A new mobile app launched by Campus Insiders takes fans deep inside college sports with game highlights, interviews and a behind-the-scenes perspective of the trending stories of the day, from on-camera hosts Bonnie Bernstein and Seth Davis, as well as top college analysts, former coaches and special contributors.
Campus Insiders is the online destination and leading digital content syndication source for college sports fans. The app is free and now available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. It provides an interactive user experience that enables college sports fans to access the same content available at CampusInsiders.com, along with the insight and perspective of Campus Insiders’ stable of experts, including broadcasters Bonnie Bernstein, Seth Davis and the nearly 100 Insiders from college campuses across the country.
The Campus Insiders app features breaking news and video alert, video on-demand, filtered by sport, and daily original programming, including live programming (starting this Fall) featuring Bonnie Bernstein and Seth Davis.
I had the great pleasure to speak with Seth Davis about the Campus Insider website and app, college football and basketball, and much more.
Art Eddy: Tell me about your new project “The Seth Davis Show.”
Seth Davis: It is a really exciting project for me. Took a long time to come up with the name of the show. We got really creative and outside the box and came up with “The Seth Davis Show.” It is for this new all-digital sports network called Campus Insiders. The future is hear. This is all digital. The website we have is Campus Insiders dot com.
The way this model works is instead of getting you to come to us, we are going to come to you. Whether it is through Twitter, there are literally hundreds of websites out there that are distributing content. As name of the network indicates it is based on insider access and information. The network is partnering with IMG College, which owns the broadcast rights to many FBS schools. We are going to be talking to people who are at these schools all the time. My role on “The Seth Davis Show” is to do more long form sit down interviewing, which is what I enjoy.
AE: I love the idea about how Campus Insiders gives you the all access feel to campuses around the country. What type of guests can we expect to see coming up on your show?
SD: Even though college basketball is my bailiwick as you know Art, we are going to be very football heavy, especially at the start. I have already interviewed Bob Stoops and Will Muschamp, Mack Brown and Steve Spurrier. I talked a little basketball with Billy Donovan when I was in Gainesville, but I will be talking to Larry Scott the PAC-12 Commissioner.
It is going to be a college sports type franchise, type of show, but I reserve the right to go off topic. I happen to live in Los Angeles. I have moved here with my family. If I happen to be able to grab a movie star here or there, or a pro athlete or a pro coach here or there, the bottom line is I call it smart conversations with interesting people. There are no rules, so you can’t say the rules apply because this is a brand new concept of distributing content. So there are no rules and we are going to have a lot of fun.
AE: Besides the great work you do for CBS Sports and Sports Illustrated which is a lot already. Can you tell me how you got involved with Campus Insiders?
SD: Well the guys who are running Campus Insiders, Jason Coyle, Josh Wine, Crowley Sullivan; these are guys that not only I know, but everybody knows. They have been around the block a lot. They have been in the industry a lot, so I always have maintained a running dialogue. I am also managed by IMG, so this is really important to IMG and IMG College to get into this digital space.
There are certain things that I do well and there are certain things that I don’t do well. Campus Insiders you look at me and you look at Bonnie, (Bernstein) we are very opinionated people, but we covered college sports a long time. We are not necessarily looking to say the single most inflammatory thing we can say all the time. I certainly have very strong opinions. Just ask my wife. (Laughs)
What I try to deliver for Campus Insiders is the same thing I try to deliver for CBS. It is the same thing that I deliver for Sports Illustrated, which is journalism. Hopefully high quality journalism that is fair, that is balanced, that is informative and opinionated. By the way it should be entertaining. I am cognizant of the fact that this is sports. This is not the war in Afghanistan we are talking about. This is supposed to be fun. When I go into these interviews the first thing I say to these folks is let’s have some fun here. It is a foreign concept to these college football coaches. It is having fun at work. It is not supposed to be fun they think, but for the thirty minutes that we are in front of this camera it is okay to have fun.
AE: With college football in sight, what are some of the things we as fans should look out for on Campus Insiders?
SD: For me, it will be the more long form interview type. The answer really Art is I am not sure. That is what is exciting about it. I come out of the TV world. I have a show on the CBS Sports Network during the college basketball season called “Courtside.” It is on every Wednesday at 7 o’clock. You are locked in.
When you are in the digital space you are not so quite locked in. If we want to do Tuesday this week instead of Monday or do we want the segment to be 12 minutes instead of 35 minutes. We are kind of throwing things against the wall and seeing what works. We want to be high level in terms of our presentation and our information. You are getting good information. It is being presented in an opinionated and fun way, but it is also authentic.
I don’t think you are going to see people, and I am not denigrating other anybody, but I don’t think you are going to see me and Bonnie screaming at each other. We may debate or argue, but I would like to think of it as high level, smart, fun conversation between two people who don’t take themselves too seriously.
AE: I enjoy your work at CBS Sports as you cover NCAA men’s college basketball. You went to Duke. Is it hard to not be a homer when breaking the games down?
SD: (Laughs) You know what, it is not hard at all. I get this question a lot. They are like the Yankees man. A lot of people say to me is it hard to be critical of Duke. First of all there is not that much to criticize. What are you really going to say about them? The answer is it is much harder to praise them.
I wish it wasn’t this way, but I am cognizant of this because everybody knows that I went to Duke because folks like you bring it up to me all the time. If I am inclined to praise them I find myself not doing it that much. It is hard for me to say good things about them because people say he just saying that because he went to Duke.
Well I say the win a lot. They don’t really cheat. Coach K is the USA Basketball coach. There is really not a whole lot of bad things you can say about them. That doesn’t mean I will not criticize them. When I put on my suit and tie, when I get behind my desk I am a journalist, an analyst, and an expert. That is how I deal.
I would be less than honest if I said when I watch Duke, do I want to see them win. Of course I do. I went to that school. It is in my blood. I really do believe that the vast, vast majority of readers and fans understand the difference between those two things. It is just the one percent who ride me on Twitter, but that is the kind of age we live in now. (Laughs.)
AE: Switching to fatherhood. Tell me about your family and what being a father means to you?
SD: Thank you for asking. I now can really talk all day. I am the father of three boys. I like to say I have three boys and one pissed off wife because I couldn’t give her a daughter. (Both laugh) Zachary is nine. Noah is seven and Gabriel is three and a half. I like to say that they drive me crazy and keep me sane all at the same time.
To me it is why I am kind of a stickler about sports and the sanctity of sports. Sports is beautiful. Sports is such an incredible bond that I have with my sons. First of all the love to play soccer. I have coached them in soccer. My two older ones I play golf with them. There is nothing, nothing better than playing golf with your friends. Do you know why Art? There are no iPods. There is no Wii. You are outside and you can compete a little bit. It is beautiful time spent together.
I am blessed with what I do. My boys come to the Final Four every year. They have been in locker rooms. Sometimes they are confused when we go to a game and I don’t take them to the locker room. They have met Coach K. They have been in the studio with me. The camera guys love them and teach them bad words. Being their dad and being Melissa Davis’ husband, that is who I am. This stuff is what I do to make enough money to support them. I am not one of these guys that lives to work. I work to live. I have been unbelievably fortunate to be able to manage my life so even though I travel a lot I have a home office. I am really lucky that I get to be around. I am lucky to be their dad because they are incredible boys.
AE: What are some of the funny moments that you experienced being a father?
SD: Well I could talk all day about this like I said, but there is one occasion when Duke was playing in New York City. They really kept saying that they wanted to go the Duke hotel because the wanted to see the players and Coach K. They were kind of across town and I said I didn’t know. I texting back and forth with Chris Collins, who at the time was the assistant coach. He told me where the hotel was and where they were going to go for dinner.
So I said okay we will stand by the bus and when they come out we will take some pictures. We went to the wrong hotel and we almost missed it. I was about to call it off, but they were very insistent. So we are standing on the street. They got a picture with Kyrie Irving and Nolan Smith. Everyone was really nice. Here comes Coach K. People might not believe this, but Coach K is a sweetheart. He sees my wife. He gives her a kiss. I think he met Zach, maybe not Noah. Zachary and Noah literally could not have cared less that Coach K was there.
Zachary and Noah are chasing each other around us. Somehow Zachary sees fit to actually tackle Noah in the street. Noah starts to hysterically cry. My wife is mortified because here is Coach K. I look at him and I said, because I have known him for a long time, I am actually glad you are seeing this. This is what it is really like. If they were acting perfect I would be disappointed. He says, ‘No, no I love it.’ He took a picture with them. That is part of the reality. After harassing me to meet the man they were not interested in the slightest.
AE: What are the major values that you want to instill in your children?
SD: It is very simple. It is treat people right. It is easier to say treat people like the way you want to be treated, but I think of it as it should be better than that. Being respectful. I am working on a book about John Wooden. He talked about his dad saying, ‘You are just as good as everyone else, but you are no better than anybody else.’
I talk to them a lot about eye contact. When I introduce them to other adults I say reach out your hand, shake their hand, and look them in the eye and say, ‘Nice to meet you’. Believe me they are not used to be getting that from seven and nine year old boys. That stuff impresses them. As long as they do a few very important things correctly, I let them do whatever they want. I am not a big strict guy. Certain things I am very, very strict about, manners and respect. Other than that life is short, have fun, be happy, and enjoy your youth while it lasts, because old guys like you and me know it doesn’t last forever.
You can listen to the entire interview coming up in a podcast on the Life of Dad show!