Liberty sports media broadcasting teams named finalists for CSMA and Emmy Awards

Liberty University’s Liberty Flames Sports Network (LFSN) and Game On, its weekly sports television show, have been announced as finalists for the 2020 Sports Video Group (SVG) College Sports Media Awards (CSMAs) in association with National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). The finals will be streamed live on the SVG YouTube channel Thursday, June 25, at 7 p.m. (EST).

LFSN’s coverage of Liberty Football vs. Hampton will compete for first place in the CSMAs for Outstanding Live Game Production – Collegiate Athletics, along with pieces from Auburn University, Syracuse University, University of Georgia, University of Missouri, University of Notre Dame, and Virginia Tech.

LFSN was also named a finalist for Outstanding Live Game Production – Collegiate Students (produced by students) for its coverage of the ACHA Division I men’s hockey vs. Adrian game. Other finalists included Ball State, Belmont, St. Cloud State, Southeastern Louisiana University, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, and Virginia Tech.

Game On’s “Into the Depths” feature about former gymnast Lauren Chennault who competed on Liberty’s NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving team while fighting through the loss of her father, is up for the Outstanding Special Feature – Collegiate Athletics award, facing competition from Duke, Ohio State University, the University of Notre Dame, Northwestern, Tulane, University of Georgia, and University of San Francisco.The piece is also one of five Emmy nominations that Game On has received this year.

The SVG event is typically held in Atlanta and spans from two to three days. But due to COVID-19, the prestigious competition will transition to an online format this year.

“This is an opportunity for collegiate students, collegiate athletic departments, regional networks, and national networks to enter submissions that they have broadcasted over the last year and see where they rank amongst the country’s best,” said LFSN Director of Live Production Matthew Byrd.

“It’s a great honor for us to first of all be considered as a finalist,” Byrd said. “It’s been a couple of years since we were in this position, so we’re excited to be back in a position to hopefully win.”

A committee from the SVG selects the finalists, then various broadcasters from different universities around the country, including Byrd, will vote on the winners for each section.

Byrd said that to submit pieces for the collegiate student level, 80 percent of the production must have been performed by students.

“The majority of the crew that takes part in the hockey broadcast is comprised of students,” Byrd said. “We’re really blessed at this university to have such a diverse staff that has a lot of experience in broadcast. Our students really take great pride in it. It’s incredible because it is a club sport and it is broadcasted by ESPN.”

Liberty started airing hockey games on ESPN3 in 2014 before landing them on ESPN+ in 2017.

Byrd said that training up Liberty students to pursue broadcasting with excellence is one of his team’s primary goals.

“One of the reasons that we didn’t submit anything into this competition last year was because of how focused we’ve been on enhancing and developing our student training,” he said. “The great staff that we have is extremely passionate about training our students.”

Game On awaits news of the Emmy Awards, which were postponed to Aug. 8. The Emmys are the premiere television production awards presented in various sectors of the television industry, including entertainment programming, news and documentary shows, and sports programming.

In addition to the feature on Chennault, Game On received an Emmy nomination from the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter for “A Life Transformed,” about Flames women’s basketball standout Tatyana Crowder and how a relationship with Christ transformed her from a troubled youth to one of Liberty’s prominent student-athletes. The third Game On feature that was submitted for an Emmy was “Training the Mind,” about the Liberty “Brain Lab,” a world-class scientific facility on campus where athletes can train their minds to focus and succeed under the pressures of Division I athletics. Austin Reddington was also nominated for his graphics work, and Alex Short was nominated for his audio projects.

Game On hopes to return to their 2018 Emmy Awards form, when they won four awards.