The Division I Recruiting Cabinet next month will review two legislative proposals involving media guides that could have a lasting effect on athletics department budgets and how schools recruit prospective student-athletes.

The Pacific-10 Conference and SEC have submitted proposals related to the printing and distribution of media guides. The proposals – one of which would ban printing the publications – have been positioned as cost-saving measures.

However, in addition to providing material for the working media, the guides also contain abundant recruiting material, which is why the proposals have landed with the Recruiting Cabinet’s for consideration at its September 21-22 meeting.

A sample of interactive media guides  Baylor Conference USA Duke Kentucky Northeastern Oregon State Patriot League South Florida

NCAA rules currently allow institutions to print a recruiting brochure or media guide, but not both. The publications are limited to one color (except for the front and back covers) and may not exceed 8.5 x11 inches in size or more than 208 pages in length. Schools typically devote the front half of the media guide to recruiting information and the back half to records, historical data, and key player and coach biographies more relevant to media covering their athletics teams.

The Pac-10 proposal would halt the printing of media guides, recruiting brochures or any other athletics publications (other than game programs) and move those publications online.

The SEC’s version would allow institutions to continue to print media guides (and maintain the current standards for color, size and length) but would prohibit schools from sending them to prospects or their parents/legal guardians, educational institution or coach.

The College Sports Information Directors of America has not taken a position on the matter, though the organization has provided the Recruiting Cabinet with a list of pros and cons regarding elimination of the guides and restricting to whom they may be distributed.

CoSIDA Executive Director John Humenik said regardless of the outcome, the prospective legislation has ramifications beyond simply allowing or prohibiting schools to print the guides.

Although the proposals carry a cost-savings tag, CoSIDA is concerned about a resulting technology arms race among schools that would not only wipe out savings but actually cost more.

Humenik said CoSIDA would prefer the legislation come with strict specifications and limits on the use of any technology designated to replace the printed guides. Failure to do so, Humenik said, could lead to an unprecedented, fiercely competitive and potentially costly technological escalation.

“If we don’t put our arms around the question of what’s likely to happen, regardless of which proposal passes – if we don’t start asking that question, communications directors believe we’ll be in an arms race in the communications aspect of college athletics unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” he said. “Neither proposal, at this time, even attempts to address this question.”

Evolution of the guides

This isn’t the first time media guides have been addressed legislatively. About 20 years ago, schools were allowed to produce separate media and recruiting guides. Then the membership legislated to combine the publications, based on cost and other factors, but did not institute page limits.

As marketing and recruiting became more important, the multipurpose guides grew in size, in some cases swelling to 400-500 pages, before being trimmed via legislation to 208 pages six years ago. However well-intentioned that decision was, it resulted in institutions devoting a much higher percentage of the slimmer guides’ pages to recruiting information versus media materials.  

Humenik said previous discussions and legislation did not go far enough in establishing limits on the printed guides, which has in turn contributed to the current perception that guides have become little more than recruiting vehicles.

If cost containment is truly part of the current discussion, Humenik said, then serious consideration must be given to how that will play out in the long run.

“If we’re going to save money by eliminating the printed guide or by just allowing them to be used strictly for media and communications purposes but don’t ask what’s likely to replace it recruiting-wise,” Humenik said, “whatever monies are saved will be quickly consumed by the competitiveness of coaches and schools trying to outdo one another with online recruiting, marketing and media relations. Our history in this regard is quite clear.”

A growing number of schools and conferences aren’t waiting for the media guide discussion to play out one way or another. For instance, Georgetown is planning to print media guides for just seven of its 29 sports this year. Hoyas SID Michael Carey said given the current economic climate, the savings could be significant. But he also noted that some schools will have more resources available than others to invest in technology.

“Some schools are going to have the ability to not print but divert that money to do things that some other smaller schools aren’t going to be able to do,” he said. “If they are going to eliminate them, then there’s got to be some way to make it where there’s still a level playing field.”

Some institutions, like Baylor, are fully embracing the age of technology. Brad Sheffield, coordinator of new media at the school, said the athletics department expects to save 60 percent of its printing budget by not printing media guides and developing an online recruiting guide. Baylor will produce a small “media almanac,” which will contain records; historical data; and, depending on the sport, coach and player biographies.

Sheffield said if athletics departments are smart about how they apply their resources, the cost savings could be substantial, but the expense of developing online content could add up quickly without a sound strategy.

Online on a dime

Not surprisingly, the cost for enhancing an institution’s online presence varies. The gamut runs from free or relatively inexpensive applications like the one found at issuu.com  to higher-end companies like Pursuant, whose services can cost thousands of dollars.

Pursuant, whose roots are in educational fund-raising, literally stumbled into the business of designing online solutions for athletics departments. While working on a digital alumni magazine for Purdue, the organization was approached by the Boilermakers athletics department about redesigning its Internet site. Since then, Pursuant has gained about a half dozen other NCAA institutions as clients.

Jason Mitchell, the company’s chief marketing officer, said its applications can run anywhere from $1,700 to $8,000 per sport, depending on the level of customization. However, he said schools are averaging between $2,000-$4,000 per sport.

“We’ve imagined this athletics guide online solution to be as much as possible a slide sideways economically from the printed media guide,” said Mitchell. “But we’re also trying to position it as something more than you envisioned the media guide to be. It’s really more about Web solutions for an athletics department that wants to do recruiting, have something for their fans and potentially a place where media can come and consume stats.”

Questions of legislation, cost and potential savings aside, Baylor’s Sheffield insists that online is the direction communication is going. But he sees it as an opportunity for sports information and media relations professionals to get back to being public relations practitioners rather than worrying about producing mammoth media/recruiting guides.

Although CoSIDA believes (and Recruiting Cabinet research seems to indicate) that most prospects are getting their information about schools’ athletics departments online, Georgetown’s Carey said one of the possible unintended consequences of doing away with the printed media guides is that some of the Olympic and less high-profile sports will lose a promotional avenue.

“I know at a place like ours, when we’ve had guides for sports like tennis, softball, sailing and golf, those coaches really find them useful,” Carey said. “Some of our Olympic sport coaches are the ones who will miss having those guides because for them, it’s a major piece of what they do and a major showcase for what they have.”

Another unintended casualty in moving the guides online could be the working media, who actually use them to do their jobs. 

George Schroeder, a sportswriter for the Eugene (Oregon) Register-Guard and president of the Football Writers Association of America, said there’s no question that reporters need the books to reference stats, history and background for news and feature stories. Easy and quick access is critical, particularly as deadlines loom.

The FWAA and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association issued a joint statement in July endorsing the SEC’s proposal for maintaining printed media guides without the recruiting material. Among the concerns the organizations cited in their endorsement were the difficulty of accessing needed information online, the inconsistencies among schools’ Web sites and the possibility of Internet failures.

 “If you can’t put your hands on it right when you need it on deadline, that’s an issue,” said Schroeder. “(Eliminating guides) will hurt coverage, not out of spite or vengefulness, but it makes it harder. Anything that makes it harder is not necessarily a good idea.”

Stay tuned for an interesting debate.