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NCAA News Archive - 2007
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Smaller schools' SIDs build books to satisfy interest
Guides respond to growing demand for information about Divisions II, III teams
Guides respond to growing demand for information about Divisions II, III teams
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By Jack Copeland
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
Media guides have several functions — they promote sports programs, serve as a recruiting tool and compile valuable information for a variety of audiences.
At many Divisions II and III institutions — especially schools that have employed full-time sports information directors for only a few years — a seemingly unquenchable demand for data may be the primary reason why the books are getting bigger.
“At the Division II level 20 years ago, you may have had a very limited publication,” said Dan Wilkes, sports information director at Pittsburg State University, which has employed a full-time SID since 1989. “Not all Division II schools had full-time media-relations help in the ’80s or maybe even the ’90s.
“Now, you’ll see what used to be a 24-page guide, in sports like track and field, grow into a 72-page guide.”
Blake Timm of Pacific University (Oregon) sees a similar evolution in Division III.
“If you look at media guides from the ’70s, ’80s and even the early ’90s, you can tell the information has evolved. There are more records, and the biographical sketches of athletes are a lot more detailed. There’s a lot more information,” he said.
Readers’ interest in data drives much of the effort: Pittsburg State’s 2006 guide for its perennially strong and locally popular football program was the same size at 208 pages as books touting premier Division I programs, where media guides’ size is limited by NCAA legislation.
“As individual teams have success, our job in media relations is to help tell the story of our teams,” Wilkes said. “Media guides and yearbooks help prospective student-athletes, media and fans know more about our teams.”
The availability of information — and the ease of uncovering it — also may help determine a media guide’s scope.
“To be honest, the size of a book may vary a little bit by sport depending on the records that are available, the cooperation I get from coaches in obtaining and putting together those biographical sketches, and the history I have built when it comes to game-by-game or things like that,” Timm said.
Wilkes said content of his guides has benefited from Pittsburg State’s library resources, including “microfilm all the way back to the beginning of time” — but the depth of information in the books also clearly reflects Wilkes’ willingness to uncover the data.
“Before my predecessor, we didn’t complete all-time scorers or all-conference lists,” said Wilkes, who once planned to be a history teacher and coach before becoming involved in sports information. “Before my tenure, we didn’t have an A-to-Z letterman’s list for football and men’s and women’s basketball. We’ve basically been sports archaeologists. We go back and visit microfilm, and basically reclaim our history a little bit.”
Digging up that history helps satisfy a growing demand for information, but that information doesn’t always find its way to a printed page.
Timm and Wilkes agree that some institutions see less value today in a printed guide, because of the cost of printing a book or the effort required to produce it. Some schools design a guide but make it available online only; others forgo production of a book entirely and make data available through a Web site or a CD-ROM.
“There’s a lot of talk about putting everything online or putting together a CD for a reporter to use at a game, but in reality there’s nothing better that being able to grab a media guide and being able to look up the last time a player scored 20 points in a game,” Timm said. “It’s a lot easier than fumbling around with a CD, putting it into a computer and then thumbing through a PDF to see if you can find the information.”
The historian in Wilkes hopes schools will continue to see the value of printed media guides.
“I have a sense of history...and I would hate to think we would ever get to a time where we don’t have printed periodicals anymore and we don’t have a written history of our sports.
“I’d hate to say, for the sake of budgets, ‘Let’s just put a book online.’ I don’t want to ever get to a point where we don’t have recorded history.”
Michelle Brutlag Hosick contributed to this article.
At many Divisions II and III institutions — especially schools that have employed full-time sports information directors for only a few years — a seemingly unquenchable demand for data may be the primary reason why the books are getting bigger.
“At the Division II level 20 years ago, you may have had a very limited publication,” said Dan Wilkes, sports information director at Pittsburg State University, which has employed a full-time SID since 1989. “Not all Division II schools had full-time media-relations help in the ’80s or maybe even the ’90s.
“Now, you’ll see what used to be a 24-page guide, in sports like track and field, grow into a 72-page guide.”
Blake Timm of Pacific University (Oregon) sees a similar evolution in Division III.
“If you look at media guides from the ’70s, ’80s and even the early ’90s, you can tell the information has evolved. There are more records, and the biographical sketches of athletes are a lot more detailed. There’s a lot more information,” he said.
Readers’ interest in data drives much of the effort: Pittsburg State’s 2006 guide for its perennially strong and locally popular football program was the same size at 208 pages as books touting premier Division I programs, where media guides’ size is limited by NCAA legislation.
“As individual teams have success, our job in media relations is to help tell the story of our teams,” Wilkes said. “Media guides and yearbooks help prospective student-athletes, media and fans know more about our teams.”
The availability of information — and the ease of uncovering it — also may help determine a media guide’s scope.
“To be honest, the size of a book may vary a little bit by sport depending on the records that are available, the cooperation I get from coaches in obtaining and putting together those biographical sketches, and the history I have built when it comes to game-by-game or things like that,” Timm said.
Wilkes said content of his guides has benefited from Pittsburg State’s library resources, including “microfilm all the way back to the beginning of time” — but the depth of information in the books also clearly reflects Wilkes’ willingness to uncover the data.
“Before my predecessor, we didn’t complete all-time scorers or all-conference lists,” said Wilkes, who once planned to be a history teacher and coach before becoming involved in sports information. “Before my tenure, we didn’t have an A-to-Z letterman’s list for football and men’s and women’s basketball. We’ve basically been sports archaeologists. We go back and visit microfilm, and basically reclaim our history a little bit.”
Digging up that history helps satisfy a growing demand for information, but that information doesn’t always find its way to a printed page.
Timm and Wilkes agree that some institutions see less value today in a printed guide, because of the cost of printing a book or the effort required to produce it. Some schools design a guide but make it available online only; others forgo production of a book entirely and make data available through a Web site or a CD-ROM.“There’s a lot of talk about putting everything online or putting together a CD for a reporter to use at a game, but in reality there’s nothing better that being able to grab a media guide and being able to look up the last time a player scored 20 points in a game,” Timm said. “It’s a lot easier than fumbling around with a CD, putting it into a computer and then thumbing through a PDF to see if you can find the information.”
The historian in Wilkes hopes schools will continue to see the value of printed media guides.
“I have a sense of history...and I would hate to think we would ever get to a time where we don’t have printed periodicals anymore and we don’t have a written history of our sports.
“I’d hate to say, for the sake of budgets, ‘Let’s just put a book online.’ I don’t want to ever get to a point where we don’t have recorded history.”
Michelle Brutlag Hosick contributed to this article.
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