EDITOR'S NOTE: Sports writer John Brice of the Maryville (Tenn.) Daily Times penned the following column for his paper's Monday edition. It addresses many aspects of the proposed NCAA legislation regarding media guides.
Proposed NCAA rules may be end of traditional media guides
by John Brice
of The Daily Times Staff
In the back of the University of Tennessee football guide, on pages 299-301, every assistant, graduate assistant, volunteer or student coach to spend time in Knoxville is listed.
The grouping has enough marquee names to make it something of a Who's Who on the gridiron, since coaches from recently-introduced Chicago Bears head man Lovie Smith to 2002 NFL Coach of the Year Jon Gruden and Houston Texans head coach Dom Capers have honed or initiated their coaching careers on the Neyland Stadium sidelines.
On page 241 of the University of Kentucky basketball guide, the Wildcats' 22-20 victory against Centre College on Feb. 21, 1918, is listed. That was the final score after three overtimes.
Similar information and statistical anomalies can be found in the media guides of just about every NCAA institution that participates in big-time college athletics. But the placement of such details into the hands of boosters, fans, media members and recruits nationwide has been imperiled by a pair of NCAA legislative proposals, known officially as 2003-32 and 2003-88, that could abolish the publication of media guides by NCAA schools in Division I. If one or both measures pass, the effects are expected to trickle down through Divisions II and III. The measures have been sent out for discussion by the NCAA's Management Council, and if passed, could bring an end to printed guides by the summer.
Item 2003-32 would specify more precisely what material coaches could send to potential recruits, and it would eliminate the mass-mailings of media guides to those prospects. It is believed that proposal 2003-88, though not expressly stated, would eliminate the publication of all media guides for recruits and the media. Instead, the information would be posted onto the Internet via a school's web site.
``From the ACC, we sponsored 2003-88 that would preclude the printing of all media guides but would have it on the web site,'' said Shane Lyons, associate commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference that proposed the measure after league athletic directors voted 8-1 to pursue it.
``A lot of this is from a cost perspective because media guides have become very costly to print and they've turned a little bit more from media guides to recruiting guides. The other proposal (2003-32) is that you can't provide them to student athletes, but the cost, it really doesn't save you that much money.''
Both items were sent out for discussion after reportedly being passed overwhelmingly at the NCAA convention held in Nashville Jan. 9-12.
``I think they felt it was time to introduce this legislation at this time,'' Lyons said of the proposals that have received both staunch support and opposition while becoming a hot topic on campuses across the country. ``We support it, and we think it's on the right track.''
TARGETING RECRUITS
As recently as 20 years ago, schools were permitted to send out a recruiting guide and a media guide each year. But the recruiting guide was eliminated in the mid-1980s. So schools then began placing information targeted at recruits -- facts and figures that laud a school's accomplishments both academically and athletically -- into the various media guides. It's a safe bet that every recruit who signs a letter of intent today on national signing day received that program's media guide in the mail during his courting by the school.
Suddenly a book once designed to tuck neatly into a coat pocket was instead swelling exponentially. The University of Texas' 2003 football media guide hit 591 pages, and the University of Nebraska football book has consistently eclipsed 400 pages for several years. Florida's gridiron guide did the same before Steve Spurrier left Gainesville, Fla., for the NFL. And the University of Tennessee's football media guide swelled to a school-record 372 pages in 2003.
``The general sense among the management council and lot of athletics directors was that media guides have gotten so large that there's a perception that they're too large and costs are spiraling out of control,'' said Southeastern Conference Associate Commissioner Charles Bloom. ``What we've heard from the media is that the guides are too large. But they are so large because they serve many different publics.''
Indeed, media guides are much more than simple handbooks that help keep facts straight and provide answers to trivia questions. While initiated for just one target audience -- the press -- the books have evolved into recruiting tools for coaches, a point of connection for fans and a subtle selling piece to boosters.
``They are sent to boosters, season ticket holders, (school) club members,'' said Tammy Boclair, president of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) and assistant director of media relations for athletics at Vanderbilt University. ``Where does that fit in for them?''
Said Bloom: ``A media guide is a multi-faceted tool for the athletic department. It promotes the schools to recruits, media and donors. Most schools in the SEC put media guides in bookstores to sell over the counter. It serves more publics than just the media.''
Bud Ford, a University of Tennessee associate athletic director and the director of sports information, agreed.
``This is the highest visual public relations piece,'' Ford said. ``We send them not only to media, but also to our donor base and to our fan base, who use them to keep up with the team and build up good will with our teams. I don't think they're looking at how they are used to promote the school. We're talking about donor and fan bases that we've all become dependent on. If you can't print, how do you continue to try to sell what they're doing?''
And if the recruiting material is not included in a printed book, where will it be?
``If you eliminate the recruiting material out of the media guide, coaches are going to want that somewhere,'' said Ford. ``You're going to put that somewhere Internet, video, or somewhere. Coaches aren't going to say we're not going to have anything about Tennessee or their school out there. You're shifting money.''
Funding has been as big a driving force in the debate over media guides as trying to level out the recruiting field.
PRODUCTION VS. GAINS
Budget cuts have decimated college athletics departments, prompting schools from Tennessee to Connecticut and elsewhere to take drastic measures in an attempt to scale back spending and come closer to breaking even. East Tennessee State University, an NCAA Div. I competitor in basketball, dropped its I-AA football program following the 2003 season as a cost-cutting measure. The University of New Haven announced that it has dropped its NCAA Div. II football program, women's golf, women's indoor track and field and women's cross country effective for the 2004 seasons.
And now schools have focused that attention on areas in which it is perceived easier cuts can be made.
``This one I think has no other root other than cost-cutting,'' said Christine Plonsky, the chair of the NCAA's Management Council and an associate athletic director at the University of Texas. ``It's sort of hard to talk against cost-cutting measures when everybody is facing rising costs of operation, tuition and budget cuts. Things that you can control are always going to be examined, and I think there will be a lot of discussion.''
Cuts have already been made at some schools, like tiny Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City. The school is an NCAA Div. II football power, but it has already wiped out media guides for the most part.
``What we've done this year because of budget cuts, and it's not just here in talking with some other SIDS in our league, (is) we're doing them but we're not printing them,'' said Carson-Newman SID Marlin Curnutt, who indicated 75-80 percent of his department's budget was publishing costs.
``To do my football guide and print it is about $9 per guide. To burn it onto a disc is about 75 cents. I think that's what you're going to see in smaller schools and smaller Div. I schools.''
While the cuts wouldn't necessarily be significant portions of athletic budgets that routinely meet and exceed $50 million at many NCAA institutions, Lyons said they could go a long way in helping with the bottom line.
``Every media guide and every sport, with 20 sports in a program, the number that's been thrown out to us is $200,000 dollars a year in savings,'' Lyons said. ``Most of your budgets vary, and it's a small percentage, but when you're out there trying to make ends meet, it can help in a lot of ways. It's not a significant portion of the budget, but it can help.''
Still others believe that switching all the materials online could ultimately cost more money.
``If anybody thinks putting things on Internet is inexpensive, they're wrong,'' Plonsky said. ``It requires staff trained and prepared who can perform tasks in that medium. I don't think a lot of SIDs are also html web designers. If institutions aren't fully prepared to understand that, there may be some requirement to put staff in place, and there is a personnel, time and management cost to do that.''
INTERNET NOT ONLY CONCERN
While posting entire media guides to the Internet would be time consuming and also require more resources, those are hardly the only sources of unrest should 2003-32 and 2003-88 pass. Questions regarding access to potential recruits, the media and exactly what would/would not be permissible loom on the horizon.
``The grand question is that the Internet can be a great equalizer by providing more information quicker and faster to the masses, but access is not always either free or at an individual's disposal,'' said Plonsky. ``And with the NCAA, you have to be careful about decisions that can result with problems of access and equity of access if they're living in a socioeconomic area that doesn't provide Internet access.''
``Not every high school, not every kid's house has a T-1 line or cable access,'' said Bloom. ``To me it would be unbalanced between the higher socioeconomic kids and the lower socioeconomic kids. You get into the school systems that have and have not.''
That dilemma could likewise extend to the collegiate level. Some schools already have more detailed Web pages than others. It seems inevitable that some schools would resort to out-doing others on the Internet, or on CDs, should that medium emerge as the new tool of choice.
``Who's to say that the CDs won't get out of line?'' Boclair asked. ``Become bigger productions, with people producing a CD that's going to have your school be more recognizable than somebody else's.''
Bloom indicated myriad questions would instantly form if changes occur.
``This kind of legislation would lend itself to a whole new chapter of rules,'' Bloom said. ``Does the Web site have to be password protected? If not, do you want every person to see it? Does it contain movies, show a 10-minute video on an institution, with coach so and so saying, `Hi, I'm here to walk you through our campus.' It just hasn't been talked about. If we see passage of 32 and 88, you can expect to see a whole lot of discussion.''
Media access at events would become an additional concern.
``There's not high-speed Internet lines in a lot of venues,'' Boclair said. ``And if a media person is on deadline, it's not reasonable to expect a media person to insert a CD or access the Internet to look something up.''
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
With a consensus opinion that media guides have gotten too large, several alternatives have started to emerge. In addition to posting media guides to Internet and copying them to CDs, others have suggested reforming what is and is not permissible in the books.
``We're in a Catch-22,'' said Bloom. ``I do believe media guides have gotten too large, but I don't believe I've ever seen a recruit pick a school because of a media guide.''
Should all recruiting material be removed? Have guides limited to no more than 300 pages? Action photos removed? Those were among the most prevalent suggestions.
But Bloom said it's important to keep media guides around.
``Coaches think it's important, media think it's important,'' he said, ``and fans and recruits think it's important.''
The discussions will continue until the NCAA Management Council meets again April 19-20 and decides what to do with the proposals. If both measures are passed at that time they will be forwarded on to the NCAA's board of directors for final approval April 29. The items would become NCAA laws at that point and take effect in August.
``I'm not against legislating the size of the books or eliminating the recruiting material,'' Ford said. ``But the idea of eliminating it totally is about like not printing a newspaper or telling a library not to put books on the shelf. From the historical perspective, the printed copy is extremely important.''