A High Standard of Production

By: D. Scott Fritchen

The conversations began a year ago. Kansas State Athletics and its Rolls Royce of production facilities — upgraded in 2023 for approximately $7 million — was ready. K-State Athletics already had hosted ESPN for linear production for the past two years (and for streaming events since 2015), so it only made sense that when CBS Sports and the Big 12 Conference expanded their partnership (20 Big 12 men's basketball games per season on CBS Sports Network) K-State Athletics, and its state-of-the-art on-campus facility, would fit into the fold.

Brian Smoller, K-State Athletics Senior Director of Broadcast Services, immediately went on the offensive.

"We had been working with ESPN for a while, and the Big 12 had been trying to advocate through TV partners that they might like to look at schools to do production to save money," Smoller said. "When we first learned that CBS was going to be a Big 12 partner, we reached out a year ago and began conversations. I was basically a gnat. CBS suddenly said, 'We'll come out for a CBS game at the end of December to observe and see if the production facilities meet our needs.'"

What CBS Sports Network (CBSSN) discovered was that the multimillion-dollar renovation, completed in 2023, housed a control room capable of television/streaming production and a high-end student-training center in the West Stadium Center at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. Meanwhile, the videoboard-production-control room in Morgan Family Arena is a gold mine of the latest video, replay, graphics and audio capabilities.

"Their producer and director visited, and we gave them a tour of our facilities and control room, and we discussed how K-State Athletics could do a game for them," said Andy Liebsch, K-State Athletics Senior Director of Video Services. "As they walked away, I believe they were impressed with everything we had to offer."

Indeed, that was the case. K-StateHD.TV, which was launched in 2012, has five full-time staff and a pool of 80 freelancers and/or K-State undergrads (75% students). K-State is the first Big 12 Conference school to produce home football games from its campus facility. K-State was aptly fortified in both production facility and in personnel.

Sports Video Group reports: "The Big 12 Conference and Kauri Black, the new Associate Vice President of Broadcast and Emerging Platforms, have made it a top priority to work with TV partners to utilize on-campus production sites on a more regular basis. The reason? It allows ESPN and CBS to eliminate the cost of rolling in full mobile units while maintaining the top-notch production quality expected from a linear broadcast on their respective networks/platforms."

Steve Karasik, Senior Vice President of Remote Production for CBS Sports, told Sports Video Group, "We ended up looking at all the schools, and we identified Kansas State as the one with the best facilities that could do a game up to CBS Sports standards."

So, it came to be that when K-State men's basketball played Oklahoma State on January 29, CBS Sports utilized an on-campus production site for a linear broadcast for the first time in its history.

"We felt prepared, and it was exciting," Liebsch said. "It was somebody new coming in. On the ESPN side, we know what to expect because we've done it so many times. When CBS came in the nerves were just, 'Did we miss anything?' But we were prepared and there were no surprises. Communication was the biggest part of it, open lines of communication between the CBS staff on site and off site that were supporting the event.

"For the most part, this is what we train for and work for all year. Those are the kinds of things as we prepare and train, we're preparing so when these moments come, we're ready."

CBS Sports producer Michael Pittman and director Brian Jagoda were on site and Sports Video Group reports that "a handful of freelancers worked the show, but many of the technical positions were staffed by 13 K-State students."

Smoller said that for the most part "it felt like any other game."

"That's a complement to our staff and the way they've been into ESPN and how they work with us over the years," Smoller said. "I don't feel like it was much different than any other broadcast other than when CBS music plays, that CBS theme for March Madness, when that starts playing from your place, that's a pretty cool moment. It kind of drives home that it's something different, something new, some uncharted territory for us.

"Now we've worked with three major broadcasters – FOX, ESPN and CBS. K-Stater's should be proud that our group continues to find ways to push the envelope and make K-State the top of the industry."

The relationship between K-State Athletics and ESPN began several years ago. But K-State Athletics opened a new pathway for production with its 2023 production facility renovation.

"Two years ago, ESPN started using us for linear," said Smoller, a 1999 K-State graduate who has led the K-State Athletics Video Department since 2008. "We were the first ones to be used for linear. Now we do everything. ESPN doesn't roll a truck in here for anything except football and that's only because they're contracted for many of their football games. That's how that relationship came about. Three or four different people at ESPN that oversee the Big 12, each time they come in they have nothing but great things to say when they come out here and see our stuff. They're like, 'Man, you guys are on it.'"

Smoller believes that Liebsch and his staff deserves credit for the success.

"Andy oversees our day-to-day operations of our office, but he also oversees the production of every production we have," Smoller said. "While he delegates really well, he can engineer on a game day, he can direct, he can run TV with technical directing, which is running our big switchboard, and he hires all our crew. He does a great job figuring out and training and evaluating who's best at each position and who can handle an ESPN-level show and pairing those people up. He's a very good trainer and communicator and sets a very good culture for us.

"He's really good on culture and every time we talk with the Big 12, CBS or ESPN, Andy's name always comes up. Chris Jordan and Matt Jordan, Matt does all our graphics and Chris, kind of the same as Andy, directs and floats around as an engineer. Brandon Utech, who handles our audio. I could go on and on. But those guys, along with Andy, have been with us since the beginning, since we first launched. Those guys are full-time on-campus guys and have been the life blood of our production for years training kids."

There's also this: Almost every employee is a K-State graduate.

"Everyone that works on our staff are mostly all K-State grads," Smoller said. "We have very few freelancers who are not. There's just a great sense of pride knowing that it's for your alma mater and you're trying to promote them as much as possible. We've always tried to do more with less and ever since (former Athletic Director) John Currie was here, who was instrumental in getting this all started, we've always tried to think outside the box, 'How can we do the best we can?' We take great pride. And Gene Taylor has been fantastic in his support of us as we try to create another path for revenue."

"ESPN conducts conference calls, and they use K-State as the example almost every time. I'm sure the other schools hate us because we're the poster child or the favorite of the Big 12 and ESPN. It's awesome. We get calls from all over the country from other schools asking, 'How are you doing this?' The unique part is we have great people that want to be here and want to keep doing it and it's hard to replicate that at other places."

Kansas State University Athletics

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