College Sports Information Directors of America

by Dennis Dodd, CBS Sports
May 28, 2009

It has begun, the great unraveling of a literate society.

Michigan and Ohio State have decided to stop printing media guides. In related news, ADs Bill Martin and Gene Smith aren't going to take a pay cut. Rich Rodriguez and Jim Tressel will continue to be millionaires. That, and the schools have refused to cut one -- just one scholarship -- to save money. I missed the memo when the publications that publicize your programs the most were considered frivolous.

If these cuts are really about saving money, then quit grandstanding. Media guides are a line item, a very small one in any athletic budget. I just came from the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Fla. where coaches, ADs and their families were squeezing in meetings between trips to the beach.

Oh yeah, I forgot. It's the media guides that are draining the budget, not the $300-a-night hotel rooms so conference officials can sip Mai Tais and talk about scheduling.

It's easy to save money on printing costs. We're the media. Who cares? Put everyting on the Internet. Fine. We're a power outage away from losing the history of a sport. There's a reason the Vatican puts its library treasures in hermetically sealed vaults. They value the church's history. Major-college sports is trying to lose theirs.

Maybe I'm a dinosaur. This must be how the monks felt when moveable type came along. They cursed Gutenberg's name. Video killed the radio star and all that. Truth is, I'm not alone and we will be heard.

The Big Ten has its television money whether there are guides or not. But if I were the sports information director who used to edit and publish guides, I'd be worried. You're next. Really, this is a big part of their job. They spend months organizing these guides. What else is there for them to do except keep us (the media) from speaking to their athletes and coaches.

That's what it has come in major college sports. They've hampered our ability to do our jobs, unless we would happen to pay the appropriate rights fees.

Make us pay for our seats in the press box. Don't feed us while we're there working for eight hours. Turn off the air conditioning, anything! But let us have our work tools at our fingertips.