By Sports Capital Journalism Program Staff
DALLAS – A pair of students from the Sports Capital Journalism Program at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis will cover the College Football Playoff Semifinal between the Alabama Crimson Tide and Michigan State Spartans in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic on New Year’s Eve.
Sports Capital Journalism Program students Jessica Wimsatt (left) and Elizabeth Cotter (right) at Cotton Bowl media day on Dec. 28.
Jessica Wimsatt and Elizabeth Cotter will cover the 80th anniversary Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the fourth consecutive year that IUPUI students have covered college football’s championship.
IUPUI is the only school to receive media credentials in each of the first two years of the College Football Playoff. More than 20 IUPUI students will cover high profile events in 2016, including the College Football Playoff National Championship on January 11 at Glendale, Arizona.
“We are grateful for the unique opportunity to cover one of the most anticipated sporting events in the country,” said Malcolm Moran, Director of the Sports Capital Journalism Program, who covered more than 25 bowl games with championship implications for The New York Times and USA Today.
“Six years after the nation’s first graduate program in Sports Journalism was established in Indianapolis,” Moran said, “IUPUI students are challenged by the most extensive series of local, regional, national and international opportunities.”
Wimsatt, 25, is scheduled to complete her Master’s Degree in Sports Journalism next May. She covered the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four at Indianapolis last April, writing about the championship-clinching contribution of Duke freshman Grayson Allen, the evolution of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, and the announcement that University of Kentucky coach John Calipari would be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Wimsatt is an intern at WDRB-TV in Louisville and a Broadcast Reporter for the website AllHoosiers.com.
Cotter, 19, is a junior in the Department of Journalism and Public Relations in the School of Liberal Arts. She was honored by the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation for an essay that was judged best in the nation in the prestigious annual competition.
Cotter described the significance of the Dust Bowl, a patch of land on the IUPUI campus that was once the site of a dirt basketball court, a proving ground for young players that won back-to-back Indiana state basketball championships at Crispus Attucks High School in 1955 and 1956. More than 30 colleges and universities are affiliated with the foundation.
Cotter is the first IUPUI student to be selected as an Indiana University presidential intern. She is sports editor of The Campus Citizen, the digital student publication at IUPUI, and has been a news and sports intern at WANE-TV in Fort Wayne.
