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

How do they expect to detect this ?

[aepervius]

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 ?

Re:How do they expect to detect this ?

[khallow]

What happens if you need to be a card-carrying member of the press in order to legitimately live blog a game without being ejected? I guess I'm not seeing why they can't eject people who live blog, whether these people are press members or not.

Who needs press credentials?

[Itchyeyes]

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.

Re:Who needs press credentials?

[fallen1]

This move just reeks of idiocy.

No, this move just reeks of GREED. Almost every time someone, especially a corporate or commercial interest, attempts to limit the freedom of information about them then you should start sniffing for dollars because they are doing so in an attempt to keep the money themselves. Greed is going to be the downfall of many old-school, established businesses and/or their processes even though it may take a while. Just look at the RIAA and MPAA for examples - unless they can somehow overcame their stuck-in-a-rut attitudes and progress into the current year then they are going to be overrun sooner or later by a business model that can adapt to the times.

I've used the following quote before, but it seems appropriate again here:

As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. -- Commissioner Pravin Lal, "U.N. Declaration of Rights"

In this case, the NCAA wants to master all communications about the game. In some ways, this is their right since they own the "copyright" on the game in question. On the other hand, live blogging adds a new dimension to what has become a rote exercise (TV coverage, radio coverage, and print media coverage) and gives new life to sports coverage - imho. Still, I believe that money and greed is behind this move. Send in the bloodhounds and start sniffing...

NCAA has a habit of making bonehead moves

[FatAlb3rt]

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.

Apropos poem

[Smidge204]

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=

Yet again, the NCAA does it

[beavis88]

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.

Ask me if I give a shit about their rules

[davmoo]

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.)

"Credentialed"

[stewbacca]

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.

Not surprising

[ubrgeek]

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.

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 ... in exchange, the paper wouldn't write any articles about the team.

So there we were, two days later, posting pictures to the site ... ;)

Other NCAA Forbidden Items

[deweycheetham]

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

Re:Bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

That's total bullshit. Either nobody will obey the rules, or nobody will blog anymore. I don't care one way or the other.

Exactly. Who the fuck are these lunatics who are so infatuated with extravagantly overpaid adults playing children's games that they have to be hooked to their electronic tits while pissing away time watching this crap?

Get fucking real -- instead of sitting on your fat ass, spend the $100 you pay for a ticket on something real, like feeding a family who has no idea where their next meal is coming from.

Self-indulgent bastards -- players, owners and spectators alike -- fuck them all.

Destroy the sports establishment. All these shits have to offer is teaching kids to drug up and cheat to get ahead in life. Put all these assholes to work building society, not tearing it down for their own self-aggrandizement.

Re:What are these "sports" you speak of?

[gbulmash]

It may seem like a joke, but basically the NCAA's position is "you guys are great until you start costing us sponsors or licensing revenue, then you're a nuisance," which is basically how rabid fans fans are treated by bands, sports teams, etc.

- Greg