also contributed to the growth in interested students. 

“I'm excited about the program because as someone who primarily works more in entertainment like television and film producing, studios and networks and streaming companies, the time I spent in sports and working on sports related content, I can tell you from my firsthand experience that …  [they] are only becoming more important,” Levin said. 

The sports and broadcasting minor will consist of 15 credit courses, including: two introduction to sports broadcasting classes, two advanced sports broadcasting classes and a storytelling class. Lower-division introduction courses were available to students last year, so this year, the upper-division classes will be available to students. 

Ayan Masud, a sophomore studying Journalism, is a part of the first batch of students to participate in this minor and took his first course last fall. Masud said he has been interested in sports broadcasting since high school and could not let this opportunity of meeting professionals in the industry and learning more about sports broadcasting slip away. 

“I would definitely say that my camera work has been refined… I've been able to refine my skill set, camera wise and storytelling wise,” Masud said. “Even though I haven't even taken the storytelling class, I feel like my perspective on narratives has grown a lot.”

Masud said he hopes that the collaboration with Texas Athletics and Moody will continue to grow. He hopes that a student radio station will be created so that students can commentate on sports on a live network. He also hopes students will create a studio show that is directed and produced by students for a larger audience.

On a larger scale, he said he hopes Texas can become the premier school for sports broadcasting.

“Texas, in itself, has massive networks for sports. Like the Dallas Fort Worth area, you have the Stars, the Mavericks, the Cowboys and the Rangers,” Masud said. “If we could build a pipeline of students working with these teams, [we could have them say], ‘We want to get our next employees from the University of Texas at Austin.’”

Levin said as the minor grows, he wants students who graduate from the program to come back and share their work experiences in the industry to new students in the minor.

“I hope [students who take this minor] can see the big picture,” Levin said. “I hope they're prepared to understand how they exist in this moment in time, thinking about how they got here, where things are going and how they can play a role in helping evolve and grow.”