I am working on an informal study to chart trends among NCAA Division I Athletics web sites and would greatly appreciate your help.
As our profession has become more technical, I feel it is important for us all to have an understanding of how we put technology to use and if we are getting the most out of it (specifically our athletic web sites). Aside from media guides, there has been an ‘arms race’ of sorts between departments to have better web sites, more advertising, more live stats, more bells, more whistles, etc.
But have we stopped to look at how the technology can improve our jobs, if it is being used correctly (in the most efficient manner), and how effectively our messages are being received through the usage of internet sites?
What I hope this informal study will become is a serious look at how we use our web sites, what effects they have on our institutions from the fan/recruit perspective, and how it has pulled athletics into the 24/7/365 news cycle which we now live in.
When, and if, you choose to respond to this, please answer each question as completely as possible. If your school does not want to release exact information about hit totals or revenue, please note that and answer as many other questions as possible.
Thanks for your time in this project!
John
School Name:
Conference:
Status of school (Public/Private):
Sports Information Director:
Webmaster (if separate):
Number of people in sports information office:
Specifically, there are several key factors I want to examine.
- Do you host your site or do you outsource?
- If you host, do you handle all aspects of lay-out, maintenance, etc. within your SID office
- How frequently do you update statistics, bios, schedules, news, etc.?
- If you host, how many people in your office are proficient at working with the site (including updating information, design, technical issues, etc.)?
- If you outsource, which company do you use?
- Web Site Traffic
- What has been your total amount of hits to your front page in the past year?
- What are you averaging per month?
- What were your highest three months in the year (please include number of hits)?
- If possible, how much time on average did a viewer spend looking at your front page?
- Web Site Features
- Do you offer online media guides?
- Do you offer online recruiting forms?
- Please list any extra features you provide through your athletics site.
- Online Stores
- Do you maintain on an online store (whether you host it or not)?
- Total amount of hits over the last 12 months on your store.
- Total items sold and gross revenue (estimations are fine).
- Total items for sale.
- Do you have a customer service rep in house?
- Web Site Expense
- In your estimation, how much does your department spend on your web site (hosting, maintenance, design, etc.)
- Are you able to help cover expense from online advertising revenue?
- Do you consider your athletics site to be your primary method of news distribution, i.e. it is ultimately your primary media outlet?
- Are you a .Com or a .Edu (.Org or .Net) site?
- Have you recently overhauled your site or changed your web address?
- Do you feature ‘web-only’ features (stories, promotions, advertising)?
- Do you regularly stream audio of games? If so, which sports and approximately how many games.
- Do you regularly offer ‘live stats’ for games? Again, if so, which sports and approximately how many games.
- Does your office have its own dial-up service to update the web site from the road?
John Sinnett
Assistant Sports Information Director
Campbell University
910-893-1369
sinnettj@mailcenter.campbell.edu