Working in Sports Media Career Panel
Join a panel of Notre Dame alumni on zoom to learn about the work they do in the sports media industry, how they got there, and what advice they have for students interested in working alongside them.
Link to register for Zoom Panel
Moderator:
Claire DeMeo ’24 is an Economics major and has minors in Sport, Media, and Culture; Computing and Digital Technologies; and Chinese. She works as a Broadcast Analyst and Communications Assistant at Fighting Irish Media in Communications and Live Production, and over the summer was a Development & Data intern at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Claire plays for the Notre Dame Women’s Rugby team and serves as their Communications Director, overseeing internal and external communications, social media, and website. She also assists with communications and developing the Sport, Media, and Culture minor program.
Panellists:
Brian Perkins ‘95 is the Vice President of IT Production Systems for MLB Network and a nine-time Emmy Award winner, passionate about automating the creation of on-screen and on-set content containing baseball and hockey data. Brian oversees technology serving MLBN’s producers, editors, graphic artists, as well as the integration of statistical systems used to enhance storytelling. Brian also oversees the same systems for NHL Network, whose daily on-air operations are based and operated out of the MLB Network headquarters. Prior to joining MLB Network, he spent eight years with NBC News as the director of newsroom computer systems.
Tess Phillips ‘21 is an Associate Programming Manager at Overtime Sports, which owns and operates OTE in basketball, OT7 in football and OTX in boxing, and leverages digital-first content across its network of accounts for over 85 million fans and followers. Overtime's business model is driven by sponsorships, brand relationships, e-commerce, licensing and media rights.Tess is in charge of Quality Control and Publishing across all of Overtime's YouTube and Snapchat channels. She also produces original content for Overtime’s football pages and celebrity drama page, OTea, where she is the primary talent. Tess has experience in negotiating NIL deals, event production and coverage, and frequently travels to cover featured athletes/games.
Caroline Pineda ‘22 is a sideline reporter for NBC Sports, whose assignments have included the USFL, Atlantic 10 basketball, and the 2023 All-Star Futures Game. She also works on NBC's Sunday Night Football production crew, where she assists reporter Melissa Stark on the sidelines during games. Caroline studied FTT and Journalism at Notre Dame, where she also worked as the sideline intern for Notre Dame Football on NBC, wrote for the Associated Press, NBC Sports, and Notre Dame Magazine, and broadcast for Fighting Irish Media. She won the Jim Nantz Award for the country's most outstanding collegiate sports broadcaster in 2022 and interned at The Washington Post before joining NBC Sports.
Joe Ribando ‘01 is a seasoned sports media executive with an 11-year tenure as the Vice President of Distribution, Affiliate Sales, and Marketing at MLB Network. Before joining Major League Baseball, Joe held key positions at The Topps Company as the Director of Player Licensing and ESPN as Senior Manager. Joe majored in Finance and Business Economics at Notre Dame, and earned an MBA from The University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.