Over the last 5-10 years, the content produced by college athletics programs got good. Like, really good. Hollywood and Netflix good.
It was the blockbuster-like hype videos from Ohio State, the chill-inducing videos from LSU in 2019, the incredibly-produced storytelling from South Carolina, the mini movies from Michigan and BYU, and so much more.
But ask any college athletics veteran about the pioneers in driving the step change in college sports content, and the majority will point to one school: Clemson. Initially led by luminaries like Jonathan Gantt and Jeff Kallin, and a marvelous tree that grew from there, the Tigers showed what can happen when you invest in talent and content. Now, with Clemson Ventures and an ambitious commercialization team sitting alongside all that content talent, Clemson is looking to pioneer the next new era for content in college sports, turning creative departments into production houses, and building robust businesses that go beyond campus borders.
And it’s coming at a time when college athletics programs need revenue more than ever. Kevin Richardson is among the leaders driving this revolution in Clemson’s content business. As Vice President of Content at Clemson Ventures, Richardson is helping to reimagine the value extracted from content, in fan development terms, dollars, and long-term platform growth. Because while ticket sales have a cap on capacity (only so many seats in the venues), there is no ceiling for content and, as you’ll learn in this article, the lifespan of content is far greater than the daily media treadmills would suggest.
Content produced by sports teams, especially college, has for years lived on digital and social platforms. In the feeds, on YouTube channels, and on the school’s websites and mobile apps. But Richardson and his colleagues think bigger. Content is currency, and it has value (and can attract audiences) that media companies covet.
“It’s not just living on our social and digital on YouTube,” said Richardson, who spent years working in marketing and content at Louisiana Tech, Rice, and Texas, before making his way to Clemson. “We did deals with Gray Media, so now it’s on Fox. We’ve done deals with ESPN and ABC, so now it’s on ACC Network and ESPNU…We have some streaming options where we’re placing original content that is all in-house made onto streamers to allow other people to see our content and go, Oh, whoa, I kind of like what Clemson’s doing. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be about [the games]. It’s all about lifestyle off the court and all this other cool stuff.”
Distribution strategy is just one way that Clemson Ventures is thinking like a media company. Think about how such businesses operate today — they showcase their programming plans to prospective sponsors and advertisers, provide projected performances, and secure sales often before the full slate is even produced. But the coolest part is that sports organizations are not legacy media companies; they aren’t retrofitting production and packaging plans to meet the new consumption patterns of the day. They’ve thought in multi-modal and cross-platform terms since day one.
Richardson described the overall approach, presenting the formats and figures to potential distribution and corporate partners, and equipping Clemson Ventures’ sales team to go into the marketplace fully armed.
“There can be the spec-up, but then you can also build similar to what Hulu, Disney, Apple do — you create an upfront and say, hey, streamers or external partners or even our sales team and our content team, here’s what the next year and a half roadmap of content looks like,” he said. “Here’s snackable content, here’s features, here’s docu-series, here’s podcasts. Here’s where everything’s going to go. Here are our impressions and our CPMs and KPIs based on what people need. You can build that out, and everybody’s aligned from externally to internally on what we’re building, when it’s going out, and why it’s going out, from data-informed decisions.”
The data component is essential. And it’s another area where programs like Clemson have a leg up, driven by the natural way of doing business, over traditional media companies. While the old-school networks rely on pilots and test audiences, and the new-age streamers like Netflix and Prime Video have big data that can identify genre and viewership patterns, Clemson has an always-on testing platform — its daily output of content to its social and owned/operated platforms. Their pilot could be a TikTok post or Reel, or even an overperforming podcast or feature story. That’s how the less-followed sports can break through, too; Clemson has 19 sports and, within each of them could be lying a story with enough interest.
Such performance data mitigates the risk before a bigger investment in production and sales. That enables Clemson to bring big ideas to life with a degree of certainty that they’ll hit and be worthy of wider distribution and partner backing.
“If you believe this content is so good, go test it,” said Richardson, as we discussed the built-if-sold or built-to-sell dichotomy in content production and investment. “Go put it on your YouTube. See if somebody will take it. Chop it up for social. So, the debate of built-if-sold is tough because a lot of consumers or media buyers want to know what the impressions and CPMs are. Oftentimes — and I’m thinking of how we first started — if you don’t have that footing to stand on of, well, this is how many impressions this got and CPMs is where it can go, and you’re just building to build, just to see — you’re going to be doing a lot of pilots and spec episodes, especially us (with internal) MMR, we’re trying to figure that out.”
Something happens when you start thinking less like a sports organization and more like a media company that shares a brand with a sports team or program. For years, the spectrum of content looked like highlights, memes, Hard Knocks-style all-access, and interviews. The rise of TikTok and short-form unlocked a new kind of creative thinking, widening the spectrum of sports content. The schedule release video as a creative showcase and YouTube’s broader rise, especially on the living-room TV, have played roles, too. But the majority of that outside-the-box thinking still lives inside the feeds, in posts just a few minutes long.
Yet the bigger picture means thinking beyond the feeds, producing content more at home on Netflix or ‘television’. That means supplementing the traditional sports genre content with the other genres prevailing that are produced by other professional media companies. The total addressable audience goes beyond sports fans and beyond Clemson fans.
“I have this grand idea of like, when people see our content in the future, I want them to go, Clemson made that? Oh, wow,” explained Richardson. “It’s not just wins and losses. It’s what you see in culture and media today…I don’t want people to see our content and go, Oh, Clemson football, great. Oh, Clemson basketball, great. No, I want it to be non-endemic. You don’t have to be affiliated with our teams at all. But we’re making great content that pulls you in. And that could be like the shows I just mentioned — MTV Cribs style show, a cooking show, a lifestyle show…
Richardson added: “How do we get the non-Clemson fan who doesn’t care about wins and losses, who doesn’t care about if we won a championship or not, but they care about something else? They care about — they have a new kid, they care about family-friendly television. How can we create something that’s built for children to learn about Clemson stories that’s family-approved, that can be on our Clemson Plus app that people watch?”
Social platforms remain an important distribution channel. But it’s just that they’re one of many places content can go. It’s not either/or, it’s AND, with licensing windows and packaging the variables that dictate the flow of content. Shows in ‘traditional’ media often premiere one place, get syndicated in another, can be found on Hulu until Hulu’s license expires, can get consumed in clips on TikTok, and may eventually find a resting place on the original producer’s app or library, and maybe even YouTube.
If the ‘mainstream’ production houses can operate like this, why can’t sports organizations, and their content operations? Richardson and Clemson Ventures, he explained, think in content ‘lifecycles,’ maximizing the reach and revenue of their productions.
“For example, if we’re doing a show — which we’ve done multiple now, I think we’ve got 300 hours of original content in the last year and a half, two years — if we’re doing a show, I’m not doing a show just to put it on social,” said Richardson. “Like, I’m doing a show, and ESPN2 is going to get first run, then it’s going to go to ESPNU, then it’s going to go to ACC Network, then it’s going to go to Gray Media and Fox, then it’s going to go to Clemson Plus, then it’s going to go to YouTube, then it’s going to get chopped up for social clips.
“And all of a sudden — and I’m not saying all at the same time or even a day apart — that’s seasons of a cycle, that could fill a whole year if you plan it right. And it’s non-endemic — it doesn’t matter about wins and losses. You can plan for that out of one piece of content. And guess what, you can sell against it every single time.”
Value gets maximized and extracted at every stop in the content lifecycle, and, in the end, has a lifetime value as it adds incrementally to the ever-growing Clemson content library, residing forever in Clemson Plus. This is also where the diversity of content compounds. Not every title on Netflix is destined to reach millions, but every show could be someone’s, some loyal audience’s, favorite show. That overall appeal keeps the value proposition for Clemson Plus increasing over time, and, while Richardson doesn’t presume to envision Clemson Plus rivaling the streaming behemoths, he doesn’t shy away from the long-term value for the premium platform, within Clemson’s primary audience and beyond.
“Everything we build will come back to our library,” he said. “We own it. We will maintain ownership. Even if it’s ‘loaned out’ or exclusive rights for a year, it will come back to us, meaning our OTT library will continue to expand because we will continue to dive in on that.
“Can Clemson Plus live by itself as a massive revenue driver? I don’t know. Maybe not, maybe so. But it took Netflix 15 years to get there. It’s still taking Disney years to get there. And this is niched down — this is Clemson, this is our OTT platform. Luckily, one thing with that is, every IPTAY member (‘I Pay Ten a Year,’ Clemson’s donation membership platform) we have has access to Clemson Plus, and it’s also accessible to any fan for five bucks a month, and you get access. Cool. But we are thinking of how do I get this content? And this is why we build 22 minute shows and 48 minute shows…”
Content used to be mostly a cost center for college athletics. It was marketing to drive the primary revenue drivers and priorities, whether ticket sales, tune-in (radio and TV), merchandise, donations, and recruiting. The ability for MMRs and in-house sponsorship teams to monetize content, along with revenue from social platforms directly, has only increased as content consumption and the number of options and platforms for fans has grown to infinite swipes and scrolls. And that’s great. But the content engine is just starting to rev up; the flywheel isn’t just forming, it’s expanding in more directions. That’s the bigger vision here for Richardson, Clemson Ventures, and others who will follow their lead.
“From a content perspective, four, five, six years ago and a little bit still today — a lot of it was fan affinity, ticket sales, merchandise,” said Richardson, who has spent over a decade working in college athletics. “Now, I believe content, especially in this space, it’s all about ownable IP, and you’re building media properties to where it’s not just like a secondary piece…
“Content’s infinite. You can have an idea today and I can make it tomorrow. We go pitch it Friday. Seats are limited, tickets are limited, merch is limited based on quantity. Content is interesting. And I think more and more — not just companies, more college athletic entities that are thinking like media companies and building production houses — will get further along pretty quickly, because that’s just where we’re headed in that content space…
“Content is being looked at now as ownable IP. And it’s super interesting when schools can do it at scale.”
That’s the whole shift. Content used to be marketing. It drove engagement, got posted and clipped a few times, then disappeared into the YouTube and player archives. Now it’s an asset, built with purpose and a plan to capture value through distribution and revenue generation, before being licensed or bundled into a library with its own market value.
A few years from now, a woman in Sacramento with no Clemson ties scrolls past a Cade Klubnik House Call episode on Prime Video. She watches it. She finds a Clemson Cribs, where she tours the current QB’s dorm, before getting sucked into a short showing the star gymnast’s daily workout. Then a Clemson cooking show. She didn’t buy a ticket. She didn’t grow up a Tiger. She just watched something good, and the library kept feeding her one show at a time.
Content may have a short half-life in the feed. In the marketplace and in the library, it compounds.
Clemson set the pace once before, when content in college athletics went from homemade to Hollywood, from SIDs to studios. They look poised to set it again, this time turning the creative department into a production house and the library into a permanent revenue engine.
Content is the only lever in college sports without a ceiling. Colleges have invested in high-quality content production for years. Now it’s time to invest in the business around it.
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