By Sam MacGilpin
@sam_macgalpin
Springfield College has introduced a new way to watch Pride athletics.
In an emerging field of live streaming and broadcasting platform, the college decided to partner with Hudl – a multimedia service that acts as a “jack-of-all-trades” within the industry. Hudl has provided more than 200,000 sports teams with game film, coaching tools, analytics and more. Springfield’s sports teams use the system as well – but that partnership has been taken to a whole new level.
“It’s just really exciting to see where we can go and with where Springfield has been, and this can keep us on the right trajectory to be successful,” said Assistant Athletic Director for Communications Max Berkowitz, who joined Springfield in early April.
Now, all of Springfield’s games can be streamed and watched not only on mobile devices, but through various streaming devices. Games can be streamed on Android TV OS, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and a few other services, and fans will also be able to watch games on their TV through Hudl for free.
Berkowitz said he has built a relationship with Hudl over the years while working with the company at different institutions, so when Hudl bought out PrestoSports, the system that Springfield had been using, Berkowitz quickly jumped on the chance.
“It wasn’t too long of a process to partner with Hudl, but what helped was nine other teams in the NEWMAC are with Hudl as well,” Berkowitz said.
“There’s a lot of families whose kid is far from them, and they aren’t able to go see them play every game. Now, they can watch, on their TV, instead of having everyone stand over one phone,” added Director of Strategic Athletic Communications Brian Magoffin.
“I went on my TV and went to the NEWMAC app,” Berkowitz said, “and – boom – there was the Springfield Vs. Coast Guard game”
The NEWMAC has its own place in the different streaming services that Hudl made, and it’s easily accessible according to Berkowitz.
“While the NEWMAC owns the right to any game, now that we’re all on this Hudl deal, the NEWMAC games including playoff games, and hopefully when we have deep playoff runs, those games will still be broadcasted there,” Magoffin said when asked if all games will be streamed on Hudl.
Partnering with Hudl opens many doors for Springfield athletics, but a big opportunity to expand its publicity is adding commentators.
“You look around the country, and almost every sports game has commentators on the call,” said Berkowitz. “This is what is really exciting about my position that I accepted. It’s amazing that we have students that are COSJ majors willing to commentate for games
Berkowitz and Magoffin are present at every Springfield home game. While there are commentators for home football games and most basketball games, Berkowitz and Magoffin hope to have commentators for every sport, and have students commentate most home games.
“Every game we have is an opportunity for someone to commentate,” said Magoffin. “We can provide opportunities for students to grow and to build their portfolio, and when they get out of [Springfield College] they’ll be set up for much more success. If you want to get into broadcasting, you need to have knowledge of a ton of sports, and I think the partnership that we now have with Hudl gives us a way to help students with that.”
Springfield’s athletics site states that, “Springfield College’s rise among the social media ranks has been rapid over the past several years, with the Pride’s social media accounts ranking among the best at the NCAA Division III level.”
Much of that social media success can be attributed to Magoffin, who added the additional title of Coordinator of College Media Relations in 2023. The College’s social media accounts – including Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter – all rank in the top 15 among Division III schools.
“Max Berkowitz is the real champion in this,” Magoffin said. “He’s not going to toot his own horn but he figured out a lot of this stuff with Hudl, and if it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t be in this position.”
Berkowitz denied it with a laugh, but said, “I am just super optimistic about this new start.”
The streaming portal can be found at newmacsportsnetwork.com/springfieldcollege/
Photo courtesy of Springfield Athletics.