ORLANDO, Florida -- The question may not be as eternal as the puzzler about the chicken and the egg, but it nevertheless was a good point for Division II chancellors and presidents to ponder:

Which is most effective for Division II athletics: Exposure in the community or exposure through television?

The ultimate answer, of course, is "both," but a panel of media experts came at the question differently during a June 26 panel discussion. Burke Magnus of ESPN-U and Tim Pernetti of CSTV said that while institutions should foster community support, they also should take advantage of the national television opportunities that will expand for Division II schools in years to come. Media researcher Rich Luker, however, said that smaller programs are missing a large opportunity if they focus on television at the expense of interacting with people in their own communities.

Luker said that the sports community is trapped in the mindset that the future will be nothing more than a bigger version of the present. He said that history reveals otherwise through the ebb and flow of the most popular sports:

• 1850: Barn wrestling.

• 1950: Baseball.

• 1970: Football.

Luker said the popularity of the sports correlates closely with the sociological factors of their time, such as barn wrestling in an agricultural era and football during the expansion of television. The point that is being missed, he said, is that the public taste is in the process of another change, moving away from a "bigger is better" model.

To make his point, Luker cited the expansion of reality programming, televised poker and minor-league baseball. Reality programming, he said, is actually nothing more than sports in disguise. It has all of the trappings of competition, along with winners and losers. But there is nothing "big" about it -- except for viewership, which has dominated the Nielsen top 10 rankings for the last year. Over the last year, the average poker telecast (including reruns) on ESPN outdrew the average NBA telecast by 0.4 rating points, Luker said. Minor-league baseball recently broke a 1949 attendance record with only half as many teams -- and no national promotion.

"You're missing the point if you think it's about being national and huge," he said.

He suggested that many Division II institutions are better positioned than they might think, given the public's increasing appetite for small-scale entertainment. He suggested that promoters take simple steps to take advantage of the situation.

"Don't pay somebody like me thousands of dollars to do an analysis," he said. "Invite the people from your neighborhood to have a conversation with you. Some people might call that a focus group, but don't be that formal. Just hear what they have to say. It won't cost you a dime."

Pernetti and Magnus both encouraged Division II institutions to stay abreast of technological developments, if for no other reason than to build a bridge with alumni who may no longer live in the institution's community ("Your community is of paramount importance to you, but not everyone who went to your school lives in >your community," Pernetti said). Both said that the niche of college-sports programming is here to stay and that it will have increasing ramifications for non-Division I programs.

Magnus noted that ESPN's media empire ranges from magazines to TV networks to cell-phone communication. The younger CSTV also is developing a diversified approach.

"People consume their content differently than ever before," Pernetti said. "As this grows, we can't guarantee that every person will consume the content. But we want to give them an opportunity to make a choice through various media."

He added that Division II should think of CSTV and the like as more of an opportunity to share its message than simply to televise games. "If we're just going to do games," he said, "we'll hit a certain number and then go flat. We have to do things a little differently than in the past."

To that end, Pernetti said that CSTV has demanded that its producers find out more about the student-athletes than just their class, height and weight. He believes that the network must tell stories to succeed. That works well for Division II, home to more nontraditional students than any other division.

Magnus and Pernetti also encouraged Division II to take advantage of elements such as its earlier start dates in football. On August 25, the first college football game of the season will be telecast on ESPNU when Division II rivals Benedict College and Morehouse College play. In the same vein, they praised Division II for taking a "great creative risk" with its 2004 National Championship Festival, which worked well as a television event. The second festival will take place in November 2006 in Pensacola, Florida.

-- David Pickle