From the Archives

As I said in the profile, I do some commentary work for our local NPR station and a show called Ozarks At Large. I've been away working on the presentation on social networking websites and the challenges therein for college athletics for our national convention. In the meantime, here's a script from one of those recent commentaries to tide over the blog until some new material bubbles up. Enjoy.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER ROAD TRIP

LOOKING ACROSS A TERMINAL LIKE CINCINNATTI’S SATELLITE REMINDS MY HOW MUCH OF COMMODITY TRAVEL HAS BECOME. THE WIDE OPEN SPACE AND THE ROW UPON ROW OF OPPOSED SEATS COULD EASILY BE THE BENCHS OF A TURN OF THE CENTURY TRAIN STATION, UNDER A GREAT OPEN ARCH LIKE GRAND CENTRAL OR CHATTANOOGA; OR A BUS TERMINAL OF THE 1950S BACK WHEN THAT WAS THE PEOPLE’S MODE.

THERE THEY SIT, SO MOBILE YET MOST ARE DESPIRATELY SEEKING TO REMAIN CONNECTED TO ANOTHER PLACE. EITHER BY CELL PHONE CHATTER OR WITH NOISE CANCELLING HEADSETS, THEY CLOSE THEIR EYES AND ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE. PHYSICALLY, THEY ARE JOINED IN THIS COMMUNITY OF THE MOBILE. SPIRITUALLY, THEY ARE SAFELY IN THEIR LIVING ROOMS AS IF THEY NEVER LEFT HOME.

WE ARE THE MOST MOBILE GENERATION IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND, YET WE NO LONGER EMBRACE TRAVEL. NOBODY DARES GO NATIVE. GOD FORBID KNOWING YOUR FELLOW TRAVELER UNTIL THERE IS TROUBLE. A FLIGHT DELAY, A PENDING CANCELLATION – THAT WILL BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER INTO A TEMPORARY COMMUNITY UNITED IN A SINGLE GOAL OF AVOIDING BECOMING THE NEXT NEAL PAGE.

WHY WAIT FOR CATASTROPHE TO TRAVEL? YET, THE LEMMINGS SIT, AWAITING THEIR CALL TO THE CLIFF – THEY READ THE SAME TECHNICOLOR NEWSPAPER, THEY USE THE SAME BAGS, THEY EMPLOY THE SAME TECHNO-TOYS, WEAR CLOTHES THEY FOOL THEMSELVES INTO THINKING ARE INDIVIDUAL BUT ARE NOTHING LESS THAN THE UNIFORM OF THE MOTION NATION. WHO READS THE LOCAL PAPER, EATS THE NEIGHBORHOOD FOOD?

THE AIRLINES HAVE FULFILLED A DESTINY TO BRING TRAVEL TO ALL, BUT IN THE PROCESS THEY HAVE ONLY DELIVERED MOBILITY. TRAVEL IS A STEWARDESS WHO AD LIBS THE SAFETY BREIFING. TRAVEL WAS A DECK OF AIRLINE TRADING CARDS. TRAVEL WAS THE MULTICOLORED BADGES OF TRI-LETTERED BAG TAGS. TRAVEL IS A PAIR OF TIN PILOT’S WINGS PINNED TO THE CHEST OF A WIDE-EYED CHILD. WHAT WE’RE LEFT WITH TODAY IS CONTAINER CARGO – JUST TUBE-SHAPED AND AIRBORNE RATHER THAN STEEL-BOXED AND SAILING – ADMINISTERED BY FLIGHT ATTENDANTS THAT PUSH BUTTONS FOR THE RECORDINGS AND CANNOT BE BOTHERED ONCE CABIN SERVICE – NOW THERE’S A EUPHEMISM’S EUPHEMISM – HAS BEEN COMPLETED.

FILING ONTO THE NEXT FLYING BUS, I SETTLE INTO MY LITTLE SPACE AND LOOK INTO THE SEAT-BACK POCKET. TO MY SURPRISE, INSTEAD OF THE BANAL AIRLINE PROPAGANDA OR THE CATALOGUE OF CATALOGUES, A GIFT OF TWO REAL MAGAZINES LEFT BEHIND BY A PREVIOUS VOYAGER. ACCIDENT, MAYBE; I’D RATHER THINK A RANDOM ACT OF TRAVELING, A SIGN THAT ALL MAY NOT BE LOST.

Are the Clocks Striking Thirteen

Now that I've been asked to give a presentation on social networking and blog impacts in college athletics, a little new time is going into who's looking at all that info.

Kind of scary stuff. Either we're all marketing targets -- the more likely -- or we're being conditioned to accept even more surveillance.

Great. Big Brother, but we volunteered for it.

Little Perspective Check

We're closing on a year since the tragic hurricanes of 2005. Our golf coach, Kelley Hester, worked the past week on a National Golf Coaches Association project to build housing in the Ninth Ward. Her photos and some sense of the moving event are now online at the main website:
http://www.ladybacks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=2300&ATCLID=293845
On a lighter side, today's staff lunch meeting for World Cup was, well, entertaining.
Here's for a better result Thursday with England.

Could You Just Shut Up

Three days of World Cup coverage.
When "Michael" Beckham's wife, Victoria Posh, got almost as much commentary for "Germany" and "European", it's not taken long to become supremely annoyed by the announcers.
The ABC/ESPN production machine must be using the same research as NBC's Olympic coverage (the competition are secondary to the soap-opera stories). It's painfully apparent that someone has decided that the American audience has ADD and requires constant factoids. That's bad enough, but it would be great if they were correct.
Today, if the World Cup is about transending politics, why:
A) Do we really need to know from announcers that Iran has nuclear ambitions?
B) The inequities of American immigration policy vis-a-vis Mexican soccer stars in MLS?
Tell us why:
A) Iran is allowing Mexico to go over the top so often early on?
B) It appears Mexico has three up front, and that pressure finally leads to a goal. Break that down, not politics.
Let Dave tell about the game.
Fouls take their toll? What? FYI -- corner kicks are the result of the ball being put across the end line.
If you're worried about casual viewers needing something to stay on the channel, help them understand the game.
Otherwise, take a hint from FSC and SKYSports -- shut up and let the game speak.

From the Graphic Arts Dept.

Edward Tufte is one of the great graphic art thinkers of our time, and his seminar on visual images was one of the most stimulating I've ever attended. So far, I've only managed one small homage to Tufte in our press guides, a take-off on his concept of a "spark line" -- a single graphic that would convey meaning that usually takes columns of numbers.
We had these little graphs for each season of women's basketball in our last guide.
Those are four random years I pulled out, but you can see that it allows the reader a quick comparison of the seasons without tracing a finger down year-by-year lists. It's pretty obvious that almost every year, we get out to a fast start. Conference play -- the black marks -- is always streaky, but the last one is really a roller coaster -- five losses, six wins, seven losses.
Here's our explanation of the sparklines from this year's press guide. I hope you can read it.

Lighting a Candle

To not be accused of simply cursing the dark, here's my broad outline on press guides:
1) Bring back the recruiting brochure. Face it, this is what coaches want; they just want it specific to their team. So they won't like a single department wide document. (Neither would any larger university, which has one for each division or college). OK, the limit would be so many total pages in two publications. Tossing out some numbers, 64 total pages that can either be used as one departmental publication or broken into two focused publications. For example -- men's and women's sports; fall and spring sports; "revenue" and "olympic" sports.
But what keeps that from being a 64-page football recruiting brochure?
2) Remove the media guide from the permissible recruiting items. Now, the press guides can return to their original intent --without restrictions on pages. This allows schools to return to proper chronicalling of their past and records and provide the reference material the media needs. I don't think the net effect on budgets will be any significant increase in cost, and it will provide a dramatic change in service. The media doesn't want a seven-page coaches bio; recruiting coordinators don't want year-by-year scores.
No more 15,000 copy runs of football guides -- a huge savings that pays for (or the vast majority of the cost) the recruiting brochures.
Most of the media guides could be print-on-demand jobs to meet the needs of the press (another significant cost cutter).
And, recruits could go get that additional record-oriented stuff on-line.
Discuss.

Somebody Better Find an Idea

The printed word is under attack again. In the continuing battle between those who know better how to conduct public relations and those who really do, another NCAA proposal to cut out press guides was put on hold recently. This one, however, came with the offer for SIDs to come up with a better idea.
At its heart, these "cost cutting" moves are short-sighted, and do not deal with the real world. While a slick media guide never signed a recruit, a poor one certainly has hurt more than one school. There aren't many universities where the "waste" on press guides amounts to more than 0.5% of the total athletic department budget.
These efforts to get rid of printed items in favor of the internet would be laughable if the people putting them forward weren't so serious.
In an open letter to those who want to cut printed items, ask yourself the following questions:
1) What would your campus PR office say to banning the annual recruiting viewbook?
2) How much do you enjoy that software manual on CD, or available for download as PDF?
3) When was the last time you curled up with your laptop on the sofa to read?
Are there excesses? Yes. Do we really need a section on the uniform choices for a football team? No. But until we come up with a national lottery or draft to assign students to universities, there will be competition for them. Notice, I said students, not athletes, because if anyone wants to peel back the curtain and check out the things done to get the best and the brightest to enroll in high-profile academic programs you'd discover things equal to some of the current worst practices in athletics.

Well This is An Interesting Study

Today on CNET there's a new study out that points to the internet as the number one media form for at-work; number two for home. That's not too hard to figure out because most people don't have cable in their offices.
At the same time, I think the impact becomes agenda-setting. Think about it -- after reading the paper in the morning or listening to a morning talk show, the next thing is to jump onto the blogs and message boards at work.
What does it mean in college sports world? The official website of the institution has a growing impact. A great example of this is our current golf team. Only a paragraph when it makes deadline in the paper, but the full story with images and details goes direct to our fans through the main website. Plus, we've got to keep a close eye on, and build relationships with, the on-line media.
For more, jump to the full story:
http://news.com.com/Study+Web+is+the+No.+1+media/2100-1024_3-6080280.html

On the Golf Horizon

The match play this week provides a big sign for the future of Lady'Back golf. Event coverage is back on the main site, LADYBACKS.COM, but if Stacy Lewis can keep up the pace it will be a huge boost for the team that is losing a Curtis Cup player like Amanda McCurdy.

Working Through the Summer

A lot of people think our jobs are like school teachers -- gee, must be fun to have all summer off. Not so much, as one of my assistants would say. Coincidentally, the same one on an airplane to Sacramento for the NCAA track meet. There is a lull in the game action from mid-June to August, but that only allows time to reorient for the report of soccer, football and volleyball.
Among the things happening in the summer are press guide layouts, and it gets earlier and earlier each year. I will keep nameless the SEC school that asked with a straight face for rosters, stats, preview and photos for their women's basketball guide . . . on May 5.
Plus, there is the perpetual press guide concept that's growing among administrators and SIDs. The always updated website version that if given free reign will consume time like nothing ever seen before for SIDs.

What Happens in Summer

First of many, but this week it's about making updates to our museum, resetting video in the theater -- doing annual review items like finishing up on Sears Cup data.

Staff meeting today will set release dates for fall schedules, schedule cards, fall guides, etc.

The Invasion Begins

Today is a day off in Women's Athletics as the Invasion of the Wal-Martians reaches its fever pitch. I coined the phrase back in the early 1990s when the Wal-Mart Shareholders meeting was held in Barnhill Arena where the Lady'Back offices were located. Walton Arena is the new mothership, but the effect is the same.

Now, understand -- I'm absolutely not complaining; in fact, its pretty entertaining to see the associates from all over the US and world arrive in Fayetteville. It really is something to be experienced. Plus its great to be where the prototype stores are located.

Two great shareholder meeting moments from the past: walking around the corner of an isle in our local Wal-Mart to see international associates taking picutres and notes of how an end cap was displayed. For them, this is the Wal-Mart trade convention. Never forget the shock and horror of some European associates when they discovered that guns were sold in Wal-Marts.

The other has to do with the vendors. They decend in equal locust-like number upon our area, and it gives us a great show. To this day, my daughter marks the start of summer by asking when will those Rubbermaid people be back. They had one of those retail entertainment tents at the Supercenter three years ago -- she still talks about winning Sharpees.

Until regular business resumes, remember you can buy your official souvenirs at the local stores. Seriously. They have logoed shirts and stuff bragging about store #1 (which is in Rogers) or store #whatever. And why not? I can't count the number of shirts and hats from road trips I've brought home -- what's different for the Wal-Martians?

What's the Story With the Picture

I could just link over to my ever-so-professional mug shot at LADYBACKS.COM, but that really isn't the point here. So I'll use this pick of me decending into the USS Razorback -- no really, its a retired US missle submarine -- in North Little Rock at this year's SEC Women's Basketball Tournament.

After all, I am The Road Scholar, and this was one of those really great road trips that I think is a very important part of the educational part of being a college athlete.

And Another Thing

My personal theory about all this over the top interest in college athletics has to do with the increasing the packaging of news as a commodity. No better example than on the TV right now as I look at Fox News’ Day Side. Not to pick on Fox News – it would be the same if CNN or MSNBC were on at this time of day – but they roll the top of the hour with a silly faux intro about bachlorette parties gone wild. The B-Roll was a would-be party going on in the control room for the soon-to-be married female producer.

Let’s not kid anyone – it’s always been that way; William Randolph Hearst didn’t build an empire on community service during the early 20^th century and Rupurt Murdoch hasn’t become a captain of industry in the 21^st by not giving the people what they want.

One thing that sets today apart from the past, the middle is not holding. You’ve got a heck of a lot more people not willing to admit to the packaging and a big segment of pretentious professionals on one side; a growing group of content producers doing its best to appeal to the lowest common denominator and the highest market segment on the other side. The result? Good luck getting coverage for an event on the merits of the event. The SEC track meet or the NCAA women’s tennis championships do not get regular straight news coverage in the sports sections any more. Forget being the newspaper of record. Editors will argue those people have already found that information out on-line or not enough people care.

As an avid consumer of newspapers, yes I want to read the value-added writing that only comes from an experienced journalist; a beat writer that can bring the needed perspective to an event. But, as a historian, this trend toward not even running agate or small AP lead stories on events is tragic.

Why? How many of you have an 8-track tape player? Or a cassette player for that matter? Got any 5.25-floppy disks? Any floppy disks?

Paper lasts. I don’t care what anyone says, the only storage medium that has lasted more than a decade or two is the printed word. And imaging that on film, scans, etc., is dependent on that reader remaining available. Digital archiving is really, really helpful – particularly when the data begins digitally.

But if its all about the internet, why is world-wide paper consumption growing year after year.

Why What We Do Matters to People

The answer to another question posed by my colleagues at the SEC SIDs meeting: what in the world would you put on a blog and who in the world would care about it?

During the day, there was discussion about how the media has become more and more obsessed with the minutia of college athletics; less focused on the outcome of events. That’s coming from somebody’s surveys of readers/viewers/on-liners.

Or, is it just the nature of a change of mechanism – the connectivity of the internet coupled with the interest that has always been there?

Here’s my answer. On the way to the airport to leave for home, I made a stop seeking an item for one of my hobbies. I’m not going to get into detail, because it wouldn’t be to hard to ID the people involved.

The sales people were friendly, but one of them asked where I was from. Once I said Arkansas and they looked at my department-issue uniform – the addidas Razorback polo – everything changed. So, you’re hear for the SEC thing right? Hey, we heard on the radio today that Spurrier wasn’t giving autographs? What’s he like? What do you do? Oh man, that sounds cool. So what goes on at that thing? Man, we can’t have a terrorist attack in Destin right now – that would take out the SEC coaches.

It was all in good fun, and as it went on, I reminded me that these guys day was just changed and lightened up because somebody from a SEC athletic department came through their shop. I imagine they spent the rest of the morning talking about the former Florida coach, what they thought of the current Florida recruits.

Something that we on the inside find very, very mundane – the annual spring meeting – has a certain amount of excitement to the fan base.