For the first time in the history of Wisconsin’s BTN Student U program, an all-female broadcast team will produce this Saturday’s Wisconsin softball game against Nebraska.

Jeff Bell, assistant director of video services, came up with the idea soon after the announcement of our 50th Anniversary of Title IX celebration.

 “We wanted to use the 50th anniversary of Title IX as an opportunity to highlight the talented group of women that contribute every day to our sports broadcasts here at Wisconsin," Bell said. "The broadcast will feature an all-female crew both as on-air talent and all of the behind-the-scenes production roles as well.  The BTN Student U program allows our students to be immersed in the many facets of sports broadcasts.  The diverse, hands-on training gives them the skills and experience needed to succeed as professionals in the industry.”

The efforts by these students throughout the years have not gone unnoticed by those at BTN, “The Wisconsin Student U team routinely produces excellent broadcasts for the B1G+ platform,” Alex Bertsche, Vice President of Remote Production at Big Ten Network said. “Student U is a key initiative at the network in that it not only delivers live event coverage for Big Ten fans but also provides training and hands-on experience to Big Ten students interested in a career in sports media. We are particularly excited to support, amplify and celebrate the efforts of Wisconsin’s all-female crew on Saturday.”

Women in sports media positions are steadily increasing, but to continue to grow, women need to see people like them in positions such as this.

“Ever since the athletic department began our Title IX celebrations at the beginning of the year, I had been thinking about the idea of an all-female broadcast, however, Jeff [Bell] was the first to vocalize the idea with me back at the end of February,” Kwinn Kraus, live production intern for the Wisconsin athletic department, remarked. “This is the first time, if not ever since I started working for the department, that we've had enough women on our student staff to be able to even consider it.”

“The simple answer to this question is that female representation in this industry is important because women are more likely to want to do jobs that see other women doing. When you think about women in sports broadcasting, often we picture incredible women like Pam Oliver and Erin Andrews who are side-line reporters and on-screen talent. We don't hear about the women who work behind the scenes, we don't see the female replay operators or the women who stand on the sidelines operating handheld cameras, or even the ones who go as far as directing and producing broadcasts. The best thing about our Student U program is that we encourage the students to learn every position that goes into producing a broadcast, so when we have women on our staff, it's a great opportunity for them to see that there are more options than being on-screen.”

Since running a broadcast is a behind-the-scenes job, we decided to introduce you to the crew that will be working this Saturday.