By Staff
Athletic Management, 17.5, August/September 2005, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/am/am1705/wulightreading.htm
With the implementation of a new NCAA rule limiting Division I media guides to 208 pages, this year’s football guides are the first to see major renovations. The change is an attempt to help athletic departments save money and level the playing field.
At the University of Florida, Steve McClain, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information, had to cut 140 pages, or roughly 40 percent of last year’s guide. “Our book is for fans, it is for recruits, and it is also a media guide,” he says. “So the challenge was to not drastically affect any of those three audiences.”
McClain’s easiest cut was in the opponents section, which went from one page for each opponent to two pages total. “Some of the record tables we had in our book were also shortened,” he says. “The list for all-time single game passing yards might have been 30 deep, but a list of 15 is sufficient.”
At the University of Southern California, the sports information office cut out the recruiting section altogether. “We really don’t regard our media guide as a recruiting guide,” says Tim Tessalone, USC Sports Information Director.
In addition to getting rid of recruiting information, USC also cut its history section of about 15 pages and most of the athletic department staff biographies and photographs. The font size in remaining sections is smaller, and Tessalone says this year’s media guide looks “very gray” due to far fewer photographs on the pages.
McClain and Tessalone will both post some of the information cut from the guides on their Web sites, and in updated media notes handed out at each game to the working media. “Most of the information will still be available, we just had to find a more creative way to package it,” McClain says. “What isn’t in the book will be accessible in other formats.”