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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."
The baseball bloggers start compiling meticulous statistics on ejection averages.
If you haven't made a developer cry, you've wasted a day.
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.
They might take your equipment before you are allowed entrance to the event. Wouldn't be surprised if this happens.
c++;
...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.
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.
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.
Maybe they should adopt an even more restrictive information model to drum up more live interest, like the model of Brockian Ultra-Cricket where not only is there no reporting on the game, you can't even see the game when you attend it!
Take it to the next level: completely seal up the arena so no one can observe the game other than the players and you'll have the Wide World of Schrödinger Sports!
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
"Less even detect at which seating I am ?"
I think you miss the point. The only seating they are concerned with here is the press box (and anywhere else press credentials will get you like the sidelines in some cases). If you're going to blog from the stands, then no they can't stop you but if you're going to use your blog to become a card-carrying member of the press and get into the event on their dime, then you're going to play by their rules. Generally speaking they will be keeping an eye on you in that case. They're kind of stupid rules but at least bloggers can get press credentials for NCAA events.
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.
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.
NCAA, shoot yourself in the foot much?
The NCAA deals more with balls than feet, making the shot far more painful.
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
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 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
Calvin certainly said it best.
Verbing weirds language.
Ice Cream has no bones.
New punctuation update "~" (no quotes) at the end of a line to indicate sarcasm. ~
http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=operations_2&id=cellular
"The operation of transmitters designed to jam or block wireless communications is a violation of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended ("Act"). See 47 U.S.C. Sections 301, 302a, 333. The Act prohibits any person from willfully or maliciously interfering with the radio communications of any station licensed or authorized under the Act or operated by the U.S. government. 47 U.S.C. Section 333. The manufacture, importation, sale or offer for sale, including advertising, of devices designed to block or jam wireless transmissions is prohibited. 47 U.S.C. Section 302a(b). Parties in violation of these provisions may be subject to the penalties set out in 47 U.S.C. Sections 501-510. Fines for a first offense can range as high as $11,000 for each violation or imprisonment for up to one year, and the device used may also be seized and forfeited to the U.S. government."
This applies even on private property, because of the largely uncontrollable nature of signal propagation. For this same reason, it is effectively impossible for any person, entity, or government short of the federal government in the US to make any sort of rules relating to radio transmission, no matter where they try to enforce such rules.