College football and basketball media guides -- perhaps the most visible products in sports information -- are an April vote from vanishing in Division I.

In a move that has caught many sports information directors by surprise, a proposal that would eliminate the books already has passed the initial-approval stage in the Division I legislative cycle and is now out for membership comment. And judging from the buzz in the sports information community, there will be comment.

Proposal No. 03-88 is what has some SIDs concerned. The initiative from the Atlantic Coast Conference essentially would move the printed media guides in all sports to digital formats. The proposal was developed to address the growing costs to athletics departments associated with printing the guides, as well as the proliferation of the guides themselves -- which in some cases exceed 500 pages in football. Since current rules allow media guides to be given to recruits, many administrators believe there is almost an "arms race" among Division I programs to see who can produce the best and brightest books to attract the best and brightest athletes. The measure already has consensus support from the ACC athletics directors and faculty athletics representatives, and it gained initial approval from the Management Council in January by a 35-15 margin.

It isn't the first time costs have been cited in wanting to strengthen media guide restrictions. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, legislation was adopted that precluded color pages beyond the front and back inside covers. But that only gave way to development of other creative and expensive design elements, such as foldouts, layovers and die-cuts that have contributed to the one-upmanship many administrators worry about.

Proposal No. 03-88 came about after the recruiting subcommittee of the Academics/
Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet crafted Proposal No. 03-32, which also deals with media guides but is not as restrictive. That measure, part of the recruiting subcommittee's deregulation package, only prohibits the books from being distributed to recruits and not from being printed altogether. They still could be given to media, fans and boosters. Of the two perceived evils from the sports information perspective, Proposal No. 03-32, also initially approved by the Council and sent out for comment, is by far the lesser.

The ACC, though, doesn't believe Proposal No. 03-32 adequately addresses the problem. The league's ADs and FARs think the only way to stop the media guide "arms race" and to truly reduce costs is to get out of the printing business altogether. Shane Lyons, ACC associate commissioner for compliance, said league members discussed the possibility of their proposal perhaps limiting the page count as a way of scaling back the burgeoning costs but in the end decided to, as Lyons said, "take a full swing at it."

"After discussion," Lyons said, "the ADs and FARs said, 'No, this is a cost issue and we don't think a restriction on the size of the books is the answer.' "

That approach has shaken many Division I SIDs who believe their football and basketball guides in particular are among their most important contributions, not only to the athletics department but also to the university. They are quick to point out that the books are called "media guides" for a reason -- to promote media coverage by providing broadcast and print reporters with a manageable source for the information they need to do their jobs well.

"An SID wants to be involved in the promotion of the institution -- not only to media but to the fans -- and the media guide helps us do that," said the Southeastern Conference's Charles Bloom, associate commissioner for media relations. "To put restrictions on that or to eliminate it would reduce our value."

Proponents of the proposal, however, say that detracting from the sports information director's role is not their intent at all. They argue that the information could still be made available, just not printed.

"The ACC proposal is strictly related to the amount of money that we all spend on media guides that are in fact recruiting brochures/
books. That's getting out of hand," said Wake Forest University Athletics Director Ron Wellman, one of three ACC representatives on the Management Council. "It's become a race to see how many pages you can have and who can have the glossiest guide. If people really want the information, it is easily obtainable online. We are not suggesting that the information should not be available -- simply that it not be printed and sent to recruits. In today's society, that vast majority of folks have the ability to access the Internet and look up the information if they so desire."

But SIDs disagree with the technology-as-panacea approach. They not only believe that the technology isn't as advanced or widespread as the ACC proposal would assume, they also believe that the everything-online approach isn't practical for their primary clients -- the media.

"Reporters aren't going to pop a CD into their computer during a football game to find something," said University of Utah SID Liz Abel.

John Painter of the sports information staff at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, said, "To say we don't need the printed product is wrong. You can't have the media guide on your computer at the game -- you'd need three or four disks."

Bloom said the proposal disadvantages people who don't have the technology. Supporters of the proposal say SIDs exaggerate that percentage of the population, but SIDs see it differently. "All of our SIDs are against the proposals because we don't think the technology is there yet to make downloading easy and readily accessible for everyone," Bloom said.

Some SIDs don't think the matter is a cost issue, either. Painter said Tennessee spends about $210,000 on its football guide but makes about $70,000 back in sales. The difference, he said, is less than 1 percent of the athletics department's operating budget. He said that's the case at other SEC schools as well. Painter and others also say that the real costs of the guides are in pre-press, which will continue to exist even if the guides only are online.

"You have to scan all the photos, do all the design and the writing and the layout and then turn it into a PDF for the Internet," Utah's Abel said. "I don't see this as a cost-savings measure."

Bulky books

Though some SIDs don't agree with the cost-issue angle, they do see the reality of the guides having become more than simply a convenient and necessary media tool. An idea that years ago started out pure in intent has grown to be used much more as a publicity tool, which has turned the guides into bulky books chock-full of the institutional bells and whistles designed to promote the school and attract the recruit -- glossy sections on facilities, location, community and other attractions unique to the university. A competitive arms race? Perhaps, they say, but the publicity value to the university still is priceless.

Painter said the distribution of Tennessee's 29,000 football guides includes only about 2,750 toward recruiting and football staff use; 12,000 to UT lettermen, Volunteer Magazine subscribers and Volunteer Athletic Scholarship Fund contributors (the school's promotional distribution); 4,000 for media distribution and sports information staff use; and about 10,000 for public and mail-order sales.

"Note that the smallest amount is for recruiting," Painter said. "If they stop sending to recruits, like Proposal No. 03-32 says, that won't be a big deal. But we positively promote our football program and the university through the distribution of 12,000 media guides, which is a very big deal."

"Over time, the printed media guide has served a multitude of roles -- it has been the information piece for media; it has been the information for the recruit; it has been a coffee table piece for the donor," Bloom said. "SIDs have to be careful how they couch their arguments, because some media members and SIDs do feel that the books have become too large. Proposal No. 03-32 deals with that to a degree. When you say you're not going to send them to a recruit anymore, an institution could make the choice of taking out a segment or two of the guide that deals with recruiting, thus cutting back the number of pages.

"If you don't send to recruits anymore, there's no benefit to making the guides as large as they are. If one school still wanted to make their book several hundred pages and include recruiting materials, they still can, but the benefit to them is not in recruiting."

Tammy Boclair, a member of the sports information staff at Vanderbilt University and current president of the College Sports Information Directors of America, said she has heard media members joke that they can't take the books home anymore because of the strain on their backs.

"Reporters say that when they attend media days in some leagues they have to ship the guides home separately," she said. "Realistically, that might be true. We are not producing media guides; we're producing recruiting books because it's something that can be sent to prospective student-athletes. I can understand people wanting to take a look at the issue, but it's gone a little further than anyone expected."

Coaches have joined in opposition to the proposed restrictions as well. Utah women's gymnastics coach Greg Marsden acknowledges the arms-race aspect of the issue, but he said eliminating media guides would harm the publicity efforts of the schools that need it most.

"The guides are a way of getting information to people and telling your story," he said. "They help smaller schools keep up with larger schools."

Hence, the arms-race component of the issue. But some SIDs wonder if that's such a bad thing. Utah's Abel said that without media guides, an unintended consequence may be a drop in program interest. She called Marsden one of her "high-tech coaches," but she said even he knows that a printed piece has more value than a computer screen.

"Say you're being recruited by 20 schools and you get 20 media guides," Abel said. "You may flip through most, maybe even all, and you may look at one or two of them very seriously. But how many Web sites are you going to pull up, go to the media guide section, click on the right file and scroll?"

If Proposal No. 03-88 passes...

CoSIDA has not taken an official position on either Proposal No. 03-32 or No. 03-88, but the January 23 front page of the organization's Web site made it clear what was at stake for those who may not be aware of the issue. It instructs SIDs to lobby their athletics directors if they want to keep printing media guides.

If that effort fails and Proposal No. 03-88 is adopted in April, the after-media-guide life will be a shock according to some SIDs.

"It's a little difficult to imagine not being able to hand media these guides," said Ray Simmons, the SID at the University of Southern Indiana and the chair of CoSIDA's legislative review group. "As for the claim that media can access this information online, not when you're at a soccer field and there's no access to the Internet, or your battery goes dead. We've all experienced that at one time or another."

"Our ADs may be looking at cost containment, but it's our responsibility to make them aware of the consequences," said Boclair. "If a media member asks you for a certain record and you hand them a CD, accuracy and coverage may drop."

Boclair also said that reporters who cover all Division I football and basketball on a national scale would find it impossible to print everything off the Web. "That, too, may end up hurting your coverage," she said.

Tennessee's Painter poses a more ominous outcome -- that the guides will be printed anyway, outside of the institution's control. He said creative entrepreneurs might gain access to the information and publish fan guides or other publications with the traditional sports information, but also with the requisite advertising to fund them.

"There could be casino gambling ads, alcohol ads, you name it," he said. "And then that will get into recruits' hands."

Bloom flat out said that the adoption of Proposal No. 03-88 "would change the face of media relations as we know it."

"We're all SIDs and conference PR directors and media relations people -- we're all in the business of promoting our institutions the best way possible," Bloom said. "To eliminate a piece that we have control over and that sends a strong message to the media is counterproductive."

In the end, the vote may hinge on whether Bloom's claim outweighs ADs' bottom lines. Wake Forest's Wellman believes it doesn't.

"I imagine SID groups and most coaches may not support this, but I would not debate this issue with them -- I know what I believe," Wellman said. "We're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a product whose value is questionable at best, especially when the information is available to everyone."