Chris Taylor

A public and media relations professional with over 20 years experience, Chris Taylor is in his eighth year in 2017-18 as a lecturer of telecommunications at Ball State University and leads the department’s digital sports production and immersion efforts.

In June 2017, Taylor was honored with the Sports Video Group/College Sports Media Summit Pioneer Award. The national award recognizes innovators in video production and technology at the university level who have advanced the industry at large. Also in 2017, the Ball State University program overall was ranked No. 3 in the nation for top sports broadcasting schools by the Sportscasters Talent Agency of America.

In 2015, Taylor was promoted from instructor to lecturer at Ball State, while also moving to senior director of Digital Sports Production. The digital sports academic concentration is the first of its kind by any college or university in the nation and prepares students for careers in a developing sports media arena. The concentration offers skills and applications courses using digital technology to create sports content for distribution.

In addition to his sports production duties, Taylor also teaches sportswriting and reporting for Ball State’s journalism department, as well as video production courses for the TCOM department. Since 2009, Taylor has directed Ball State Sports Link, the nation’s first fully immersive digital sports production program. Working closely with ESPN and Ball State Athletics, the program produces over 90 hours of live sporting events to ESPN platforms yearly, with students in all crew positions. Since 2009, Taylor’s students in Ball State Sports Link have garnered over 100 state or national awards for sports production, including 38 Emmy nominations (16 wins) and 30 Sports Video Group/Best of College Sports Media nominations (eight wins). His students have won 33 Indiana Association of School Broadcasters first-place awards and 16 Indiana Society of Professional Journalists first-place awards, as well as 13 Broadcast Education Association “Best in the Nation” honors and two “BEA Best of Festival” awards from all entry genres.

A former college sports information and marketing director, Taylor has served on numerous state, local, and national organizing committees, including for the NCAA Final Four and other NCAA Championship events. In addition, he has guided Ball State’s involvement as social and digital media producers for NCAA March Madness since 2011, working with the NCAA and Turner Sports. In 2017, Taylor and his students added 13 additional dedicated NCAA Championship platforms, managing the brand strategy and digital content creation.

In 2014, Taylor also guided the social and digital real-time operations – utilizing students – for the 96th PGA Championship and the 2014 Ryder Cup. He also helped lead a team of Ball State students to the London 2012 Olympic Games, producing multimedia stories for national media outlets.

Taylor is a graduate of Ball State University with a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications (production option) and a master’s degree in sports administration.