Leagues scrapping media days

[greenG]

ESPN is reporting that several leagues are dropping their media days. FCS OVC and Big Sky are among them.


"Our main job is to distribute revenue back to the schools," Kyle Schwartz, the Ohio Valley Conference's assistant commissioner for media relations, said Thursday. "Anything we save by not having an in-person media day, we can give back to the schools. Maybe that'll help them with some of the tough economic decisions they're having to make."

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4270637

[smallcollegefbfan]

ESPN is reporting that several leagues are dropping their media days. FCS OVC and Big Sky are among them.



http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4270637

SoCon also scrapped theirs.

[Syntax Error]

I still fail to understand how not inviting football (this doesn't happen often with basketball) media helps the schools at the FCS level. Football is the biggest participation sport and biggest sport drawing fans.

[jonmac]

I still fail to understand how not inviting football (this doesn't happen often with basketball) media helps the schools at the FCS level. Football is the biggest participation sport and biggest sport drawing fans.

SE, it's not a matter of simply not inviting the media. What is being done away with is the Conference media event. It costs money for each school to send coaches and athletes, and in the case of ASU, the broadcast team, which last year broadcast the SoCon rouser live on the web. With all the ways that there are to get information out nowadays, this type of event is becoming a bit antiquated. Yeah, it's nice for opposing coaches and players to get together and meet one another but it's mostly the same old coach speak that is given out to the media. Public institutions are also being closely watched by the public who, in NC especially, are being asked to cut back and pay more taxes. College athletic departments and those entities associated with them are going to have pay close attention to their spending and make sure the majority of it is justified and not considered wasteful(and remember, there are a lot of anti sports folks out there who think anything spent on athletics is too much and not justified.) We also have to realize that many media outlets are cutting back on their expenses as well. Fewer writers are able to go to these multiple day events. I'm sure most schools will still have their individual media days, as ASU has already scheduled their fan fest, which many media also attend.

[IaaScribe]

Jon, as a media member, I couldn't disagree more, at least when it comes to these events being antiquated. The Big South has cut its event down to one day and done away with the golf event that coincides with the media day. That's fine. But there's still no easier way to gather information on the conference than to have a player and the coach from all seven schools in the league, along with the conference commissioner, in one room at one time. In 1 1/2-2 hours, I can knock out 15 interviews and gather a ton of information for use throughout the preseason. Otherwise, I'd have to schedule those 15 interviews separately over the phone, which would be a lot more of a time commitment. Seeing as I have another beat responsibility in the summer, that would be very difficult to do.

[smallcollegefbfan]

Jon, as a media member, I couldn't disagree more, at least when it comes to these events being antiquated. The Big South has cut its event down to one day and done away with the golf event that coincides with the media day. That's fine. But there's still no easier way to gather information on the conference than to have a player and the coach from all seven schools in the league, along with the conference commissioner, in one room at one time. In 1 1/2-2 hours, I can knock out 15 interviews and gather a ton of information for use throughout the preseason. Otherwise, I'd have to schedule those 15 interviews separately over the phone, which would be a lot more of a time commitment. Seeing as I have another beat responsibility in the summer, that would be very difficult to do.

I think with the economy like it is golf is not something they have to do right. They probably should be one day and I agree with you that we need to have the media day. I think leagues should cut down on the amount of days right now but like you are saying I do think we need to have them. It cuts down on costs but still lets the media get their interviews.

[IaaScribe]

Correct. I'm heading to the ACC's media days as well, and they've cut down from three planned days in Tampa to two days in Greensboro, knowing that a good chunk of their media contingent is from Virginia and the Carolinas.

[GannonFan]

Couldn't they have these things on one of the campuses, probably a central one, and just cut down on who's invited - say one coach and one player? If you have it on campus, it's not like you're renting a space somewhere to have it. It can't cost that much money to do something like that.

[NHwildEcat]

Couldn't they have these things on one of the campuses, probably a central one, and just cut down on who's invited - say one coach and one player? If you have it on campus, it's not like you're renting a space somewhere to have it. It can't cost that much money to do something like that.

I like the idea of this...seems to make a lot of logical sense.

[IaaScribe]

Gannon, that does make sense ... A lot of times, they'll rent out a space from one of their corporate sponsors as some sort of advertising tradeout. Big South does that with the Embassy Suites in Concord, N.C., and that's one of the big reasons the media day moved there from the Westin in downtown Charlotte.

As far as I know, the CAA is still at the ESPN Zone in Baltimore this year. That's can't be cheap at all, though I know nothing about any sort of advertising partnership the league has with the company.

[GannonFan]

Gannon, that does make sense ... A lot of times, they'll rent out a space from one of their corporate sponsors as some sort of advertising tradeout. Big South does that with the Embassy Suites in Concord, N.C., and that's one of the big reasons the media day moved there from the Westin in downtown Charlotte.

As far as I know, the CAA is still at the ESPN Zone in Baltimore this year. That's can't be cheap at all, though I know nothing about any sort of advertising partnership the league has with the company.

I don't think the CAA is in as bad of a situation as other leagues. They've actually been pretty good with money for the past few years.

[appfan2008]

I think this is a great way to save money... no reason with the technology these days to spend lavishly on these media trips...

[TexasTerror]

I hope these leagues that are cutting media day make a league-wide teleconference. I think it would save the SIDs the hassle. Open it with the league SID, who can present the polls, TV dates, other important info, etc. Then, get into the niddy-griddy. The leagues can even post these on their web sites for media members who were unavailable during the time.

Basketball media days in some conferences were just ridiculous and I can understand why they were cut. It could all be solved with teleconferences.

In these days of economic savings, some of this makes sense. It's just a matter of how you go about making it happen without the costs. As many leagues go to putting league meetings via teleconference, media day can be as well.

[IaaScribe]

I agree, TT. Especially when it comes to hoops media days, which fall smack in the middle of football season. Difficult to take a full day away from football to make a six-plus hour round trip to get basketball info. Probably a good chunk of media covering FCS football has to do both sports. I know I do.

[GeauxLions94]

The Southland has cut their Football Media Event down to one-day (scrapped the Day 2 golf outing) and moved the event to Lake Charles for this year.

[ngineer]

I have always thought the Patriot League's Media Day was somewhat weird. Other than the two Lehigh Valley papers (Morning Call and Express-Times), I'm not aware that many media for other reaches of the League attended. Perhaps LFN can amplify. Unfortunately, no one from the NYC-Phila-DC areas gives a hoot. Up to the SIDs to get their own school's messages out.

[TexasTerror]

Leagues that are not "bus leagues" when reporters, administrators, coaches and players have to fly to the Media Day site (i.e. Big Sky) - this is the best move.

The good thing is that a clear majority of the league offices and schools nowadays can stream live events - whether games, press conference or media day-type events. Better yet, they can archive them. This aspect plus teleconferences will replace Media Days.

As I have said before, just doing live stats for sports is "behind the eight ball". Live video is where everyone is now and that's even progressing to the next level - it's crazy!

I figure by the end of the 2009-10 school year, if a Division I school does not have Twitter, Facebook and blogs - they will be part of a very small group. May be willing to add live video to that group too, since it has become so prominent.

[IaaScribe]

Used to drive nine hours each way to Park City for the Big Sky media days. Not fun.

[Hoyadestroya85]

Don't say anything about the CAA media day! that's half the media coverage i get for Villanova in one year!

[catamount man]

The SoCon is also scrapping the preseason conference football media guide. I still think the 9 SoCon schools will put one out and just mail them to the media members that cover the SoCon.

I will mourn for 30 days if and when WCU gets rid of in print media guides. SERIOUSLY.

GO CATAMOUNTS!!!

[Syntax Error]

Jon, as a media member, I couldn't disagree more, at least when it comes to these events being antiquated. The Big South has cut its event down to one day and done away with the golf event that coincides with the media day. That's fine. But there's still no easier way to gather information on the conference than to have a player and the coach from all seven schools in the league, along with the conference commissioner, in one room at one time. In 1 1/2-2 hours, I can knock out 15 interviews and gather a ton of information for use throughout the preseason. Otherwise, I'd have to schedule those 15 interviews separately over the phone, which would be a lot more of a time commitment...

CO-SIGN ________________________

While conference calls are a good backup, nothing can replace the face-to-face that conference media day provide. Video conference calls come close but don't forget media day also allows different media people to connect as well.

[TexasTerror]

The SoCon is also scrapping the preseason conference football media guide. I still think the 9 SoCon schools will put one out and just mail them to the media members that cover the SoCon.

I will mourn for 30 days if and when WCU gets rid of in print media guides. SERIOUSLY.

GO CATAMOUNTS!!!

We've covered media guides as well...

http://www.anygivensaturday.com/forum/showthread.php?t=59900

Major institutions are getting rid of them. Several leagues and schools are producing them on flash drives, CDs and/or the Internet only. No printed books.

Companies like Multi-Ad that produce media guides are putting together new methods of media guides.

Schools are printing fewer media guides.

The NCAA is actually getting some proposing legislation from the SEC and Pac-10 to change how media guides are done per a recent conference call of sports information directors across America.

I believe the Sun Belt Conference will no longer have printed media guides in another year. Most schools in the league have already stopped printing ahead of this year...

[State Line Liquors]

Couldn't teams from struggling conferences just schedule a 2nd game against a BCS school to offset the costs of media days? Say they drop a FCS game and schedule an away game against a school like Mizzou? xlolx It's much more profitable!

In all seriousness, I think taking away the media days is a bad idea. I think these conferences should be working double-time to bring in more advertising dollars to offset costs, rather than scrapping the media days entirely.