The NCAA and the media who cover it share an interesting relationship. The Association relies on the media to tell its story, send its message and explain its structure to the reading and viewing public -- but by its very nature the NCAA is one of the most difficult organizations for even the media to understand.

Take it from USA Today's Steve Wieberg and The Chronicle of Higher Education's Welch Suggs, two of the more seasoned NCAA reporters. They know what it's like to crunch NCAA policy.

Suggs, who has chronicled the NCAA since 1996 when he worked at the Kansas City Star, said he considers himself fluent in "NCAA-ese" now but that he struggled in the beginning. "It was bizarre," he said. "It's such a hard thing to come to terms with because you've got the NCAA, which is its members when it suits it, or it's the headquarters staff when it suits it, so it all depends on the context you're talking about. For me the toughest things were first learning how to speak 'NCAA-ese,' if you will, and then learning how to translate that so it makes sense and it's something the readers can understand."

"You can cover the NCAA if you can find somebody who's able to help explain to you what's going on or give you the necessary insight into whatever issue you're dealing with," said Wieberg, who's been explaining Association policy to the public since his paper started in 1982.

To be sure, as the NCAA tries to shape -- or in some cases repair -- its image, the media plays an important role. But getting the two entities to be on the same page, so to speak, often is a challenge.

Whether or not the NCAA is well-understood, it's safe to say the NCAA is one of the most well-covered associations in the country, largely because college sports is such a major part of newspapers, sports magazines and television and radio broadcasts. On any given day, most of the country's major media outlets are likely to have a story, brief or some mention of the NCAA. And if there's a story involving a certain school or well-known student-athlete, the number of media writing about issues involving the Association will balloon.

Few also would argue that the NCAA can be a difficult organization to understand. There are three divisions with three separate governance structures; there are committees that deal only with specific sports rules and others that deal with issues in those sports; there are Association-wide committees for matters not dealt with in sports or governance committees, and there are student-athlete committees designed to promote the welfare of those who play sports.

More than 1,200 colleges, universities and conferences across the country belong to the NCAA, and representatives from those member institutions are the ones that make the rules -- but even that simple fact can get clouded.

In his State of the Association address at the NCAA Convention in January, NCAA President Myles Brand noted that his biggest surprise since taking over as head of the Association last year has been the widespread lack of understanding about the NCAA. Some use the term to mean the membership, others use it to mean the staff at the national headquarters and others use it to refer to the "body corporate," or the members, national staff, governance structure, rules and regulations and enforcement collectively, he said.

"As ambiguous as the term NCAA can naturally be, I have also come to understand that there is deliberate confusion from time to time -- created occasionally by the media, but sometimes by the membership itself," Brand said in his speech. "The NCAA is handy cover for anything that appears to run counter to common sense or the interests of some person or group."

That said, it is a journalist's job to make the NCAA understandable to the public -- no matter how difficult that task may be at times.

"The primary responsibility is that of the journalist," said Gary Hill, chair of the ethics committee of the Society of Professional Journalists. "I think it's in the NCAA's best interests to try and make itself as easily understood as possible, to make relevant information available to the journalist, but it certainly is the journalist's obligation to get up to speed and understand the subject well enough to report on it accurately."

Jeff Howard, NCAA managing director of public relations, estimates that about 60 calls a day, or about 15,000 media calls a year, come through his four-person department. If there's a breaking story involving a high-profile university or a well-known student-athlete, as many as 35 media calls may come in to the NCAA national office on that single subject in the course of a few hours. If it's an average day, with no particular issue dominating the headlines, the NCAA public relations staff may answer calls from a major television news show, several daily newspapers, a few local radio and television stations and a college newspaper or two during those same few hours.

Howard said he becomes frustrated with reporters who do not call the Association for comment and don't give the NCAA a chance to respond. Even if the staff can't comment directly about a specific instance -- because of privacy laws, for example -- it can provide reporters with background to put issues into context, he said.

Wally Renfro, Brand's senior advisor for communications and the Association's former director of public relations, said he thinks most journalists try to do a good job reporting on the Association, though he's concerned about reporters who get their information from other members of the media rather than directly from the source.

"At times, I think reporters tend to be more influenced by other reporters than they tend to be influenced by the facts," Renfro said. "I don't think there's more than half a dozen newspapers in the country that cover college sports beyond the game in their locale, and I don't think that in reality there are more than a half a dozen reporters who have prepared themselves in a way that they understand the Association and can report in a balanced way like they would on most other topics they're reporting on."

And that's part of the problem. For most reporters, the NCAA is not an organization they cover on a regular basis, so they have no need to know every nuance of the Association. But when a college they cover is involved in an infractions case or a local student-athlete is involved in rules violations, that reporter must quickly get up to speed on some of the most delicate issues the Association handles.

Covering the NCAA

The Chronicle's Suggs says his job has become easier over the years, and part of that transition came with building contacts and relationships within the membership and the staff, a process that can take time.

But, he said his publication is unique in that it targets a specific audience -- namely college presidents, administrators and faculty. So while an infractions case, for example, may be a big issue for many traditional reporters, it's not the type of issue that necessarily will interest his audience.

Wieberg, after more than 20 years, said he understands the NCAA, but he also sees how it can seem unwieldy to others.

"I was probably like everyone else when I first started, just about lost trying to figure things out," he said. "The main thing is knowing who to talk to, who to go to and having enough familiarity with that person that they're comfortable talking to you. That takes some time."

For the Indianapolis bureau of the Associated Press, covering the NCAA is part of the sports beat, but not a separate beat that has the full-time attention of one reporter. The bureau's sports department is too small and stretched in too many directions to devote that attention to the Association. But unlike most news organizations, which cover the NCAA on a limited basis, the Indianapolis AP bureau has the responsibility for covering the Association for newspapers and broadcasters throughout the country.

"It's very difficult to cover the NCAA," said Keith Robinson, chief of the Indianapolis bureau. "It's much more difficult to cover because there's so much more there. The broad range of sports to cover through the NCAA is far greater, and we also have to cover the NCAA as news."

Robinson also said that while things have improved in terms of getting information from the NCAA, his reporters often have struggled to find someone to put the news in layman's terms.

"When we get a news release that's full of legal speak and that kind of thing, it's hard to write that for a general news audience, so we needed someone there to help us interpret what these rules and decisions were," Robinson said. "That was part of the problem -- no one would be willing to say anything. It was such a closed, tight-lipped operation."

Robinson also said some of the difficulty in covering the organization is that it can't be covered in the same way as other beats for which his bureau is responsible.

"In the NCAA's case, it's still a very closed operation, not as much as before, but with some other beats that we cover, like the (Indianapolis) Colts and the (Indiana) Pacers and Indiana (University) and Purdue (University), the sportswriters go over there, they have frequent contact with the coaches and the players and the administrative staff," he said. "Particularly at the universities, you can just walk into the office, and say 'hi' to the secretary, but we can't do that at the NCAA.

"There, you're ushered around by a security guard and he asks what you're doing there. 'Well, just stopping by to say hi.' 'Well, do you have an appointment with somebody?' That kind of thing," Robinson said.

How is the NCAA involved?

In the past year, much ink and broadcast airtime has been dedicated to the Bowl Championship Series and conference realignment. The two issues have a huge impact on college sports, yet neither is under the NCAA's control.

But in reading sports pages throughout the country, or watching sports broadcasters on TV, the public may not be aware that the Association does not play a direct role in either issue.

Here's an example of how the media's misunderstanding may influence public opinion:

The Charleston Daily Mail of West Virginia recently ran a poll on its Web site asking readers, "Should the NCAA abolish the Bowl Championship Series system?"

Of the 1,072 votes received, 72 percent of those who voted said, "Yes, and start a playoff." Ten percent said, "Yes and go back to the old way." Eight percent said, "What's the BCS?" and 7 percent simply voted, "No."

The poll was interesting, no doubt, to those college football fans in West Virginia who didn't agree with the BCS polls and would have liked to see a final game featuring Louisiana State University and the University of Southern California decide the national championship.

There's only one problem: The NCAA didn't create the BCS; it doesn't control the BCS and therefore can't abolish the BCS.

Here's another example:

The Home News Tribune, of East Brunswick, New Jersey, ran an editorial last October blasting the Association for not getting involved when the University of Miami (Florida) and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (and later Boston College) left the Big East Conference to join the Atlantic Coast Conference.

"...The NCAA turns its gaze. Content to ignore the corrosive fault lines money etches in the grand scheme of its domain, college sports' governing body wastes efforts penalizing athletes and athletics personnel who run afoul of minute and obscure clauses in its code of conduct," the editorial states. "It would suit college athletics better if the NCAA would step in and actually attempt to eradicate the pirating of one conference by another, a practice that tears gaping holes in the moral and fiscal cloth of collegiate athletics."

The paper regularly covers Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, so it's no surprise its editorial writers would support what's best for the Big East school. But, again, there's a problem: The NCAA has no control over decisions about conference realignment. That is strictly an institutional matter.

Howard said with stories such as the BCS and conference realignment, which are not one-day stories, there's an opportunity for the NCAA to educate the media on the issue, and in turn educate the public. And that's an opportunity his staff seizes when it can.

Renfro said staff spends most of the time during the majority of calls educating the media about the issue.

"I don't think it holds very much water to suggest that somehow or other it is the fault of this Association or anybody else that they haven't informed the media well before the media starts writing," Renfro said.

While it's easy to see how the issues could get blurred, reporters who regularly report on these issues agree that there is no excuse for misinformation.

"It is our place to help the reader understand as much as we can what's going on with a particular issue or a particular story," said Wieberg. "If we're not pointing out the fact that the NCAA, other than certifying bowl games, really has no role in postseason football, and therefore isn't going to be part of the process of putting the new format together and negotiating the new contract, I don't think we're doing our jobs properly."

Suggs agrees, but he also said the NCAA needs to explain itself better so the public understands the complex issues.

"It's really the NCAA's challenge to make itself relevant when it does not get involved in issues like conference realignment and try to explain better what role it can and cannot play," he said. "It's really tough and I think probably members make it tougher because it's awfully easy to blame things on the NCAA for not getting involved."

As a classic example, Suggs cited the Jeremy Bloom case in Colorado. Bloom is a world-class moguls skier and also a football player at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Bloom has been fighting the NCAA for the right to accept endorsements and prize money associated with his World Cup skiing competitions, while keeping his eligibility to play football. He has so far been unsuccessful in getting an exemption from the NCAA, and has recently announced he will do endorsements despite the NCAA's regulations.

NCAA rules state a student-athlete can have a contract in one sport, such as minor-league baseball, while still competing in another sport, such as football. However, a student-athlete cannot do endorsements because those are based on an athlete's overall reputation and that reputation cannot be confined to one sport.

"The NCAA is really stuck because the rule isn't fair," Suggs said he believes, "but they have to appeal to the members to change it, while at the same time trying to justify the rule to people like me who call and say, 'Why isn't this fair?' I think the NCAA has never been able to control its image or control the message that's out there. As a reporter, that suits me just fine because I want to be able to tell the story that's out there and not feel like I'm being manipulated.

"But at the same time, I think the NCAA has always had to react to issues that come up in college sports rather than controlling them."

The NCAA and USA Today

One difficult issue for the Association has been its relationship with USA Today. Some in the media believe that the newspaper receives selected information before other news organizations.

Robinson, from the AP, said last year a report was released to the newspaper before any other media outlet received it. The AP serves 98 percent of the newspaper market across the country, he said, and should have at least the same access to the NCAA as USA Today.

"When (the NCAA) needs to get the word out, there's no better way than the AP," he said. "We felt snubbed that USA Today got it exclusively and it was released the next day. By that time it's too late."

Renfro said releasing news first to USA Today has happened only once.

"We broke a story about the economic baseline study with USA Today (last August)," he said. "In the time I have been involved in public affairs and public relations at the NCAA, that's the only time that we have ever made that kind of decision. We made it because we felt it was a complicated story and needed enough time for somebody to study it beyond what they could do between a morning press conference and meeting deadline, and we wanted it to be on a national platform, so we chose USA Today."

Renfro and Howard also noted that USA Today (along with The Chronicle of Higher Education) does more enterprise reporting about the NCAA -- news that does not come directly from a news event or press release -- than most other media outlets.

"If there are stories it looks like USA Today has that others don't, in every instance but one it's because they asked the questions and no one else did," Renfro said.

Renfro also said that the Association formerly had a relationship with USA Today regarding Academic Achievement Awards. That program, which recognized school that ranked high in terms of graduating student-athletes, no longer exists.

Wieberg acknowledged there was some resentment from the media because of USA Today's partnership with the Association. However, he noted that USA Today received the full list of graduation rates at the same time as all other media; it was only the top 10 in several categories it received a day earlier.

USA Today, he said, also will run polls for football and basketball. The paper gets that information first because it is part of the process in putting the polls together.

Telling the story

In many ways the NCAA's relationship with the media is no different than any other organization. The Association needs the media to get its message out, and the media need the NCAA to help tell the stories their readers and viewers want to see.

Because collegiate sports are such a high-profile entity in society, however, the NCAA may be under a stronger microscope than many other groups.

"You have to start out with the fact that the NCAA is a private organization," said Renfro. "It's not governmental. It's not a quasi-public entity. It is a private association.

"The fact that intercollegiate athletics has a high profile, it breeds the tension between an association trying to do its business in a private way and the very high-profile, very public nature of intercollegiate athletics as a whole," Renfro said. "And that's the tension that I think we live with all the time, and it does make it more difficult to tell the story."

Reporters who regularly cover the Association agree that the NCAA faces a special challenge in that regard.

"The general public, on one hand they hate and fear the NCAA because they see it as being somewhat like the IRS in terms of coming to get their schools, the schools they happen to be fans of," said Suggs. "On the other hand, it's awfully easy to point the finger at Indianapolis when scandals break out."

Suggs joked that he once asked Renfro who had the tougher job: Renfro or the White House press secretary during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.