By Cheval John | Vallano Media
This article was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence.
The final version was reviewed, edited and fact-checked by the author Graphics created with AI-assisted design tools.
Visual concepts, editorial direction, composition, and final creative decisions were developed by Vallano Media.
With one second remaining on November 13, 2021, South Dakota quarterback Carson Camp didn’t have many options.
The Coyotes trailed rival South Dakota State 20-17 inside the DakotaDome in Vermillion.
One play remained.
South Dakota had the ball at its own 43-yard line.
Camp escaped pressure and launched the football toward the end zone.
The ball came down into a crowd of players.
South Dakota State defenders got their hands on it, but instead of falling to the turf, the football stayed alive.
Jeremiah Webb caught it.
Touchdown.
South Dakota won 23-20.
It was a 57-yard touchdown on the final play of the game.
It was Webb’s first collegiate touchdown.
And it came against a South Dakota State team ranked No. 7 in one FCS poll and No. 4 in another.
It eventually became Sports Illustrated’s Play of the Year.
But there is another part of the story worth examining.
Someone had to be there to produce the game.
Someone had to have the cameras positioned, the announcers in place and the infrastructure operating when an otherwise ordinary November afternoon suddenly produced one of the biggest highlights in college football.
That was Midco Sports.
And that makes South Dakota’s Hail Mary more than a great sports story.
Video Courtesy of PSC Highlights YouTube Channel
It is also a business lesson about the value of regional sports media.
The Cameras Were Already Rolling
Midco wasn’t dispatched to Vermillion because anyone expected history.
It was already there.
South Dakota’s game information for that afternoon listed Midco Sports as the television broadcaster, with Jay Elsen on play-by-play, Andre Fields as analyst and Elaina Lanson reporting.
The game was also available online through ESPN+ and Midco Sports Plus.
That distinction matters.
National sports media naturally focuses much of its attention and resources on events expected to attract the largest audiences.
Regional networks operate under a different model.
Their value comes partly from consistently covering the schools, teams and communities inside their footprint.
Most of those broadcasts will never produce a Sports Illustrated Play of the Year.
They aren’t supposed to.
The value is in being there every week.
Because occasionally the routine game you committed to producing becomes anything but routine.
South Dakota’s victory over South Dakota State was one of those days.
The athletes created the moment.
The coaches put them in position to create it.
But the existence of an established broadcast operation meant that people outside the DakotaDome could see what happened almost immediately.
The play didn’t have to wait for a national television network to discover South Dakota football.
The production was already happening.
The Infrastructure Predated the Moment
The media story surrounding the Hail Mary actually stretches back years.
In March 2016, the University of South Dakota, Coyote Sports Properties and Midco Sports Network announced a $3.05 million partnership.
The agreement included broadcast cabling throughout the DakotaDome and USD’s new basketball and volleyball arena, television service throughout the facilities and a mobile video production cart capable of streaming events such as soccer and track and field.
Midco also received broadcast rights to Coyote athletic events as part of the agreement.
And perhaps most importantly for understanding the relationship, Midco had already been producing South Dakota athletic events and football and basketball coaches’ shows since 2012.
The 2016 agreement extended that relationship for another decade.
So when Camp threw that football in November 2021, South Dakota wasn’t suddenly trying to figure out how to televise a viral moment.
The media infrastructure that helped carry the moment beyond Vermillion had been developing for years.
That’s an important distinction for businesses.
Infrastructure is often easiest to appreciate after something extraordinary happens.
But you have to build it before you know what that extraordinary moment will be.
South Dakota and Midco could not have known in 2016 that five years later a quarterback would throw a football 57 yards with one second remaining, that the ball would be tipped and that a receiver would somehow catch it for a rivalry-winning touchdown.
They didn’t need to know.
The investment was in creating the capacity to cover South Dakota athletics consistently.
The Hail Mary demonstrated what that capacity could make possible.
Midco Didn’t Need to Become ESPN
There is another layer to the story that makes the Midco model particularly interesting.
Midco didn’t need to become ESPN.
It needed to be really good at being Midco.
Regional production and national distribution do not have to compete with each other.
They can complement each other.
By 2018, South Dakota was already explaining publicly how that system worked.
The university announced that Midco Sports Network would televise several Coyote football games and that those Midco-produced broadcasts would be relayed online to ESPN.
That schedule included games simultaneously available on Midco and ESPN+.
Three years later, the same basic distribution model surrounded the South Dakota-South Dakota State game.
Midco produced the television broadcast.
Viewers could also watch through ESPN+.
That creates a media chain that would have been much more difficult for a regional program to build in an earlier era.
A company with deep regional knowledge can handle production.
A national streaming service can expand distribution.
Social platforms and national sports outlets can amplify an extraordinary moment afterward.
The regional company doesn’t disappear from the equation.
In many ways, it becomes more important because somebody still has to originate the production.
This is one of the overlooked effects of streaming on college sports.
Distribution can become national without production becoming national.
The people producing a South Dakota football game don’t necessarily have to work in New York, Los Angeles or even for ESPN.
They can remain close to the teams and communities they cover while their work travels much farther.
Then the Play Traveled
Once Webb came down with the football, the moment quickly became much larger than a South Dakota rivalry game.
South Dakota had beaten South Dakota State 23-20.
The highlight traveled through national sports media.
And within weeks, the play found itself competing against moments involving some of the most recognizable athletes and programs in sports.
Sports Illustrated’s 2021 Smooth Play of the Year nominees included Jordan Spieth’s remarkable shot at the Ryder Cup, Jalen Suggs’ Final Four buzzer-beater for Gonzaga against UCLA, Jamil Roberts’ overtime goal that gave Marshall its first men’s soccer national championship and South Dakota’s Hail Mary.
Think about that group.
PGA golf.
The NCAA Final Four.
A national championship.
And an FCS rivalry game from Vermillion, South Dakota.
South Dakota won.
On December 7, Camp and Webb attended the Sports Illustrated Awards in Hollywood, Florida, and accepted the Smooth Play of the Year award on behalf of the program.
Shaquille O’Neal presented the award.
Midco did not make the catch.
Midco did not decide the award.
And it would be a mistake to claim that the regional network caused South Dakota to win it.
But Midco helped provide something essential to everything that followed: visibility.
The moment was professionally captured and distributed because the production infrastructure already existed.
That is the business lesson.
Regional Sports Media Has a Different Job
It is easy to judge regional sports networks against the scale of ESPN, Fox, CBS or NBC.
That may be the wrong comparison.
Midco describes its sports operation as dating to 2007 and says it has put thousands of games on its television channels and streaming service while working with schools and conferences throughout its region.
Its competitive advantage isn’t necessarily that it can outspend a national network.
It is proximity.
It can build relationships with universities that national television companies cannot cover with the same frequency.
It can televise games that aren’t candidates for a major national broadcast.
It can develop announcers who understand those programs and their rivalries.
And when something remarkable happens, that regional production can suddenly become nationally valuable content.
The South Dakota Hail Mary offers an almost perfect example of the process:
local event → regional production → national streaming distribution → national sports-media amplification.
Most games will never travel through that entire chain.
That’s fine.
Businesses sometimes make the mistake of evaluating infrastructure entirely by what it produces on an average day.
But infrastructure also creates options.
It determines what an organization is capable of doing when the unusual happens.
Build Before the Moment Arrives
There is a broader lesson here beyond sports television.
Businesses often want to invest after success becomes obvious.
Build the audience after something goes viral.
Improve production after demand appears.
Develop distribution after people start asking for the product.
But sometimes the businesses positioned to benefit from an unexpected opportunity are the ones that quietly built the infrastructure beforehand.
Midco had been working with South Dakota athletics for years before November 13, 2021.
The cameras were already there.
The announcers were already there.
The production system was already there.
The distribution relationship was already there.
Then Carson Camp escaped the rush and threw the football.
Jeremiah Webb caught it.
South Dakota won.
The play traveled far beyond the DakotaDome and eventually stood alongside moments from the Ryder Cup, Final Four and a national championship before being named Sports Illustrated’s Play of the Year.
None of that means Midco created the moment.
It means Midco was prepared to capture it.
And that may be the most important lesson of all.
You cannot manufacture a moment like South Dakota’s Hail Mary.
But you can build the infrastructure that makes sure people far beyond the stadium can see it when it happens. Graphics created with AI-assisted design tools.
Visual concepts, editorial direction, composition, and final creative decisions were developed by Vallano Media.
How Midco Sports Helped South Dakota’s Hail Mary Reach a National Audience
By Cheval John | Vallano Media
This article was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence.
The final version was reviewed, edited and fact-checked by the author
Graphics created with AI-assisted design tools.
Visual concepts, editorial direction, composition, and final creative decisions were developed by Vallano Media.
With one second remaining on November 13, 2021, South Dakota quarterback Carson Camp didn’t have many options.
The Coyotes trailed rival South Dakota State 20-17 inside the DakotaDome in Vermillion.
One play remained.
South Dakota had the ball at its own 43-yard line.
Camp escaped pressure and launched the football toward the end zone.
The ball came down into a crowd of players.
South Dakota State defenders got their hands on it, but instead of falling to the turf, the football stayed alive.
Jeremiah Webb caught it.
Touchdown.
South Dakota won 23-20.
It was a 57-yard touchdown on the final play of the game.
It was Webb’s first collegiate touchdown.
And it came against a South Dakota State team ranked No. 7 in one FCS poll and No. 4 in another.
It eventually became Sports Illustrated’s Play of the Year.
But there is another part of the story worth examining.
Someone had to be there to produce the game.
Someone had to have the cameras positioned, the announcers in place and the infrastructure operating when an otherwise ordinary November afternoon suddenly produced one of the biggest highlights in college football.
That was Midco Sports.
And that makes South Dakota’s Hail Mary more than a great sports story.
Video Courtesy of PSC Highlights YouTube Channel
It is also a business lesson about the value of regional sports media.
The Cameras Were Already Rolling
Midco wasn’t dispatched to Vermillion because anyone expected history.
It was already there.
South Dakota’s game information for that afternoon listed Midco Sports as the television broadcaster, with Jay Elsen on play-by-play, Andre Fields as analyst and Elaina Lanson reporting.
The game was also available online through ESPN+ and Midco Sports Plus.
That distinction matters.
National sports media naturally focuses much of its attention and resources on events expected to attract the largest audiences.
Regional networks operate under a different model.
Their value comes partly from consistently covering the schools, teams and communities inside their footprint.
Most of those broadcasts will never produce a Sports Illustrated Play of the Year.
They aren’t supposed to.
The value is in being there every week.
Because occasionally the routine game you committed to producing becomes anything but routine.
South Dakota’s victory over South Dakota State was one of those days.
The athletes created the moment.
The coaches put them in position to create it.
But the existence of an established broadcast operation meant that people outside the DakotaDome could see what happened almost immediately.
The play didn’t have to wait for a national television network to discover South Dakota football.
The production was already happening.
The Infrastructure Predated the Moment
The media story surrounding the Hail Mary actually stretches back years.
In March 2016, the University of South Dakota, Coyote Sports Properties and Midco Sports Network announced a $3.05 million partnership.
The agreement included broadcast cabling throughout the DakotaDome and USD’s new basketball and volleyball arena, television service throughout the facilities and a mobile video production cart capable of streaming events such as soccer and track and field.
Midco also received broadcast rights to Coyote athletic events as part of the agreement.
And perhaps most importantly for understanding the relationship, Midco had already been producing South Dakota athletic events and football and basketball coaches’ shows since 2012.
The 2016 agreement extended that relationship for another decade.
So when Camp threw that football in November 2021, South Dakota wasn’t suddenly trying to figure out how to televise a viral moment.
The media infrastructure that helped carry the moment beyond Vermillion had been developing for years.
That’s an important distinction for businesses.
Infrastructure is often easiest to appreciate after something extraordinary happens.
But you have to build it before you know what that extraordinary moment will be.
South Dakota and Midco could not have known in 2016 that five years later a quarterback would throw a football 57 yards with one second remaining, that the ball would be tipped and that a receiver would somehow catch it for a rivalry-winning touchdown.
They didn’t need to know.
The investment was in creating the capacity to cover South Dakota athletics consistently.
The Hail Mary demonstrated what that capacity could make possible.
Midco Didn’t Need to Become ESPN
There is another layer to the story that makes the Midco model particularly interesting.
Midco didn’t need to become ESPN.
It needed to be really good at being Midco.
Regional production and national distribution do not have to compete with each other.
They can complement each other.
By 2018, South Dakota was already explaining publicly how that system worked.
The university announced that Midco Sports Network would televise several Coyote football games and that those Midco-produced broadcasts would be relayed online to ESPN.
That schedule included games simultaneously available on Midco and ESPN+.
Three years later, the same basic distribution model surrounded the South Dakota-South Dakota State game.
Midco produced the television broadcast.
Viewers could also watch through ESPN+.
That creates a media chain that would have been much more difficult for a regional program to build in an earlier era.
A company with deep regional knowledge can handle production.
A national streaming service can expand distribution.
Social platforms and national sports outlets can amplify an extraordinary moment afterward.
The regional company doesn’t disappear from the equation.
In many ways, it becomes more important because somebody still has to originate the production.
This is one of the overlooked effects of streaming on college sports.
Distribution can become national without production becoming national.
The people producing a South Dakota football game don’t necessarily have to work in New York, Los Angeles or even for ESPN.
They can remain close to the teams and communities they cover while their work travels much farther.
Then the Play Traveled
Once Webb came down with the football, the moment quickly became much larger than a South Dakota rivalry game.
South Dakota had beaten South Dakota State 23-20.
The highlight traveled through national sports media.
And within weeks, the play found itself competing against moments involving some of the most recognizable athletes and programs in sports.
Sports Illustrated’s 2021 Smooth Play of the Year nominees included Jordan Spieth’s remarkable shot at the Ryder Cup, Jalen Suggs’ Final Four buzzer-beater for Gonzaga against UCLA, Jamil Roberts’ overtime goal that gave Marshall its first men’s soccer national championship and South Dakota’s Hail Mary.
Think about that group.
PGA golf.
The NCAA Final Four.
A national championship.
And an FCS rivalry game from Vermillion, South Dakota.
South Dakota won.
On December 7, Camp and Webb attended the Sports Illustrated Awards in Hollywood, Florida, and accepted the Smooth Play of the Year award on behalf of the program.
Shaquille O’Neal presented the award.
Midco did not make the catch.
Midco did not decide the award.
And it would be a mistake to claim that the regional network caused South Dakota to win it.
But Midco helped provide something essential to everything that followed: visibility.
The moment was professionally captured and distributed because the production infrastructure already existed.
That is the business lesson.
Regional Sports Media Has a Different Job
It is easy to judge regional sports networks against the scale of ESPN, Fox, CBS or NBC.
That may be the wrong comparison.
Midco describes its sports operation as dating to 2007 and says it has put thousands of games on its television channels and streaming service while working with schools and conferences throughout its region.
Its competitive advantage isn’t necessarily that it can outspend a national network.
It is proximity.
It can build relationships with universities that national television companies cannot cover with the same frequency.
It can televise games that aren’t candidates for a major national broadcast.
It can develop announcers who understand those programs and their rivalries.
And when something remarkable happens, that regional production can suddenly become nationally valuable content.
The South Dakota Hail Mary offers an almost perfect example of the process:
local event → regional production → national streaming distribution → national sports-media amplification.
Most games will never travel through that entire chain.
That’s fine.
Businesses sometimes make the mistake of evaluating infrastructure entirely by what it produces on an average day.
But infrastructure also creates options.
It determines what an organization is capable of doing when the unusual happens.
Build Before the Moment Arrives
There is a broader lesson here beyond sports television.
Businesses often want to invest after success becomes obvious.
Build the audience after something goes viral.
Improve production after demand appears.
Develop distribution after people start asking for the product.
But sometimes the businesses positioned to benefit from an unexpected opportunity are the ones that quietly built the infrastructure beforehand.
Midco had been working with South Dakota athletics for years before November 13, 2021.
The cameras were already there.
The announcers were already there.
The production system was already there.
The distribution relationship was already there.
Then Carson Camp escaped the rush and threw the football.
Jeremiah Webb caught it.
South Dakota won.
The play traveled far beyond the DakotaDome and eventually stood alongside moments from the Ryder Cup, Final Four and a national championship before being named Sports Illustrated’s Play of the Year.
None of that means Midco created the moment.
It means Midco was prepared to capture it.
And that may be the most important lesson of all.
You cannot manufacture a moment like South Dakota’s Hail Mary.
But you can build the infrastructure that makes sure people far beyond the stadium can see it when it happens.
Graphics created with AI-assisted design tools.
Visual concepts, editorial direction, composition, and final creative decisions were developed by Vallano Media.
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