Which of these things are you most willing to compromise on? Also, how confident are you that you’re going to stick with a desire to do sports broadcast journalism? Is it just what’s in the lead right now, or you think you’re more likely than not going to do it, or you’re 100% convinced this is what you’re going to do and you’ve had experiences to back up your reasoning?
For instance, let’s take U. of Hartford. It’s warmer than Ithaca and Syracuse, but folks are unlikely to be parading around in shorts and t-shirts in January. There’s Greek life, but I’m not sure how big it is. It has D3 sports with no football. On the plus side it’s mid-sized with about 4k undergrads and located in the state capital. But the main thing is that it has some really interesting opportunities for someone who’s interested in sports broadcasting, especially the UH Hawks Production mentioned below:
Using a combination of real-world and classroom experience, you build a strong portfolio through internships and by working in one or more of our media-oriented student firms:
- The Agency: A school wide firm, where you create media content for profit and non-profit organizations
- The Studio: A production company that develops TV shows and web series for our student-run television network (STN) and other clients
- The Newsroom: A media outlet for you to write and publish online news content about the University and the Hartford area
- UH Hawks Production: A mobile broadcast studio, where you produce live University sports programming for streaming services.
And it seems to be working, as both a '21 and '22 grad are working for ESPN’s SportsCenter. (ESPN’s headquarters are about a half hour away from campus.)
Alternatively, we can consider Butler. It’s also mid-sized and in a state capital with both major league and minor league professional teams. About 25% of the men are in fraternities and 36% of its women are in sororities. It has a lot of sports enthusiasm, especially for basketball. Like U. of Hartford, it has a production truck for broadcasting coverage of sporting events as well as a sports media major, and though it boasts of its facilities, it doesn’t make mention of having its own radio or tv stations.
Iowa State: This is a big school and is probably going to have the sports (and football) enthusiasm you’ve been envisioning. With 14% of its students in Greek organizations, that would make a decent size pool of students (about 3500), but not enough to overwhelm the 28k undergrads. Ames is considered a great college town, and is about 30m from the state capital. Its student media include tv and radio stations (open to students of all majors) and it’s launching a sports media major, in addition to its current core offerings. But warm would not describe Iowa during most of the school year.
Or we can think about a school like U. of Houston. It’s another big school and there will definitely be enthusiasm around football here. Only about 3% of students participate in Greek life, but that still equates to more than 1100 students. There’s no special “sports media” major, but there are majors in journalism and in media production. And Houston is definitely a warm climate (and one of the biggest cities in the U.S.).
So, these are examples of schools that are hitting some of your wishlist items but not all of them. What do you find particularly compelling (or repelling)? The more we know, the better suggestions we can make.