JCSTAND 25 Playing to Two Consttuencies: Reputatonal Management and Stakeholder Perceptons by Emory S. Daniel, M.A. and Robert S. Litlefeld, Ph.D. When crises occur, organizatons must respond in ways that manage the situaton while maintaining their reputatons. The tangible and intangible benefts of having a good reputaton have been the subject of considerable research detailing efectve crisis management, partcularly through best practces and image restoraton strategies (Doorley & Garcia, 2011). However, the severity of the crisis, and whether or not the crisis was caused intentonally or unintentonally can afect the ability of organizatons to balance the tensions that result when they try to manage their images while responding to competng stakeholders holding diferent perspectves about the organizatons’ management. Such was the case in the Fargo, North Dakota on September 14, 2013, when the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network’s (ESPN) College Game Day announced that its broadcast would visit the community to publicize and celebrate the North Dako- ta State University (NDSU) Bison football team’s suc- cess. This was unexpected as College Game Day has only visited Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) football teams three tmes in the show’s 20 year his- tory. On September 16, the NDSU athletc department announced that the ESPN toured Fargo, and decided that the show would air from downtown Fargo away from the campus. That day, in-forum.com, the online version of the regional Fargo newspaper, published an artcle enttled, “ESPN picks downtown locaton for broadcast, upsetng some Bison fans.” Abstract This study draws from crisis communicaton literature focusing on image restoraton management and audience-based message strategies. In this case, the ofcials in the NDSU Athletcs Department were cast as an intermediary between ESPN and the local me- dia and stakeholder groups. Using a survey and interview design, this analysis explores how the stakeholders perceived NDSU’s role in the decision making process to stage the show, College Gameday away from the campus, and how NDSU simultaneously negot- ated with ESPN. This study looks at NDSU students, staf, and faculty, and evaluates their perceptons about how the athletc depart- ment handled the crisis and how ESPN displayed the University and the city of Fargo. By doing this, the aim is to reveal perceptons of the tensions inherent in the decision-making process; the goals of ESPN, the university, and the stakeholders; and the relatonship between an intermediary decision-maker and two external enttes vying for priority. KEY WORDS: crisis, image, restoraton, stakeholders, public, relatons, media, ESPN, sports Emory S. Daniel (M.A., 2009, Virginia Tech) is a PhD student in the Communicaton Department at North Dakota State University. His research specializes in strategic communicaton, including Parasocial Interactons and Relatonships and the role and infuence they play in advertsing. Robert S. Litlefeld (Ph.D., 1983, University of Minnesota) is a professor of communicaton at North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND. His research specializes in risk and crisis communicaton, including how organizatons prepare for, manage, and learn from crises. With over 65, refereed publicatons to his credit, he is currently editor of Communicaton Studies, published by the Central States Communicaton Associaton.