The Seth Davis Show – Exclusive Interview With The Sports Techie Community Blog

The Seth Davis Show on Campus Insiders delivers fans in-depth interviews and insight with popular sports figures. The premier episode is this Thursday, August 28^th at 1:30 EST, when Davis will have first-year University of Texas Head Football Coach, Charlie Strong, leading off a scheduled 35 episodes. Find out how Texas is in for a Big 12 attitude change, including the removal of the traditional Longhorns logo from their football helmets. The Sports Techie blog spoke with Seth about his “unencumbered” award winning show, whether he was driving a Cadillac, trending Industry topics, and his list of additional guests for this second season. For Davis, the bread and butter of his shows cover college sports, but more than that, they include interesting people.

The Seth Davis Show – Year Two
M-F you can find smart conversations with interesting people on Campus Insiders. I was excited to hear he will interview Vin Scully, the LA Dodgers legendary broadcaster who announced he is returning for his 66^th season in 2015.

Davis is from Washington D.C and was excited to interview Redskins’ quarterback, Robert Griffin III, right before we spoke. He ran a post pattern for RGIII during their interview. Davis said RGII is humble. I asked Seth where he would draft RGIII in a fantasy league. He said although he is not a fantasy football gamer, he would draft him in the first round. Davis did play in a fantasy basketball league while at Duke where they compiled ACC points, rebounds and assists. He remembers telling Hurley (Bobby) to step up the assists in a joking manner. Fantasy sports so dominates the games it is a bit of a turn off for him.

Arizona Cardinals’ wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald talks to Seth about facing the imposing defenses in the NFL’s toughest division, the NFC West, including Seattle Seahawks, all-everything defense back, Richard Sherman. Third-year Kansas Head Coach, Charlie Weis, faces a make-it-or-break season, while new USC Head Coach Steve Sarkisian jumps the Pac-12 shark leaving the the University of Washington Huskies to take over the Trojans who grade their team success on National Championship trophies. Both colleges had facility upgrades, a trend across universities that looks to have no end in sight.

The Seth Davis Show ‘Signature Moment’: Charlie Strong
Season Two of The Seth Davis Show presented by Cadillac debuts Thursday, August 28 [Opening Night of CFB] with Texas Longhorns head coach Charlie Strong.  The ‘SDS Bonus Cut’ for the debut show is a series of questions fans submitted to Seth/Campus Insiders via Twitter for coach Strong.

Cynopsis Sports Media Awards – Outstanding Webisode Series 2014
Seth was proud of his original series, “The Seth Davis Show presented by Cadillac” being awarded the Outstanding Webisode Series at the 2014 Cynopsis Sports Media Awards.  The competitive awards honored the top shows over the past year, included the categories, television series, radio and live events, and digital and marketing campaigns.

The weekly “Seth Davis Show,” is entering its second season hosted by expert sports journalist Seth Davis. They won the prestigious award over CBS Sports, NBC Sports, the Weather Channel, the Pac-12 Network, Sports Illustrated and Universal Sports Network.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment and recognizes the hard work, creativity and skill of our team,” said Crowley Sullivan, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Campus Insiders. “It helps further validate the value and potential of our Campus Insiders platform.”

The “Seth Davis Show” featured 35 episodes of in-depth, on-location interviews with some of the biggest stars in the world of college sports, including Billy Donovan, Jimbo Fisher, Steve Spurrier, Bob Stoops, Tom Izzo and Dick Vitale, as well as Phil Jackson, Doc Rivers and NCAA President Mark Emmert.  Besides Davis, key show personnel include executive producer Josh Wine, producers Ryan Peterson and Jim Gorman and editor Brian Kosisky.

Q & A – Seth Davis
Seth works for Sports Illustrated, Inside College Basketball and CBS Sports. He attended Duke, has a Political Science degree like me, and his Dad was part of the President Clinton’s administration. We have tweeted during the March Madness tournament and after speaking with him, Davis is certainly his own breed of Sports Techie.

I asked him plenty of sports technology related questions and Davis responded openly and honestly.

Our Q&A started by asking about the Ed O’Bannon video game image case. Seth tweeted about the case having a cap on money and no endorsements. Davis felt this issue is about the NCAA model. The anti-trust law violation, the appeal and the issue of name images and likeness in video game, was years in the making and already settled with EA Sports. Judge Wilkins ruled no restrictions on trade and money pursued by college athletes, which gave the NCAA a green light to boost the cost of attendance and give a piece of the pie to basketball players. Davis stated this action was not right for small schools and players. The NCCA scholarship update was long overdue, dating back to a 1974 case and one with Oklahoma in 1980. Davis said, “NCAA President Mark Emmert, has been trying to create a more nimble NCAA business.” This case is part of that transition.

I wanted to know how he felt about the second screen and social media in sports. Davis said, “Social media changed recruiting.” The second screen era of tweeters, consumers and fans on Twitter, is how he interacts with games and events. He feels this is the way to watch any game or event like the Academy Awards or American Idol, he uses an iPhone and iPad to follow along. He attended the BCS bowl game and felt like he was missing all the fun, his followers expect him to be engaged with them, during the live action.

The topic of pro, college and high schools spending huge amounts of money on infrastructure such as new stadiums, training facilities and on recruiting was indeed an arms race according to Davis.  Venues and arenas are businesses that invest in themselves, something not congruent with amateur sports, all this undercuts the argument of paying the players. He said when he was at Duke, Coach K had an elevator that required a thumb scanner to access the top at Cameron, now that kind of tech pales when compared to all the college campus renovations and new construction bells and whistles.

I had to question Seth about LeBron James, “The Decision” and his move back to the Cleveland Cavaliers, since it was so social media driven. Davis was a James fan sooner than others. He watched as LeBron tried to be villain in Miami, which did not fit, and how he then become self-aware enough to realize it. This was followed by a hard, slow and unavoidable repair of his image that let his fans and the world know he cared what people think, and that truly impressed Davis. He felt with the Heat, LeBron did it wrong, then he executed his new life chapter and did everything right, including his exclusive SI op-ed. The line about Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, stating, “Who am I to hold a grudge,” was a sign of LeBron’s maturity. Because James never had a father in his life, Davis has the ultimate respect for him and roots for him and the city of Cleveland.

I wanted to know what Davis felt about the #IceBucketChallenge for ALS and charity. He felt it was, “Incredible.” Davis has been challenged by a few people and eventually will donate his $100 and challenge three people. I asked him who the three might be. He said, “Perhaps Dad, Doug Gootlieb and maybe RGIII.” The power of good for social media is a compelling part of the ALS story.

I asked Davis about his favorite interview from last year’s shows. He answered, “Pat O’Brien jumps out, we are friends, he has been through a lot, alcoholism, drug use, voice mails made public.” His target lists at the start of year included, Bill Snider at KState, the Big-12 media day and his book on John Wooden, titled, “A Coach’s Life,”, Bob Stoops, Dick Vital and the Mack Brown interview. He was happy to reminisce with me about Luke Walton and his interesting life. Davis laughed as if he was there when he shared the story about Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, naked in the Walton’s hot tub, and the birthday suit introduction that was made to Bill’s Mother and Luke’s Grandmother. His hour with Phil Jackson was totally epic.

I asked David what he knew about the Sports Tech Industry, an over $200 billion global business and growing rapidly. He said, “The digital revolution, opened up business and sports is off the charts.”

Seth shared a sports technology gem of a story about golf. He lives in the Los Angeles area and was visiting Tailor Made Golf Performance Lab, where he was asked to put on a suit that utilizes their MAT-T 3D motion capture technology allowing them to record his swings and analyze his good and bad swing traits. Seth shared that he has an inner drive to be included in a video game someday.

I asked Davis whether Esports is a sport. He felt that like poker, it is not a sport much like poker, it’s a game.

His sons are video game players, but do not use the Xbox or PS4 a at home. They do have a Nintendo wii. Their four year old is able to operate complicated laptops and play mine craft, which is unbelievable to Davis and his wife.

He is a soccer Dad so I asked him about the recent World Cup and who his kids favorite players and teams were. It turns out they are EPL Chelsea fans, have all the latest gear, soccer books and collected a swapsies stickers book. By trading stickers, they familiarized themselves with players on Ghana, Japan and the Netherlands.  His kids are focused on reading because of his self-proclaimed, “old school” policy in place. As a newer parent, I understand this golden rule to a tee.

Finally, I queried Davis about how he felt about the rash of concussions across all sports, the NFL settlement, and his parenting perspective. Davis wishes there was a rule against heading the ball in soccer. The impact on the head and body via collisions in football and other sports like MMA are bad trends but he does not know enough about the NFL concussion settlement with the NFLPA to comment on it. He was mortified watching FIFA have no established protocols for concussions during the World Cup Brazil. His son is a hard, intense player and he worries about head blows.

Campus Insiders
Campus Insiders (www.campusinsiders.com) is the leading digital content syndication source and online destination for college sports fans.  Campus Insiders features college sports video and editorial content syndicated to websites, mobile applications, over the top devices and other Internet Protocol delivered experiences. Current partners include Yahoo! Sports, Rivals, USA TODAY Sports Digital Properties, AppleTV, Roku, YouTube, Synacor’s cable, satellite and telecom customer portals, Dailymotion, MobiTV, and more.  The newest distribution partner is Amazon Fire TV – Campus Insiders is just the fourth sports partnership Amazon Fire carries!

Campus Insiders is the first completely unauthenticated, 24/7 live digital experience for college sports, with programming that includes live games across multiple sports and conferences, highlights, analysis, studio shows, on-campus reports and other live and on demand content

Key advertising partners include Cadillac and Keurig.  Cadillac began running distinctive branded content on Campus Insiders during the past football season, including a presenting sponsorship of The Seth Davis Show and a campus-based content series Cadillac Presents: On the Scene.  Recent activity with Cadillac also includes Campus Insiders’ hosting the Cadillac / Spike Lee-produced vignette on Teddy Bridgewater and his mother — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTe5RnL0bmw

Keurig’s partnership has also included branded content.  Campus Insiders has also featured advertising from Chrysler, Principal and Verizon.

Examples of additional Cadillac content include:

  Duke: http://campusinsiders.com/videos/I4ZWhhbDoJIX0RAE92WqTh5CkYlKzfHB

  Kansas: http://campusinsiders.com/videos/wzYzIybDo9QhdiaVoRdGOpUk8iy67SQa

  UCLA: http://campusinsiders.com/videos/tsOHRzaTqxFJzwa8B1dVf8whilas10o8

Campus Insiders is a partnership between IMG College and Silver Chalice, making it the premier online destination and leading digital content syndication source for college sports fans. Campus Insiders features high-quality unrestricted content, including live studio shows, video on demand (VOD), and more than 2,000 live games, available on multiple platforms and distribution points.

Sports Techie, The Seth Davis Show, year two will be full of interesting guests once again. Campus Insiders is lucky to have Seth because he is the real deal and worthy of all the accolades and opportunities that have come his way. The future is bright at this Internet based show. Bravo to his employers at Campus Insiders for having the vision and faith in him to get the job done the right way, via The Seth Davis Show.

“When we launched The Seth Davis Show, I described this as a show featuring ‘smart conversations with interesting people.’ While our main focus will remain on college sports, in year two we are going to widen the lens in an effort to expose our viewers to variety of high-profile guests who have led fascinating lives,” said Davis. “Expect the unexpected!”

Get ready for some college football this Thursday and tune into his first show, he may ask a few sports tech-centric questions after speaking with me.

Yes, Seth told me was driving a Cadillac.

I will see ya when I see ya, THE Sports Techie @THESportsTechie – http://twitter.com/THESportsTechie

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