August, of course, means the return of college football, and the first season ahead of the inaugural College Football Playoff. To address the upcoming action, Campus Insiders continues to shore up its assets, and is slating more content than ever in anticipation of the games. Cynopsis Sports spoke with Crowley Sullivan, Executive Vice President/GM at Campus Insiders about the effects of the CFP, its new programs and the growth of the brand.
Sullivan on the rise of Campus Insiders: We’ve grown substantially from a year ago. The amount of programming we’ve done over the last year has seen us publishing over 1,000 pieces of video content. In addition to that, we will have produced and broadcast well over 2,000 live events. This coming college football season, we have a great slate of college football games that we will produce and broadcast exclusively when it comes to the digital experience with the Mountain West and the Patriot League. Before we even get to that, we would have spent the last month or two stockpiling and publishing what will end up being close to 100 individual team previews that breaks down the team’s strengths, weaknesses, etc.
Come Sept. 1, our platform will have a new feature that will allow a user to find his or her favorite teams and both read an extensive preview on the team’s chances in the coming season, and watch the supplemental/complimentary video associated with that school. We will also be offering our own week-by-week Campus Insiders College Football Playoff suggested rankings right up against the others.
On insiders: We really are looking at the college football season as an opportunity to showcase the depth of analysis and the way in which we are tapped into all of these schools. We are right now at 99 insiders. I think an alarm will go off when we sign on our 100th insider. A year ago, we had less than 20. We are now able to tap into these insiders who are totally dialed into the DNA of their athletic programs. All week long, you are going to be able to get analysis from the inside of these football programs in a way that other sites say they can do, but they really can’t. we’ve got play-by-play announcers. We’ve got former players. We’ve got color analysts and local beat reporters who all have years of relationships with the athletic program, the coaches and the players in a way that the big platforms out there really don’t have.
On homegrown talent: We’ve got a whole batch of new programming we are launching. I’m really excited about our new show with Shae Peppler. Shae is a wonderful, talented, knowledgeable host that we’ve been using. She is homegrown and has been with Campus Insiders since the start and she has been doing a segment called Trending Now and also hosting some of our longer-form programming from time to time. The Trending Now initiative performed so well, that we have expanded it into The Feed with Shae Peppler. It’s really sports and entertainment unfiltered from the girl next door. There is going to be a lot of folks who will want to get to know her.
On grassroots reaction to the College Football Playoff: I’ve been a college football fan for as long as I can remember. I’ve been in sports media now for a while, and I can’t recall a season where there has been more excitement, intrigue and anticipation across the board for this. I mean from the conference offices, to the school’s administrations, to the coaches to the reporters and players. These players are talking about the playoff like they are little kids talking about Christmas coming. The BCS was a way for the establishment to come out with some sort of a solution without committing to a playoff, but now there is a commitment made. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve thought, finally, college football has its version of March Madness.
