Jason Benetti, White Sox Announcer, Visits and Speaks with SAP Students

by Gabrielle Kraus, July 21, 2020

MLB’s offseason leaves Jason Benetti, Chicago White Sox sportscaster, free to announce other sports, including college basketball. Already in West Lafayette to announce the play-by-play of Purdue’s December 4th, 2019 game against reigning NCAA champs the Virginia Cavaliers, Benetti eagerly agreed to speak to the Sports Analytics at Purdue Club about his work in the sports industry.

The students who attended the meeting came ready with many questions for Benetti, both about being a sportscaster for an MLB team as well as many questions about his predictions for the game that he would be announcing the next day. Benetti shared the importance of being an advocate for yourself in the industry and chasing your dream. He told the club that ever since he was a boy, he would practice his announcing skills by watching baseball games and muting his television.

The club and Benetti went back and forth sharing their predictions for the Purdue v. Virginia game, agreeing that defense would be the most important part of the game. Predicting who would win was hard for both members of the club and Benetti, as Purdue always plays well at Mackey, but Virginia was still undefeated on the season, going into the game with a record of 7-0. The majority of the people at the meeting ended up going against their own team, thinking that Virginia would come out on top, but they ended up being pleasantly surprised the next day, when Purdue won 69-40.

Jason Benetti called a great game in Mackey Arena, a place he called “one of the best environments in college basketball,” that night. SAP members appreciated his visit and industry insights.