For My Collegues on the Conference Call

Some reference points I highly encourage before getting on the big CoSIDA "death to press guides" conference call on Thursday afternoon.

A) Contrary to popular belief, print is not dead

B) The future is data

C) As you head down this road, better get staffed up

Personally, remove the media guide from the list of permissible mailed items. This allows institutions to make the decisions in their media operations they feel important. It should be an institutional decision. Certainly helped on posters back in the day, and we print posters for the sports that need them promotionally.

By the way, don't let the facts get in the way of a decision. Dumping printed guides does nothing to relieve the work-load of the SID office (you'll still need to do all that work, just not have it in a handy format). It will not reduce the overall costs (has anyone really priced those on-line alternatives, and how many copies you end up printing locally for use). At no time in the history of the NCAA's long battle against media guide costs has any change resulted in a net savings to institutions (no color inside in the 1980s, make 'um the size of phone books for the same money; 208 page limit, run them all out to 208 pages and give them lenticular, 3-D, foiled, hard-back, embossed covers printed on 110-pound cover stock for the pages).

At the heart of the decisions should be what is best for each institution -- or groups of institutions -- not the one-size-fits-all. Some schools will want to print them for booster benefits. Some will get rid of them all together.

If anyone wants to go with the lame "green" theory of reducing paper use, tell me again how much electricity is used by the in-department studios, video production suites, encouragement of hundreds (if not thousands) of fans and media to use their computers and other devices to download the electronic files, videos, etc., for playback and viewing. Can you say, carbon footprint?