Alternative title, “A Prude Grows In Waterbury.”
A sportswriter who is actually happy about the decision by the NCAA to mandate the length of media guides.
This guy seems to think that it will bring back the good old days of media guides solely as information for media types — just stats and information to pepper in their column or discuss in a broadcast.
He uses Pitt’s 2004-05 Basketball Media Guide as the example:
An annual report does not require 440 pages, which is what Nebraska’s 2004 football media guide contains. An annual report doesn’t include a picture of four scantily clad co-eds with P-I-T-T etched on their tank tops. You’ll find that on page 25 of Pittsburgh’s 2004-05 basketball media guide. You’ll also find a different foursome in the same outfits on page 26.
While the media may be in favor of such photos, they’re a long way from necessary for the media. But hey, if you’re a 17-year-old looking for a place to play, such a photo just might push you to Pittsburgh.
The NCAA recognized this and at least tried to even the playing field a bit. The nation’s big schools routinely produce monstrous media guides, but the likes of Toledo and Fairfield aren’t capable financially of putting out 300-page guides. Now everybody has the same amount of space in which to get their message across.
Not surprisingly, a lot of schools are unhappy about this. They’ll have to find a way to cut pages. Pitt (hate to pick on the poor Panthers) probably could do without the four-page bio of Mark McCarroll. Four pages on Mark McCarroll? UConn devotes seven pages to Jim Calhoun, who certainly has accomplished a lot more than McCarroll.
Any SID needing help in cutting pages need only consult the media about their, ahem, media guides. This is how it usually goes among sportswriters when the media guides are handed out:
We’ll take one to keep in our cars. That one stays intact. We’ll take a second and proceed to rip out extraneous pages. By the time we’re done, the UConn football and basketball media guides are 100 pages or so and much easier to take on road trips and haul around in a computer bag. Let’s face it, we don’t need the two pages describing all that Hartford offers (who knew that could take up two pages?) and another two pages describing Springfield, New York, Boston and Providence.
For purely informational purposes only, here’s where you can find the, ahem, offending photos (PDF, pgs 28 & 29). It’s part of several pages devoted to the Oakland Zoo and the game atmosphere of the Pete.
Hate to break it to Ed, but the photos are likely staying and the stats will be the things disappearing. He complains that the media guides shouldn’t be about selling the school to recruits. Tough. They are and that still won’t change, page restrictions or not.
