SVG in Indy: NCAA's Natalie Steger on Producing Championship Broadcasts, Embracing Technology

Commitment to innovation at network, conference, and institutional levels have improved production quality across the board

With 92 NCAA national championships during any given year, the folks in the organization's Broadcasting and Digital Department certainly have their hands full. Aside from the large number of marquee productions, the team is also tasked with maintaining relationships with the conference's media partners, including national networks, production personnel of participating conferences, and the live-production programs at colleges and universities. Led by NCAA Director, Broadcasting, Natalie Steger, the team ensures that title games of all sports within Divisions I, II, and III receive media coverage and provide an enhanced student-athlete experience.

SVG caught up with Steger at the NCAA National Office in Indianapolis to discuss the governing body's approach to each athletic year, how games of every sport have been given more visibility through livestream and digital platforms, how production quality continues to grow at the school-level, and more.

Throughout Divisions I, II, and III, the NCAA's athletics calendar is continuous. How do you find the time to plan the following year's schedule or future national championships?

It all depends on the championship.Each one has its own high maintenance priorities.

Some are in the same location - like Men's College World Series in Omaha, NE, and Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City - every single year. With those championships, there's not too much heavy lifting other than understanding any structural changes that may be happening at the venue. Devon Park in Oklahoma City will be hosting Olympic Softball in 2028, so there are some big enhancements happening there and they'll need to get moving on those. That's the only time when championships in a more permanent spot need a little extra love.

The NCAA and media partner TNT Sports teams: (from left) TNT Sports' Seth Davis, NCAA's Dave Worlock, NCAA's Dan Gavitt, TNT Sports' Adam Lefkoe, NCAA/UNC's Bubba Cunningham, Steger, NCAA's Linda Godby, TNT Sports' Candace Parker, NCAA/Sun Belt Conference's Keith Gill, TNT Sports' Jay Wright, NCAA's JoAn Scott, and NCAA's Alex Mortillaro[Other] events - like Final Fours - are constantly moving around the country. The Women's Final Four next year at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH, and we've already done two site visits with ESPN over six months ago. We are far out when it comes to planning.

We're creating an entire seating system for an NFL stadium. [That has] to start so early because we own the system that we put in and we have to build it out with the venue if we haven't been there before. At Lucas Oil Stadium, we'll have the same footprint, but we have to accommodate any changes they might have made since the last time we were there.

For our higher-profile championships, we're planning at least a year in advance. For championships of our Olympic sports, that's more around six to eight months before the event date.

Speaking of Indianapolis's Lucas Oil Stadium, the venue will host the 2028 Women's Final Four because of overwhelming demand by sports fans. As viewership for women's sports surges, how has that changed your team's approach to this marquee production?

That'll be such a big event because, other than San Antonio [in 2021], we've never hosted a Women's Final Four at an NFL stadium. We hoped that the growth would be there and that we would eventually be able to do this, but, years ago, when we went out with our bids, we had to be fiscally responsible with the venues we chose.

Members of the NCAA team with ESPN's Kevin Negandhi (far right): (from left) Dan Gavitt, Scott Bearby, Julie Kimmons, Lynda Tealer, Keisha Burnette, and StegerThe Caitlin Clark effect was a real thing in 2024; everything just exploded in Cleveland. ESPN has been a great partner and steward for the sport, and they have a great ecosystem to handle something of this size since they also use it on the WNBA, but we continuously push the network to keep growing [their production].

For the Men's Final Four, we've filled parking lots with production truck after production truck, but we never had that luxury for the Women's Final Four since our venue size never grew in the past. In addition, since we were in NBA and NHL arenas, we were killing hundreds of seats to construct a studio set on the court because that was the only available spot for it.

Now ESPN is taking over a parking lot with the brand-new Monday Night Football fleet, but we could still use more space on the arena floor. It's honestly a great problem to have, and we want to embrace all this additional media coverage. My role is to advocate for our broadcast partners but also to protect the integrity of NCAA, the competition on the playing surface, and the internal goals we're trying to achieve.

You're balancing production quality for the entire spectrum of Division I sports, but how are you ensuring that Division II and III competitions are receiving the same treatment?

We're definitely very sensitive to making sure that each division and their respective championships and student athletes have an awesome experience. [Division II and III national championships] may not have all the bells and whistles like our Final Fours, but we're going to work with the host school and local organizing committee [LOC] as much as we can to treat it the same from a scheduling and staffing standpoint. When we go out with a bid, we always make it our number-one priority to ask the LOC what they can do to help enhance the student-athlete experience.

Steger with NCAA Broadcast Coordinator of Championships and Alliance Lucas DuM

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/02/24/svg-in-indy-ncaas-natalie-stege...
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