Joe Schad Is a "Media Free Agent" After 11 Years at ESPN

Schad tells The Big Lead that he was called by an ESPN executive nine weeks ago and was informed that he was “going to be a cost cut, as part of a broad resetting of resources.” He says he was not offered a new contract at a lesser rate.

Schad joins a growing list of names exiting ESPN either on their own volition, at ESPN’s discretion, or a combination of both.

“It was a great 11 years at ESPN. It was a great platform, the brightest light. I’m really proud of some of the work I did,” he says. “As much as it’s disappointing to be leaving ESPN, it’s exciting to be thinking of doing something different in a new city.”

Though he declines to specify who, Schad says he is in talks with various web, print, and television outlets about what comes next. He could be either a national college football reporter and/or columnist, or return to the NFL beat; before joining ESPN, he covered the Dolphins for the Palm Beach Post. Prior to that he was a Florida Gators football and basketball reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, a researcher at ESPN the Magazine, and reporter for Newsday.

“There’s a part of me that thinks maybe it’s a good time to return to the NFL,” Schad says.

We learned of this news yesterday, after Schad published an account from former Baylor student Dolores Lozano alleging that she had been assaulted by recently-dismissed running back Devin Chaffin, and that coaches, including Art Briles, had knowledge. As opposed to filing to ESPN, where he no longer works, he ran it on his personal Facebook page, and it got picked up all over the place from there.

This also means that Schad conducted a high-profile interview with former Baylor president Ken Starr at a time he knew he was leaving the network later in the week; he says that this was not an assignment that was given to him by ESPN, but was an exclusive interview that he and Starr – who, as has been well documented, did not come off very candidly or empathetically – had arranged, and the network chose to air.

Schad is in an interesting position in his sports media free agency. With ESPN, he amassed a large individualist reach, which was on display with yesterday’s story. Could he monetize that? Should he try for multiple gigs to diversify revenue streams? Would he be better off going to an established newspaper to cover the NFL in a city where print still dominates the beat, or going to a web site (and this is me saying this, not him) like Bleacher Report, and being the college football equivalent of Howard Beck? It will be interesting to see where Schad lands next.