Final Reflection

I have always been passionate about college football, and sports in general, so when I saw an opportunity to spend time working on something that involved sports, I jumped at the chance. My original project idea in its earliest stage was to travel to different SEC schools to talk to them about the business side of college football, and either write articles or make a video of my interviews. The idea evolved into talking to local colleges and universities about not just the business side of college football, but also contemporary issues in college football, and how having a team affects the surrounding community. I originally planned on talking to Georgia State, Kennesaw State, and Georgia Tech. I ended up being able to talk to all three of those school, plus two more, Berry College and Wofford College. The most interesting thing I found while researching for my project was the fact that only the top twenty or so schools actually profit from having a football team. With the millions of dollars that are made from tv agreements and sponsorships, I wondered how this could be.  That fact was what really geared me toward looking at the financetials and business side of college football. However as my project went on, I decided to expand it so that it covered issues in college football like the new playoff system, and by the time I got to the Tech interview, I decided to ask a little about how having a team affects the community.

I was very lucky to get such knowledgeable and nice people to talk and help me with my project. It was tough to get schools to help, as it took a lot of follow up calls and emails to land these people. I never would have been able to get the inside expertise for the project without speaking to members of the athletic departments.  I greatly appreciated the athletic department representatives willingness to go in depth with their responses, and their willingness to discuss anything that I brought up. They all had a genuine interest in helping with the project.It was also very interesting to hear an outsiders perspective on the programs from an AJC writer. I have written for the Lovett paper for three years now, and it has given me a passion and appreciation for sports journalism. This project allowed me to spend time doing something i'm passionate about The icing on the cake was that I was able to cover a sport that I enjoy following. I greatly appreciated the athletic department representatives willingness to go in depth with their responses, and their willingness to discuss anything that I brought up. They all had a genuine interest in helping with the project. I would say the key moments in my project were finding out when I landed interviews, and also when I was able to actually sit down face to face with the person i'm interviewing as opposed to doing the interview over the phone; which is something I had to do a few times.

I greatly appreciated the constructive feedback I got on my articles from my sponsor, Mr. Randolph, as well as Mr. Newman, who monitored my blog. I feel like writing as a journalist haas improved my writing more than any other english class had. It has always been a belief of mine that when you write something that you're passionate about, it is very easy and fun to write about. That is how I felt when writing my articles. This is not to say I didn't work hard, because I did. It simply means that I am very proud of my project, and I think it came out very well.