Bess Barnes approaches major media rights deals from a place of comfort.
Although the Michigan golfer graduated over 20 years ago, her student-athlete experience continues to propel her in the sports industry. As vice president of programming at CBS Sports,Barnesbuildsrelationships withpartners fromNCAAbasketball, the PGA Tour and the Big Ten Conference, among others.Her duties include managing the television scheduling for more than 300 college basketball games across CBS Sports platforms and handling programming for the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.
The former student-athlete has found her talent on the golf course helpful in forging deals.
"The deal itself starts with a relationship. Some of these relationships start on the golf course," Barnes said. "Yes, sometimes it is in a conference room and we're going through PowerPoint presentations and documents, but sometimes it really is as casual as just forging a common understanding of each other on a personal level, and that develops into a business deal."
Soft skills, such as leadership, that Barnes developed as a collegiate golfer have also helped her climb the ranks in the business world.
"Having the opportunity to play golf has continued to open doors for me and allowed me to be exposed to people I may not have been exposed to, comfortable in situations I may not have previously been comfortable in," she said.
Raised near the campus of Indiana University, Bloomington, to parents who both graduated from Ohio State, Barnes chose to stick with her Big Ten roots and attend Michigan.
"Michigan was sort of the perfect fit for me. It had great academics. It had a tradition of excellence across the board in all sports," she said.
When Barnes, then Bess Bowers, arrived on campus, the golf team's ranking fell to the bottom of the Big Ten. Yet by Barnes' senior year, the team earned a spot at the NCAA national championships.
"It was really special to play in a national championship. I don't think I understood or appreciated how amazing it would be until we made it there," she said. "The NCAA put together a really unique experience, unlike any other tournament that we had played throughout the collegiate season. You knew it was something special, and it felt incredibly special."
Throughout her golf career, Barnes and her teammates figured out ways to work hard and win, a mentality that carried off the course for Barnes, too. She earned Academic All-Big Ten honors three times.
Her sophomore year, she took an aptitude test. The test results indicated she should be a newscaster. Instantly, Barnes said no.
"I didn't want to be on TV, but it got me thinking. I had, not until that moment, even realized that there was a possibility to have a career in media and television," she said.
After this realization, she sought out the campus TV station, helping news and sports productions. She volunteered to work as a camera operator at a hockey game, and a lightbulb switched on.
"That confirmed for me that I would really enjoy working in a live sports environment," she said. "I had this realization that there was a career in sports TV that sounded really exciting and interesting."
She began creating opportunities to learn about sports television on her own. She volunteered as a runner when ABC came to produce events on campus. When ESPN produced hockey games in Detroit, she would work with the crews. These experiences landed her a job at ESPN out of college, where she worked for 12 years before transitioning to CBS Sports.
"You'll make these choices when you're 18, 19, 20 years old, and it changes the path of your life," she said. "For me, certainly, for the better."
Barnes' journey from student-athlete to executive serves as a testament to the power of athletics.
"For young women, the access to sports is incredibly important," she said. "It's so crucial."
"Golf gave me the confidence and the opportunity that I may not have ever had," she said. "I have absolutely no doubt that I would not have the career I am in now, I would not be where I am now, had I not had the opportunity to play sports at a young age."