When students enroll in a class, their hopes are to learn real-world skills to apply when he or she enters into the working world. This semester’s sport public relations class provides students real-world skills and builds their résumé while creating a campaign to bring ESPN College Gameday to Charles Koch Arena March 1, as the Shockers take on Missouri State for the final home game of the season.

“It was something I created. We normally do a fictitious campaign where they create a social media presence for an athlete that is in the running for the Heisman in the fall or the Naismith in the spring,” Mike Ross, instructor of the class, said. “That became a little bit of an issue, because we have a Naismith candidate in the class.”

Men’s basketball senior forward Cleanthony Early is a student in the class and is in the running for the Naismith award. With the conflict of having a candidate in the class, Ross began to think of different ideas for the class’s semester project.

“I think it was right after the Missouri State game, I thought maybe this is something we can try to do,” Ross said.

“When I presented it to them, they were excited about it. So whatever it was struck a nerve with them obviously.”

On March 1, ESPN College Gameday is scheduled to visit Oklahoma State as the Cowboys take on the Kansas Jayhawks. Despite the scheduling conflict, students feel that ESPN can split the coverage between the two contests.

“Mainly, we are just trying to show that Wichita State is a good team and they play hard,” said Kerisha Broadus, a junior in the class and WSU Athletics Marketing intern. 

Whether or not the class will be able to bring the program to WSU, the students will take away skills that they can use for a lifetime and have added experience with a product to show potential employers.

“Specifically with Wichita State being nationally recognized and being in the spotlight for almost a year now, this sort of campaign might put me in front of other employers and say ‘Hey we have been nationally known, and I was a part of something that got national attention,’” senior Chris Ruder said. “I think it is very beneficial for me to try to understand what goes into producing something like this and building awareness — not only reaching Wichita State fans, but also trying to reach out to the greater national media as well.”

Ross said that the class is not looking for personal gain out of the campaign, but is looking forward to the university reaping the benefits from their campaign.

“They are really pumped about the opportunity to do something that could benefit the team, the university, the community and really the state as a whole,” Ross said.