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NCAA Puts Severe Limits On Sport Event Blogging
An anonymous reader writes "You would think that the NCAA would be thrilled to have reporters live blogging events in order to generate more interest and keep passionate fans talking about NCAA sports. Not so. The governing body of the NCAA has released new rules for receiving press credentials and it includes severe limits on live blogging. If you're covering NCAA football, make sure you don't blog more than 3 times in a single quarter. If it's baseball, one post an inning is all you get. If you don't follow the rules expect to get ejected and have your press credentials pulled."
Is it something like... chess?
That's total bullshit. Either nobody will obey the rules, or nobody will blog anymore. I don't care one way or the other.
Also, NCAA, shoot yourself in the foot much?
ttuttle is a rankmaniac
The baseball bloggers start compiling meticulous statistics on ejection averages.
If you haven't made a developer cry, you've wasted a day.
I mean, if I am joe-everybody, and got somehow a pda with wireless connection in a stadium or mobile phone+internet, how can they even hope to stop me writing post in a blog (or even a normal html web page) on the exciting match I am just watching ? I can't see anything copyrighted here (describing an event in writing) where they could even stops me, would not it ? Less even detect at which seating I am ?
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
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visit randi.org
This is so retarded it's hard to find the right words to express the expanse of stupidity it represents. Not to mention the 20,000 or so people in the stands texting and emailing pictures. Or are they going to take everyone's cell phone away and frisk them at the door?
Maybe I shouldn't give them any ideas.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
What exactly does the NCAA hope to accomplish by revoking press credentials when just about anyone can blog from anywhere with nothing more than a smart phone? Will the NCAA then start revoking peoples' cellphones at the gates? This move just reeks of idiocy.
This coming from the group that put Florida State on notice for appearance in bowl games because of its mascot but made no mention of Notre Dame's? Somehow I'm not surprised.
Because reading a blog that is five minutes behind the real action, is really a great alternative to watching the game live or listening to a play-by-play....I'm sure they are loosing so much business and revenue.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley
=Smidge=
Stop watching their events and tell their sponsors why!
sic transit gloria mundi
To make sure, the torture of cheerleaders is not uncovered. Or something...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Because we shouldn't delude ourselves that NCAA isn't a professional sports league.
The NCAA has proven once again that there DOES exist an organization that is more idiotic, closed minded, and out of touch with reality than either the MPAA or RIAA could hope to be. Bravo.
I can watch the game on TV at home or listen on the radio and blog it from home. Does my physically attending the game really help me do a better job of that? Can the NCAA eject me from my house?
Birth is the leading cause of death.
...why educational institutions ought to be in the business of quasi-professional sports in the first place. The tail has been wagging the dog for a long time now, and it's getting worse every year.
Basically, the NCAA is acting like the MPAA in an attempt to limit access to try to restrict the transmission of information with respect to its events, with an onward eye toward selling exclusive access rights to the highest bidder in the MSM.
Hardly surprising from Myles Brand, the guy who made his claim to fame as the guy who fired Bobby Knight at Indiana...as many would say: "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Where's Teddy Roosevelt when you need him? NCAA is a price-fixing organization. It's time for competition, It's time to break them up.
If its a private school, that's one thing. But if I'm at a game involving my local public university, which is supported by my tax dollars, I'm not going to bother getting press credentials, and I'll blog about any damned thing I want during their game. And I'll do it as often as I want. Fuck the NCAA. If they want to restrict my commenting on their sports, then their team's schools do not need my supporting tax dollars. My tax dollars, then its my property too. Period. No exceptions.
(And yes, I feel the same way about a university's research. If that research was paid for by a company, they can control it how ever they like. But if that research was paid for by my tax dollars, then they can take their patent application and shove it up their collective ass.)
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
For some reason it's the "live", in-person blogging that they don't want. I'm not sure what the issue is here. Is it because many NCAA events are not broadcast, but a "blog" is a "live", or pseudo-live transcript of the event that is not otherwise being seen live? huh? What did I just say?
I don't get the reason behind this...
This covers only credentialed reporters, which makes this a non-issue. Want credentials? Play by their rules. I guess it could breed a new type of papparazzi...the Uncredentialed Sports Blogger.
When I was at jacksonville.com (the Florida Times-Union Website) the Jaguars had just come into being. Obviously the local paper was going to cover them. Two issues came up: As part of our server farm, we named our servers, "entertainment.jacksonville.com," "lifestyle.jacksonville.com," "business.jacksonville.com," etc. Because we knew the Jags site would be so popular, we didn't put it on sports.jacksonville.com. Instead it went on jaguars.jacksonville.com. The Jags and the NFL threw a fit, claiming that we were doing it in an effort to capitalize on the names (nevermind that we had server logs from more than a year prior showing our naming convention.) For the outcome, go to http://jaguars.jacksonville.com/ ... It's still being used 10 years later.
... in exchange, the paper wouldn't write any articles about the team.
... ;)
The second was they were having a fit because we were shooting pictures of the game and posting them to the site. Not in real-time. After the game. As part of our coverage. Our publisher agreed to stop doing so
So there we were, two days later, posting pictures to the site
Bark less. Wag more.
Locally a similar story was making the news a few months back. University of South Carolina coach, Steve Spurrier complained that "Them internet boys" were blogging and forum posting about player performance during pre-season practice. The players were reading the posts and the coaching staff felt that it was affecting performance. They decided in turn to bar all non-staff and non-players from practice.
Also it can be viewed as a form of cheating much like the Patriots debacle earlier this year.
And yes, I feel the same way about a university's research. If that research was paid for by a company, they can control it how ever they like. But if that research was paid for by my tax dollars, then they can take their patent application and shove it up their collective ass.
Unless they're getting the patent so some corporate entity doesn't patent their idea and make money off of their work. And lock them out of further research.
There are defensive patents, you know.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
From the FA:
Now, before anyone goes screaming censorship or free speech or anything along those lines -- these are the rules that the NCAA is setting for credentialed reporters. And, as a private organization, the NCAA can set whatever rules it wants for handing out credentials, no matter how mind-numbingly stupid they may be.
in the initials.
Welcome to the world of the Fighting Illini at the University of Illinois.
The NCAA has outlawed any pictures or representations of our Mascot. Take a look and you can see why (if you can't, your in sensitive clod).
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e6/Illinilogo.png
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a2/2006-11-11_-_Chief_Illiniwek.jpg/200px-2006-11-11_-_Chief_Illiniwek.jpg
This only applies to the big boys who want to receive press credentials. This does not apply to some fan blogging from the stands.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
This is why I think the distinction is important. If the NCAA is an amateur organization, then we can forgive the situation when some of the member athletes do something stupid, like hire a stripper and serve beer to underage players, then do not have the maturity to excise themselves in a graceful way. But if they are not amateurs, of if NCAA wants to have the privileges affords pro sports, then they must also take on some of the responsibilities. Which means no one can call fowl when the players, even though they are kids, and have their names plastered across all the papers everytime they do something stupid. One cool thing about college is that one can get away with stuff one could never get away with on the outside. The side thing is that kids are accepting these high levels of responsibility without even thinking of the freedoms they are giving up.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
It is time for congress to revoke the exemption these corporations get from our monopoly laws.
Calvin certainly said it best.
Verbing weirds language.
Ice Cream has no bones.
"You would think that the NCAA would be thrilled to have reporters live blogging events in order to generate more interest and keep passionate fans talking about NCAA sports."
If they really wanted to keep fans passionate about NCAA football, they'd institute a playoff system in Division I. Every other division manages to have a playoff during exams, and the basketball players seem to do just fine throughout all of spring mid-terms while on on the road 4-5 days a week for a month. No, it's about money - not interest. Money comes from control, and control is what they are exerting here. I'm sure that you can buy a license to blog real-time, it would just cost more (up to and possibly including the price of full broadcast rights).
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
If you blog about your team, they'll beat down your team. They only care about money.
Do you think they will do anything about Reggie Bush getting paid to play? Or the guys at Ohio State?
They know it, but they'll deny it. But they are making so much money on college Athletics, they'll keep the racket going as long as they can. But if you get too uppity, they'll take down your team. Blog about a team you don't like.
The NCAA, simply, sees live blogging as a method of broadcasting. ...and really I don't see how they're wrong at seeing it that way. A major revenue stream for the NCAA revenue stream comes from exclusivity contracts to broadcast. Getting upset that they are shutting down what amounts to major-player blogging is silly. You wouldn't get upset about this if, say, CNN gave a video update of the game, live, every 30 seconds; ESPN (or ABC or whomever paid for TV broadcast rights) *would* get upset.
The NCAA is actually more forward-thinking in media than everyone on /. seems to give them credit for; they see the blogs as eroding TV and Radio audiences.
Wow, interesting post. My tax dollars pay for roads don't they? I am always envious of the snakes that get to sunbath in the road, so you know what, I'm gonna start sunbathing in the road!!! Lets see them kick me off of MY property. Furthermore, before NASA thinks about using my space shuttle again, they better come asking for my permission. I'm tired of them galavanting around the galaxy in MY space shuttle. Another thing I must have missed, are you somehow punishing the NCAA by not getting press credentials? Have you ever had press credentials? You make it sound as if the NCAA would give a damn that you didn't get press credentials, but maybe I am just misinterpreting your rambling post.
Don't let the US of A become the US of AA!
The inclination to control what people do with the information at their disposal usually boils down to the elimination of information outlets which do not ultimately put money in the pockets of those who are trying to control said information.
I am not familiar with this particular money trail, but I would speculate that there exist some specific, approved websites which give to-the-minute updates of the game's progress. They would be popularly known by sports fans.
And they would have ad banners.
If the fans can go to a banner-free blog site (or even a different site with different ad banners) then money isn't flowing to the pockets of the established partner-vendors. That cannot be tolerated, even if it means sacrificing some degree of publicity.
Why do you need NCAA anyway? And why specifically do you need to play or watch games they are associated with? Do they have a copyright on baseball or whatever? No. So, you can play your own baseball and ignore their games whenever this is practical and possible.
Bloggers who write about NCAA games would do a much more useful service to their favourite sports if they mobilised people to play alternative games outside the jurisdiction of NCAA.
Software users do the same with free software. Music listeners do the same with freely licensed music. Why not do the same with sports as well? If an authority claims ownership of sports data or coverage, just avoid to be subjected to said authority by running your own games.
It's bad enough to flush 2-4hrs of your life down the toilet sitting in an armchair entranced by Hi-Def beads of sweat. The laughable part is paying multiple 100's of dollars to corporations that have little to no interest in treating anyone fairly for the "privilege". Not that the players are paragons of virtue. A pox upon them all.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
>Men's Water Polo: Three per quarter; one at the halftime (From TF NCAA A)
Given that university water polo quarters are seven minutes, this doesn't seem too draconian. I wonder how many people are live blogging Div II water polo. You're lucky to get 50 at Cal-0Stanford with the Pac 10 on the line. You would think they'd be glad of a little publicity.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Yeehaw! Go go go Amerikkkkkka!
This looks one sided, but that view is incorrect. The NCAA sells radio and TV stations exclusive right for them to broadcast a real-time game. The consequence of that is that all other privileged media outlets do not get those same rights.
Yes, I know that there are ways to game this system and make it look foolish. As long as they have something to hold back, such as access to their team members, they will have a press corps willing to play by their rules.
This is all about Network television. Do you have any clue how much money they are paying to "officially" cover these sports with their own reporters and analysts? I know it was around 30 million for exclusive coverage of the Olympics a few years ago. If the NCAA lets the little guys do it for free, they are going to lose millions in network contracts.
Just because I can hook a shark from a boat, I do no offer to wrestle it in the water.
What makes the world go round? The NCAA makes money from television and marketing rights. If people stop tuning in to watch games live because they can get up-to-the-minute reports online, then the NCAA loses money.
NCAA is one of the stupidest organizations ever. I was on my school's rifle team. I finished my degree in 3.5 years. I went on to do a masters. Instead of the 4 out of 5 years, they told me I could only do 3 out of 5, because my high school diploma did not have enough social science or some such. Taking sociology and psychology did not count as those were college classes, not high school classes.
Since I transferred from overseas, I had those damned classes, but the NCAA regulations was so stupid, and prevented me from participating. And it wasn't like I was a dumb jock - I finished a civil engineering degree in 3.5 years, and had a gre/gmat/sat score that would in good company at any ivy league school, and completed half of the pre-requisites (2 semesters worth) for my MBA in *ONE* day.
So, instead of encouraging someone like me to continue in sports, they locked me out, 3 times all conference team member.
BAH.
Kind of weird that it applies to all sports at all levels. Although I guess you don't really need a press credential to get into a DIII swim meet between Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and CalTech.
Just seems kind of silly to apply the rules to events that do not get live press coverage anyways where perhaps having live bloggers might generate additional interest, and be good for those schools to get good more interest from good students.
Those who give press credentials, also make the rules. If you want to blog freely, just buy a ticket to the event.
And what is stopping someone from aggregating the live blogging from several bloggers, producing a total of, say 10 (different) posts per inning?
Frankly, the NCAA are a bunch of arseholes, who really outted themselves on this when they took their stand against college mascots who offend ANYONE!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
... what the hell is an NCAA?
You would think that the NCAA would be thrilled to have reporters live blogging events in order to generate more interest and keep passionate fans talking about NCAA sports.
If I lived in a biologically sealed bubble environment in a steel and concrete bunker deep in a cave for most of my life, maybe I'd think that upon emerging. Although I'd probably be more likely to say, "Argh! The light! It buuuurrrrnnnns!" before wondering what lawyers were, and why they rape everything they can find in the butt.
Because you are cutting into the Network's, Radio's, and Newspaper's exclusive turf.
Don't expect to be portrayed favorably.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
They're going to tell us what combinations of letters we can type into our keyboards? How will they attempt to enforce this? Better yet how will they do this for foreign hosted blogs? Good luck with that you money grubbers.
residential connection. From there, you can just use X11 forwarding to modify the actual server, which can be your own colo or merely a livejournal account.
Seriously, are taxpayer funded schools even allowed to do something like this?
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
I'm not sure whether you're aware of this -- but that quote is apparently from the turn-based strategy computer game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. I'll leave it to others to decide whether you using quotes from game characters to support your point is sane... ;-)
I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing. -- Thomas Jefferson
Errr, omgwtfbbq??? I know exactly who I was quoting and where it came from and guess what? If the message behind the statement is TRUE and RELEVANT to the discussion, what does it matter if it comes from a fictional character or a person dead 150 (or 1500, or 10,500) years? Does the impact behind the statement "Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master." make any less impact that it came from a fictional character, designed by intelligent people, than if Genghis Khan (a reportedly intelligent and ruthless chap) had spouted it from his horse roaming the steppes? I say no, it does not - it is the _message_ that matters. Not who delivered it.
How many times have you been visiting friends or family, having a conversation on an adult level (and adult topic), and suddenly from the 4 year old child comes a pearl of wisdom that cuts to the heart of the matter? Does it matter that it came out of the mouth of someone who should not be able to understand all the nuances of the conversation? Or do people sit back in wonder and spout the phrase "Well, out of the mouth of babes..."?
Oh, yeah, even with your winking emoticon there at the end of your sentence, what the fuck does using a fictional character's statement have to do with my sanity? Or were you implying that I could not tell the difference between Pravin Lal and, say, John F. Kennedy? *gasp* You were?!? :-p Since you enjoy questioning the sanity of your fellow /.ers, why not prove to us you are sane - and real? Personally, I think that Teridon fellow is completely fictional - even if there is a real person behind it. Kinda like that Fallen1 dude... ;-)
Dream as if you'll live forever.
Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
~Anonymous~
I was only questioning your attribution. There is no "Pravin Lal" of the U.N, but you attributed the quote as if he was a real person. Perhaps if you had added "Sid Mier's Alpha Centauri" (as you would if you quoted a character in a book) to the end of the attribution, I wouldn't have wondered if you knew where the quote came from.
I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing. -- Thomas Jefferson