In March 2008, Burke Magnus was promoted to ESPN senior vice president, college sports programming. In that role, Magnus is responsible for the strategic direction of college football, college basketball and NCAA Championships on the various ESPN platforms. That includes the acquiring and scheduling of programming across ESPN on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN360.com, ESPN Classic and more. He also manages the company’s relationships with college rightsholders, such as the NCAA and conferences. In his role, he was instrumental in the company’s landmark agreements with the BCS and SEC among others.
Prior to his current job, Magnus had served as vice president and general manager of ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network, since November 2004. Magnus guided all programming, production and operations for ESPNU and led the inter-departmental team responsible for the growth and development of the network and related multi-media initiatives. Under Magnus’ guidance, ESPNU significantly increased its subscriber count through its satellite and cable affiliation agreements and launched ESPNU.com. He also helped lay the groundwork for the launch of ESPNU HD (August 2008).
Magnus joined ESPN in 1995 as a program associate and in 1996 was promoted to program planner. In 1998, he advanced to program manager and later became director of brand management in 2000 (later changed to director, programming and acquisitions), primarily responsible for ESPN’s men’s college basketball programming and scheduling. From 2002-2004, Magnus was a member of the ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE) team where he served as the project manager for several programs, including the biopic on the life of Dale Earnhardt entitled “3”, which was critically acclaimed and the second-highest rated movie of 2004 on ad-supported cable. Prior to joining ESPN, Magnus was an administration assistant for Soros Fund Management from 1994 to 1995.
Under Magnus’ direction, men’s college basketball ratings increased over multiple consecutive seasons and new initiatives such as Bracket Buster Saturday and College GameDay (basketball version) were introduced. In 2009, the Orlando Sentinel named Magnus #16 on the list of most powerful people in college sports. In 2006, Magnus was named to the distinguished Sports Business Journal Forty Under 40, honoring the most promising young executives in sports business under the age of 40. For his efforts, in 2005, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch named Magnus the “fourth most powerful person in college basketball.”
Magnus graduated from Holy Cross in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in history and then received his master’s degree in sport management from the University of Massachusetts in 1994. During his time there, he served as a programming intern for CBS Sports from 1993 to 1994.