National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

October 6, 1997

NCAA Online information expands tenfold in 18 months

BY SALLY HUGGINS

STAFF WRITER

After a year and a half of operation, NCAA Online -- the Association's official site on the World Wide Web -- has increased tenfold the information available.

But the site remains a work in progress, with new features on the horizon.

"We will continue building the site," said Wallace I. Renfro, NCAA director of public relations. "We think we have literally just scratched the surface with what we are providing today."

Databases, statistics, sports-sponsorship lists, championships information, The NCAA News and information about graduation rates all are available on the expanding NCAA Online Web site. The next addition will be information on the Association's anti-gambling initiatives.

The NCAA's Web site went online at www.ncaa.org April 29, 1996, after nearly six months of development. It has been evolving constantly since.

When the site went online, it included the text of the most recent edition of The NCAA News, information about the NCAA Sports Library, and online versions of the NCAA staff directory and the Guide for College-Bound Student-Athlete.

Since the site's debut, championships information, statistics, databases and news releases have been added. The most recent addition is the summary of graduation rates that is published annually by the Association.

"From a development standpoint," Renfro said, "we've tried to identify features that have high interest with our membership and the public and features we can maintain, given the limited resources we have. We are always eager to hear suggestions for adding features."

The site now has 10 major areas of information, as well as links to a search engine for locating college and university home pages and conference Web sites.

Major subject areas are:

  • The NCAA News, an online edition of the Association's weekly newspaper. The most recent edition -- including the Market classified advertising listings, features and news stories, the NCAA Record, and Comment -- appears on the site each Thursday. The News area also includes an archive of all editions published since the issue of April 29, 1996.

  • The sports library, which provides information on ordering more than 50 NCAA publications and videos. Visitors cannot actually submit orders for publications listed in the library but are provided ordering information.

  • The NCAA Guide to the College-Bound Student-Athlete, an online version of recruiting information that helps parents and prospective student-athletes understand initial-eligibility requirements.

  • Championships information, including dates and sites for NCAA championships and links to each sport's championship page in season. Information about tickets is posted when it becomes available.

  • Membership information and administrative databases. This area contains searchable text on NCAA rules and interpretations and infractions by member schools, as well as committee minutes, interpretations and NCAA Register archives. This area also provides information on future committee meetings, the NCAA governance structure, official licensees of the Association and a legislative database.

    The legislative database is available only to NCAA member schools and requires special software to access.

  • Statistics, featuring weekly statistics for football, women's volleyball, men's and women's basketball, baseball, women's softball, men's and women's lacrosse, and men's ice hockey during each sport's season.

  • General information on the Association, the NCAA Foundation and the NCAA Hall of Champions. The Hall of Champions information includes hours of operation, admission prices, current displays, and driving instructions and a map showing the location of the hall.

  • News releases issued by the Association are posted as they become available.

  • Sports lists, including a listing of all sports in which the NCAA conducts championships sorted by season of play and division. Under each heading is a listing of the NCAA institutions that sponsor the sport.

    The Web site also provides e-mail connections to NCAA staff. By clicking on the topic of interest, a link is made to the appropriate staff member and a message can be sent directly from the site. Plans call for additions to the governance structure area to allow visitors to click on the name of the staff liaison and be connected directly to that person through e-mail rather than having to go to the staff directory area.

    The constantly updated calendar of NCAA meetings for the next several months has been popular with the membership, Renfro said.

    Many of the enhancements to the Web site have been geared to making the home page more user friendly -- to help visitors get to the information they are seeking more quickly. For example, an animated box features headlines from the most recent edition of the News. The headlines change constantly and by clicking on the box, a visitor is taken directly to the News area.

    Renfro said a current priority for developers of the site is a search engine, which would allow visitors to enter a keyword and be taken directly to the information they are seeking. Without the search engine, visitors must find the information they are seeking through trial and error.

    A search engine also would make finding information in the News archives much easier, he said.

    Next to come to the Web site will be rules books for the various NCAA-sponsored sports.