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."

Comments

Maybe it's time to start questioning...

[drooling-dog]

...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.

Re:Maybe it's time to start questioning...

[QuasiEvil]

Agreed - as someone who watched countless *academic* activities suffer every time the various sports programs needed money at my alma matter (despite the countless zillions their rights licensing brought in), I've always thought it was a complete travesty to everything higher education is about. Sports scholarships should be eliminated, and these jocks (at least the ones that are only there to play ball, and not really educate themselves) should go where they belong - minor league teams (which, I might add, the NFL could really use some sort of development league, much like minor league baseball and basketball teams produce players for MLB and the NBA).

I'm probably the only person who actively cheers for whatever team is opposing my old university, just out of sheer hatred for the football program. Yeah, I've got anger issues.

Re:How do they expect to detect this ?

[bcattwoo]

And how are they going to take away your press credentials that you never had? This isn't for joe-everybody, it is for people with press credentials.

Re:How do they expect to detect this ?

[spiritraveller]

It's targeted at people with press credentials. If you have press credentials, you probably aren't sitting in the stands. You are probably in the press area. And since you have applied for and received these credentials, they know who you are.

How would they detect it? By checking your blog probably.

Can they stop Joe Everybody from doing it? As a practical matter, probably not. And they probably aren't too worried about Joe Everybody (at least not yet). As for the legal issues, I don't see a problem with it. It's their game, and they set the rules. If you break the rules, they kick you out.

Re:Ask me if I give a shit about their rules

[stewbacca]

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.

Maybe I misread the article, but you are free to do exactly what you describe, since you don't have press credentials. No fucking of the NCAA is required. If it were the other way around there'd be a problem (i.e., prohibiting non-credentialed people from phoning/blogging in scores).

Pro or amateur sports?

[fermion]

One issue that has come up is the issue of whether the kids playing should have the protection we usually give kids, or if they should be treated like the pro players, or somewhere in between. On thing that is clear is that many NCAA players do receive some kind of compensation in excess of room, board, and classes normally awarded the top scholar, though likely not near the compensation of a pro player. Rules such as these also makes it clear that the NCAA itself behaves more like a pro sports organization than an amateur venue. On cannot, for instance, imagine an amateur musician, actor, athlete, or other entertainer limiting the press coverage of their act. The only people who wish to limit such coverage are those pro organization who need to monetize every score, stat, call, play, and image to generate the profits needed to support a pro organization.

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.