MIAMI — Local student journalists are getting a front-row seat to the Indiana Hoosiers’ historic football run, with a chance to cover the biggest moments, including the College Football National Championship.
As the Hoosiers carry out a historic season, a couple of eager young journalists have been along for the ride, allowing them to build their careers.
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“I was able to go with Malcolm and another student to New York for the Heisman ceremony,” said Cameron Cocquyt.
His classmate Colby Shannon was in Atlanta to cover the Peach Bowl win.
“When I was sitting or standing 20 feet away from the stage as Curt Cignetti lifted the Peach Bowl trophy and confetti flew everywhere…It was just such a surreal moment,” he told WRTV.
Shannon and Cocquyt are graduate students in Indiana University Indianapolis Sports Capital Journalism Program.
“We're getting a ton of valuable information from all sorts. From players, from coaches, from various staffers, and it's been very helpful,” Cocquyt said.
They're now in Miami covering the College Football National Championship.
“It’s just given me like another perspective of why I want to do this, like what the value behind sports journalism is, and why it's important to have media there to cover it,” Shannon said.
IU Indy’s sports journalism program, launched in the 2009-2010 academic year
and is the oldest and longest-running sports journalism graduate program in the country.
The program has covered nearly every College Football Playoff championship game since it started, along with several semi-final games.
Program director Malcolm Moran says this season is different.
“The emotional ties of having what's really an unprecedented level of success for a program that struggled so badly for so long. So you're, you're not just covering a football game, you're covering history,” Moran said.
The students told WRTV these are moments some journalists never get to experience in their entire career.
They're grateful this experience is already shaping their young careers.
“To deliver what's on the field into the readers' minds and into fans' opinions, through our work and through our writing. It's just given me like another perspective of why I want to do this,” Shannon said.
“These are just experiences that, I mean, are second to none. Getting that real-world, um, experience on top of what we're getting in the classroom has been, yeah, incredible,” Cocquyt said.
The program has sent students to the Rose Bowl, Peach Bowl, and even the Paris Olympics in 2025.
