FSU Athletics Turns to AI to Speed Up Sports Coverage
Florida State athletics partnered with FanWord, an AI storytelling company, on March 23 to produce game recaps, player profiles, and feature stories faster while keeping editorial control in-house. Over 190 athletic organizations now use the platform.
The system generates content five times faster than traditional methods. FSU's communications teams can review and edit everything before publication, maintaining the university's voice and standards.
How It Works
FanWord Assist handles routine writing tasks: game recaps, player bios, transcriptions from interviews, and feature story drafts. Staff writers then refine the output before it goes live on FSU's websites and social media channels.
The approach frees up communications professionals to spend less time on initial drafts and more time on reporting and storytelling that requires judgment. Doug Walker, FSU's Deputy Athletics Director for Strategic Communications, said the partnership reflects the department's commitment to evolving how it tells the university's story.
"FanWord provides a platform that enhances our ability to produce high-quality content at scale, while still relying on the judgment and creativity of our staff," Walker said.
Visibility Across All Sports
The real benefit is coverage. Because the system handles routine writing, FSU can produce stories about athletes and programs that might otherwise go uncovered due to resource constraints.
FanWord has helped its partner schools produce more than 15,000 game recaps, 13,000 player bios, and 8,000 feature stories over the past 12 months, according to CEO Christopher Aumueller. The platform is available to Division I, small college, and high school athletics programs.
Derek Satterfield, FSU's Assistant Athletics Director for Public Relations, emphasized that staff retain final authority. "FanWord automates the initial work of developing written content in an easily editable format," he said, "but our public relations staff has ultimate authority over the final product."
Why This Matters for Communications Teams
Communications staff in athletics are often understaffed relative to the volume of content they need to produce. AI tools that handle drafting can reclaim time without requiring newsrooms to sacrifice quality or voice.
The key constraint is human review. FanWord doesn't publish anything; staff do. That distinction matters for brand control and accuracy.
Learn more about AI for PR & Communications and how Generative AI and LLM technologies are changing content production workflows.
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