The FOX U Project

This past year our Sport Management program had the opportunity to work with Fox Sports University (Fox U). Fox U “is a program that Fox Sports developed with prestigious academic and athletic institutions around the country…Each class partners with a Fox Sports Media Group business to address a marketing, research, technology or strategy challenge that the business faces. Students team up to create real-world solutions, products, and campaigns to address the business challenge” (Fox Sports University).

The Fox U challenge presented to sport management students at St. John’s this past academic year was to create a content strategy for Fox Sports Virtual Reality content around the BIG EAST Basketball tournament, and an activation program for the content on social media.

Throughout the semester several Fox executives visited campus to interact with our students, assist them in their strategy development, and ultimately to select the winning group. The winning group of Leonardo Mendes, Erick Wolf, and Dennis McDonough were able to see their strategy implemented by Fox Sports. Fox also runs an internship program in which selected participants are exposed to a variety of roles within their organization. Kyle Richards a student who participated in the Fox Sports U project has been successful in acquiring a summer internship with Fox in New York.

This hands-on-experience allowed the students to interact with high level industry professionals and receive constructive feedback to help refine their presentation skills and idea development. Further it provided students with contacts within the industry, and from Fox’s perspective it allows them to tap into a targeted demographic to better understand their needs as consumers, as well as target strong students for internship possibilities. Overall this experience enhanced the classroom experience and provided an opportunity to bring the real world into the classroom, and the classroom into the real world.

For further reading on the Fox U Project, please visit:

http://foxsportsuniversity.com/

http://foxsportsuniversity.com/school/stj/Fall-2016

http://www.sporttechie.com/2017/02/13/virtual-reality/fox-sports-university-provides-virtual-reality-case-studies-for-college-programs/