BIG EAST’s Scott Hecht on the Evolution of Campus Production and What Comes Next

With another academic year underway, college athletic departments across the country are once again firing up control rooms and producing hundreds of live events for broadcast, streaming, in-venue presentation, and digital platforms.

Few people have watched the evolution of campus production as closely as Scott Hecht, Senior Associate Commissioner, Broadcasting for the BIG EAST Conference.

Over a career spanning four decades, Hecht has worked in professional sports production, spent many years at ESPN, played a pivotal role in developing the school-production model that accompanied the launch of SEC Network, and later led athletic productions at Syracuse University. Since joining the BIG EAST in 2022, he has helped oversee the conference’s broadcasts across an expanding collection of national media partners.

Sports Video Group’s Brandon Costa caught up with Hecht to discuss preparations for the new academic year, the remarkable maturation of university control rooms, the opportunities available to today’s student broadcasters, and where college sports production goes next.

NOTE: This transcription was produced with the assistance of AI and has been edited for length and clarity.

As the new academic year gets underway, what are you most focused on from a broadcasting and production standpoint across the BIG EAST?

Obviously, fall sports right now: our men’s and women’s soccer, field hockey, and volleyball. But I would be stretching the truth if I didn’t say the primary goal right now is really getting ready for college basketball season. That’s what the BIG EAST is known for, and that’s really where a lot of our attention is geared right now.

There really isn’t much of an offseason anymore. What stood out to you about the work happening behind the scenes this summer?

We really want to be at the forefront of college basketball, so we’ve been working behind the scenes on schedules and getting ready for that season.

We’re also coming off a very successful first year with our new media-rights deal with Fox, NBC and Peacock, Turner Sports, and ESPN+. The question is always: What can we do better? What can we do to get more eyes on our product, whether that’s our Olympic sports or men’s and women’s basketball?

It never stops. Everybody in this business will tell you that you get a little breather. When our baseball tournament ends, it’s kind of like, “Okay, we have a little time to catch our breath.” But before you know it, here we are again and we’re back into fall sports.

How would you assess where BIG EAST schools are today in terms of their on-campus production capabilities?

Our schools are in a really strong position, particularly when you consider how quickly campus productions have grown and how much content they’re now being asked to produce.

The facilities and resources vary from school to school, but every institution understands the importance of providing a professional broadcast that represents both the school and the BIG EAST well.

Technically, we’ve seen meaningful improvements in broadcast equipment. More importantly, our production teams have become much more comfortable operating within network-level expectations. They understand that a successful broadcast isn’t just about documenting the game. It’s about telling the story of the event, presenting student-athletes in the best way possible, and creating an experience that keeps viewers engaged.

Creatively, I’ve seen schools become much more ambitious. They’re incorporating better features, stronger opens, more thoughtful graphics, and additional access to coaches and student-athletes.

You were there during the development and launch of SEC Network and its campus-production initiative and later saw the operation from the university side at Syracuse. How dramatically has the role of the university control room changed?

It’s hard to believe. I remember us going out and doing site surveys in 2013, and it seems like it was yesterday.

The role of the university control room has changed dramatically. When I first became involved in school-produced broadcasts, many people viewed a campus control room primarily as a way to provide videoboard shows or stream lower-profile events.

Today, those control rooms are network production facilities.

During the development and launch of SEC Network, Rex [Aronson], Meg [Aronowitz], myself, and others worked with the schools to build an infrastructure that allowed them to produce live events directly for a national network. That was a major change in both technology and philosophy.

Schools were no longer simply providing content to a network. They were becoming an important part of the network’s production operation.

When I later oversaw productions at Syracuse, I saw that evolution from the campus side. A university control room must now support live television, streaming, venue shows, social media, and original content — sometimes all at the same time.

The volume and complexity of the work have increased tenfold. The expectation has changed as well. Viewers don’t give a broadcast a pass anymore because it’s produced on campus by students. They expect the same quality they would receive from a traditional network production truck.

That has forced schools to become more sophisticated, more efficient, and more creative.

That seems like one of the biggest compliments you can give campus productions today: viewers frequently don’t even realize the show is being produced at the school.

It really is rewarding. If a show is coming from a particular university campus, I know where it’s coming from. But I try to separate myself from that and just sit back and watch.

The biggest compliment I can give schools anymore is that, when I’m watching a game on ESPN, ESPNU, ESPN2, or whatever platform it might be on, I know it’s coming from the school, but I don’t even think about that anymore.

I watch the game. I enjoy the game the same way I watch something coming from a baseball stadium or an NFL facility. I don’t think about the fact that students are involved.

That’s probably the highest compliment I can give them: it looks just like what it’s supposed to look like.

That was the goal we set out for all those years ago. When you watch a game at home, you shouldn’t even think about it. It should simply look like a broadcast you would see on any other network.

Students are now graduating after potentially working 100 or more live events with professional equipment. How has that changed the way young people enter the sports-production industry?

Students today are receiving an extraordinary level of hands-on experience. That was the whole idea.

They’re working with professional cameras, replay systems, graphics platforms, audio equipment, and even transmission workflows. It’s amazing.

They’re not simply observing professionals or working on simple productions. They’re filling meaningful positions on live broadcasts that are being shown nationally. That’s unbelievable.

That experience allows students to enter the industry with a much better understanding of both the technology and the pressure of live production. They learn how to prepare. They learn how to communicate. They learn how to problem-solve and work as part of a team.

Those are skills that cannot be fully taught in a classroom. You develop them by being in a control room or at the venue when the show is live and there is no opportunity for a second take.

What impresses me most is how quickly the students adapt. That has always been the biggest surprise for me. They’re technically confident. They’re not afraid of anything. They’re creative, and they’re willing to take on responsibility.

I’ve watched students work cameras, graphics, replay — everything — during major BIG EAST events, and they’ve performed exceptionally well.

I’ve spent much of my career helping develop campus-production programs, and seeing students turn those opportunities into careers remains probably the most rewarding part of my job.

We’re producing broadcasts, but we’re also helping develop the next generation of our industry. That was one of the goals we all had when we started this in the first place.

When you look back on your career so far, what accomplishments or moments have been particularly meaningful to you?

I’ve been very fortunate to work in this industry for 40 years and experience it from many different perspectives. I’ve worked on professional sports productions, spent many years at ESPN, helped launch SEC Network and the School Production Initiative, led athletic productions at Syracuse, and now oversee broadcasts with the BIG EAST.

Helping build the school-production model at ESPN is certainly one of the accomplishments I’m most proud of. I’ve said that for a long time.

We worked with universities across the country to create production operations that have changed the way college sports are covered. Those programs have produced thousands of live events while providing career opportunities for countless students.

I’m also proud of what we built at Syracuse. We developed a production operation that served ACC Network while giving students valuable experience both in front of and behind the camera.

My current opportunity with the BIG EAST is equally meaningful. The conference has an extraordinary history and identity, and I’m proud to help present it across Fox, NBC, Peacock, Turner Sports, and ESPN+.

Seeing our students grow, the broadcasts improve, and our student-athletes receive greater national exposure is extremely rewarding for me and everybody at the conference.

Ultimately, the relationships stand out more than any individual broadcast. I’ve had the opportunity to work with and learn from many talented people.

If I’ve helped others develop, created opportunities for students, and left the organizations I’ve worked for in a better position, then I consider that a successful career.

Campus operations have already proven they can produce network-quality live events. What do you see as the next major opportunity for college sports production?

I really believe the next step will be moving beyond simply producing more live events and becoming more strategic about the content surrounding those events.

Campus production departments have already demonstrated that they can produce network-quality games. We know we’ve got that in the bag.

The next opportunity is to use those facilities and their staffs to tell more stories year-round. It’s all about storytelling now. That is especially important in the NIL world. It’s about telling stories and getting these student-athletes’ faces out there among the masses.

That will include original programming, behind-the-scenes access, features, documentaries, studio shows — all of that — specifically for social and digital platforms as well as what we do on television.

The schools have tremendous access to their student-athletes, coaches, and campuses. We have to take advantage of that.

When that access is combined with strong production capabilities, schools can create content that traditional networks may not have the time or resources to produce.