Class Notes Profiles

Game on

Meghan Sheehan, Arts ’99, combines a love for sports with a knack for numbers at STATS LLC, the world’s leading sports information provider.

“Though it’s intense to work in the live television environment and there’s a lot of technical know-how in this statistical business, it’s a pretty cool and challenging job,” says Sheehan, who played basketball for the Golden Eagles. She started at STATS as a computer programmer and is now director of broadcast services for the Los Angeles office.

That means churning out real-time statistics for thousands of professional and collegiate sporting events every year. Sheehan’s team supports TV clients such as FOX Sports, CBS Sports and other networks, as well as the Associated Press and Wall Street Journal.

Her team sends TV crews statistical background and ready-made graphics in advance of games and crunches numbers on the fly. “For example, if Aaron Rodgers begins a game with 10 straight complete passes, the TV production crew, including the announcers, will begin wondering what is Rodgers’ longest completion streak to start a game in his career, what is the Packers franchise record, etc.,” Sheehan says. “So we query our database as fast as possible to extract the accurate information.” It may take as little as 5 seconds.

Although Sheehan is now in a management role, she still supports daily live events. Since 2000, she has helped cover 11 World Series, seven Super Bowls and eight Final Fours. We’re guessing that makes her a trivia whiz. — Nicole Sweeney Etter