Chad Moller, the sports information director at the University of Missouri, and his colleagues have a running joke around the office this year.

The Tigers’ media relations staff muses over their 614-page football media guide from 2004. They say it triggered the NCAA to approve legislation, adopted April 28, 2005, that limits media guides to 208 pages and holds it to an 8×11 page size. Though the rule applies to all collegiate sports, it impacts football most because it’s a revenue sport and larger guides are usually produced for it, such as Missouri’s 614-page novelette.

A media guide provides statistical and historical information that athletic programs distribute to electronic and print media publications, recruits, and to fans for a price. It promotes the team and serves as a reference tool for reporter’s stories. In its early days, sports information directors only needed to provide rosters, statistics and the program’s history to the media.

‘Back in the 50s they were just little 6×9 pamphlets that you could stick in your pocket,’ Georgia Tech sports information director Allison George said.

But not any more. Over the years, media guides increased in size. Last year, University of Texas’ guide peaked at 480 pages while Notre Dame’s guide was 464. The guides from Georgia and Michigan contained 420 and 416 pages, respectively, while Florida State and Alabama filled their guides to 336 and 312, respectively. Some of the content still helps reporters when they’re filing a story or report. The rest of it serves as a service to recruits.

In 1990, the NCAA approved legislation that allowed schools to either print a recruiting guide or a media guide, but not both. Many sports information directors interviewed for this story finger that as a significant event that escalated the growing size every year. After that, programs combined both recruiting material along with the traditional media information.

Soon enough, media guides became another method for programs to edge one another in the recruiting game. Many coaches and SIDs made sure to do whatever they could to have the upper hand. They filled pages with glossy photos highlighting the athletic facilities, the community and the benefits of joining such a program. Missouri’s 2004 guide even devoted 35 pages to its Nike catalog, displaying pictures of every single item of clothing the football team wore, socks included.

‘The books automatically changed a little bit,’ Oklahoma associate athletic director for media relations Kenny Mossman said. ‘Coaches overtook control at that point because they were so keen on recruiting. What came out was an arms race where bigger is better.’

The ACC proposed to eliminate the printed media guide altogether but members later decided to set the limit to 208 pages. ACC assistant commissioner Brian Morrison said there have been similar pushes in the past, including one two years ago to cut the media guides. He also said other conferences were instrumental in drafting the legislation.

Programs were ready to publish its guide and ship it before August this summer. With the rule going into effect Aug. 1, 2005, Iowa sports information director Phil Haddy said some programs had to scramble to make the necessary adjustments because many were set for publication. Haddy said he anticipated the rule because of the proposed legislation in April. So he and his staff laid out a backup plan if it was enacted.

For all of the programs, though, sports information directors not only had to determine what information to convey, they also had to figure out what to cut. And they had to fit it in half, sometimes a third of the size they were used to before.

‘We had to break it into three areas,’ Penn State sports information director and assistant athletic director Jeff Nelson said. ‘What do we have to absolutely keep? What do we have to get rid of? What are the things we’re not sure about?’

Sports information directors set different priorities, depending on the school. Oklahoma, Penn State, Georgia Tech and Syracuse used a wide-spread approach. The programs wanted to maintain a balance of as much recruiting and media-related material as it possibly could by cutting some of the more grandiose sections and by trimming font size and pictures.

Sue Edson, Syracuse’s director of athletic communications, flipped through last year’s media guide in her office Monday morning. On nearly every page, a Post-it note was displayed on the upper-right hand corner explaining whether to keep the page, consolidate it, put the information on the Internet or cut it.

SU’s 2005 media guide presents a season preview that includes position subsections followed by the leading players with bulleted information. Syracuse’s history consists of a year-by-year timeline rather than the nine-page written summary in last year’s guide.

Iowa and Missouri, on the other hand, decided to produce, in essence, two separate guides. Much of their polished media guides devoted more to recruiting than media information. But most of what the media needs is now posted on their Web sites and also distributed in a Xeroxed packet to supplement the weekly game notes.

As far as the overall purpose of the new legislation, Crissy Schleup, NCAA

assistant director of public and media relations, said the NCAA doesn’t pursue public policy initiatives. They are simply the facilitators of proposal requests.

‘The integrity of the legislation was to level the playing field as far as a recruiting advantage,’ Schleup said. ‘It provided everyone, no matter what their budget was, to produce 208 pages to convey their information.’

Mossman and Nelson think the page limits became necessary, though Haddy thinks the new rule should be effective so that programs could have had more time to make the needed changes. Nelson thinks the new proposal should have allowed 256 pages, instead of 208, based on printing companies printing paper in duplicates of 16 pages. Then there are others like Moller who found it completely unnecessary.

‘It’s small potatoes for the NCAA to spend time worrying about what someone’s book (length) is,’ Moller said. ‘It seems to me, and most of my colleagues feel the same way, schools should be able to produce the book they want to. It’s their budget.’

All of the SIDs seemed to question whether the new policy is effective in cutting costs and leveling the playing field. All of them said the amount of money they saved was insignificant and ultimately went into other measures such as the labor of putting additional information on the school’s Web site.

Many programs also used the extra money to enhance their book and make it stand out from the crowd. University of Oklahoma included a hologram on the cover of its guide while University of Texas has pull-out pages. The guides from Southern California and Texas A&M consist of a hard cover – similar to that of a school yearbook. For Missouri, the Tigers placed a medallion of the school logo – an oval tiger head – on the front cover.

Edson concluded that, compared to the rest of SU’s expenditures – weight training facilities, field and stadium maintenance, equipment, and the coaching staff – the cost of producing and distributing a media guide is a ‘drop in the bucket, and I mean a big bucket and a small drop.’ As for the original intent of trying to level the playing field in recruiting, Edson doubts the media guide significantly factors in.

‘It’s not even one scholarship (saved),’ Edson said. ‘If they’re talking about the media guide becoming part of the arms race, is it? Yes. Is it that influential? I don’t believe so. No student athlete has ever said I’m going here (or there) because of the media guide.’

No. 10 Tennessee (+6) at No. 3 LSU

Saturday 7:45 p.m. ESPN

The Tigers enjoyed their off-week, especially after proving resilient against pesky Arizona State. With seven lead changes, LSU was able to come out successfully, 35-31, in this nail-biting victory Sept. 10. They’ll be ready to control Tennessee’s sputtering offense. Volunteers’ coach Philip Fulmer announced Monday that sophomore Erik Ainge will start at quarterback in place of senior Rick Clausen, but that won’t be enough to pull off an upset over a No. 3 team.

Pick: LSU 17, Tennessee 10

No. 15 Georgia Tech (+10.5) at No. 4 Virginia Tech

Saturday 2:30 p.m.

Georgia Tech already has enough on its plate facing a strong Virginia Tech. Add a sick quarterback and the Yellow Jackets will certainly be overwhelmed against the Hokies. Before its victory over UConn, Georgia Tech quarterback Reggie Ball was sent to the hospital to be treated for viral meningitis. Redshirt freshman Taylor Bennett went in for Ball, throwing a touchdown but only completing 11-for-30 for 142 yards. His inexperience will show, as he will be the likely starter against Virginia Tech.

Pick: Virginia Tech 28, Georgia Tech 10

No. 21 Iowa (+7) at No. 8 Ohio State

Saturday Noon

Iowa quickly forced itself to forget its embarrassing loss to Iowa State before quickly rebounding with a quick, easy win over Northern Iowa. The offense looked polished, but the defense still needs some work. In this Big Ten opener, Iowa showed it won’t be ready to move up near No. 8, the ranking it was at before falling to the Cyclones.

Pick: Ohio State 24, Iowa 7

No. 11 Purdue (+3.5) at Minnesota

Saturday Noon

Purdue is reinventing itself. Normally a heavy passing team, the Boilermakers showed they have more power on the ground. Minnesota and Purdue match each other’s strengths on both sides of the ball, making it likely this game will be decided in the trenches. The Gophers ranks No. 1 nationally in rushing offense while the Boilermakers are the top team in rushing defense.

Pick: Purdue 21, Minnesota 17

No. 7 Georgia (-15) at Mississippi State

Saturday 9:00 P.M. ESPN2

Georgia may as well keep the wide receivers out of this game. Thomas Brown, Danny Ware, and Craig Lumpkin flood the backfield. But the Bulldogs have an improving offensive line and all they need to do is run, run and run. As long as the backfield gets enough carries, it’s an easy road to victory.

Pick: Georgia 28, Mississippi State 7

Published on March 23, 2006 at 12:00 pm