Louisville Courier-Journal v. NCAA

[Sam Mills 51]

This is all a joke right? The NCAA can't be this stupid can it?

Stupidity - and hypocrisy - knows no limits when it comes to the NCAA.

[JayFarrar]

Best guess is that the NCAA is floating this to see the reaction of the media and if they could extend this no-blogging rule on to college football and beyond.
The C-J was just the trial balloon to see how it goes.

[sportshack06]

fuck the NCAA.

Have they sold in-game reporting rights (to a CSTV gametracker or an "official blog")? Thats just a bunch of bullshit. Especially on college baseball of all things. Hell, they may restrict in game blogging from the NCAA women's half assed rowing championships next...

A mass blog from Rosenblatt would be a nice way to do things. Would the NCAA really eliminate all their coverage, aside from the great WWL for this?

[kamikaze021]

That would be interesting...a mass-blog exodus by the newspapers. That would be great.

[Johnny Dangerously]

fuck the NCAA.

Have they sold in-game reporting rights (to a CSTV gametracker or an "official blog")?

That's what I'm wondering. The game is out there and available on ESPN or ESPNU, and on gametrackers on several different sites. If fans are watching on TV and want to read someone's real-time take at the same time, what's the harm?

I cover college baseball for possibly the only daily in the country that has a full-time writer at all 56 regular-season games of the hometown team, home and away. We haven't done a blog yet, but it's coming. Obviously I'll be watching this case with interest.

[rascalface]

It was Gene McArtor that kicked him out. He must still be pissed that U of L knocked Mizzou out of the tournament.

[Calvin Hobbes]

Thank goodness I write for the Podunk Press. That's probably why nobody from the NCAA noticed me blogging from the biggest college football game of last season. They didn't notice our chief competitor doing so, either.

But you'd think they would have noticed the beat writer from the nearest major metro, who added to his blog throughout the game ... and did so every Saturday all season.

Or maybe this is a rule the pointy heads at the NCAA only recently came up with.

Sigh.

I remember when this job was fun.

[Angola!]

Print edition story now up:

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770610018

I thought this comment at the end of the story was both hilarious and pretty true. Good job token reader who cares:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 To the NCAA the issue is never about sports, it is ALWAYS about the MONEY sports generates. And this issue at Patterson Stadium and who's allowed to tell the public what's going on is all about MONEY. Oh, and the First Amendment BTW.

It is also the never-ending controversy about that organization's totally unrestricted power and how they constantly abuse it. It is blatant extortion to tell a school 'your hometown newspaper cannot cover this event via the internet IF you ever want to host another NCAA event again'.

I hope the C-J pursues this through the courts, that they win on obvious First Amendment bases, and THEN they follow up to see if the NCAA makes good on its threat against U of L.

It's long overdue for the NCAA to get a little smack-down action to be reminded they are part of a larger society that lives by a Constitution and legal system that the NCAA has to abide by just like everybody else.

[DanOregon]

ESPN has been pretty shrewd in buying up "rights" to sports. Anybody know if that includes "live" web rights?

[TheSportsPredictor]

I remain amused that reporters think the only place they can work from is the press box.

If it's so important, take your damn notebook out into the crowd, sit down, find a wireless connection (hook up to the web with a cell phone if you need to), and blog away.

[yonaker]

Golf Week was blogging throughout the NCAA Division I golf championships (men and women).

[playthrough]

This reminds me of the cup-nazis at the Final Four who won't let you onto press row with anything but a blue Dasani (or was it Aquafina?) cup for your Diet Coke. The NCAA is just amazing in its breadth and scope of wanting to control everything in its domain.

[Bob Slydell]

Wow. Had no idea ths had happened.

It does seem a case of selective enforcement, especially since there was no restrictions on blogging stated in the press pass request form.

So how did people get away with it at the NCAA hoops tournament, etc.

And sportspredictor, it's not about where we can work. It's about people telling us HOW we can we can work. Of course we can find a wireless network, maybe, and blog. But for someone to tell me how I can do my job, especialy since I've done it that way before, is bullshit.

What if there was a slight rain yesterday, was Bennett supposed to sit out in the rain and work on his computer?

It's like at the state track meet where you're told where you can stand to take pics or grab athletes. They're just trying to control everything. That and kissing the ass of the WWL.

I haven't read all three pages, but has anyone else had prblems blogging from the pressbox and ruining the integrity of broadcasting a live event?

[TheSportsPredictor]

And sportspredictor, it's not about where we can work. It's about people telling us HOW we can we can work. Of course we can find a wireless network, maybe, and blog. But for someone to tell me how I can do my job, especialy since I've done it that way before, is bullshit.

Agree with that. But again, if what he's writing is so important, he can find a way to get the story (or blog in this case) filed and then fight the powers that be.

What if there was a slight rain yesterday, was Bennett supposed to sit out in the rain and work on his computer?

Let's face it -- sports teams have provided press boxes all along because it was in their best interests. Why would you expect them to continue to provide such things if it is no longer in their best interests?

[slappy4428]

fuckabunchaNCAA

[Central-KY-Kid]

Norrin Radd,

ECrawford wasn't responding to you with with the "question commitment" remark; he was referring to occasionally, who seems to have a personal rule that if you don't staff someone 100 percent of the time during the regular season, you shouldn't act like you care about them in the postseason.

Obviously the dude hasn't been around preps because not only is it commonplace on that level, it's considered the norm for sports like wrestling, tennis, golf, etc.

Or maybe he doesn't understand that Football/Baseball/Recruiting is Bennett's primary beat, not a college baseball team that routinely drew less than some high school soccer or prep girls' basketball games in these parts.

Or maybe he's just a jackass.

[Bob Slydell]

As a former beat reporter on U. of Louisville sports for the C-J, I can tell you that the beat writer's primarily focuses are football and basketball. And football and basketball recruiting. Given that the school regularly is nationally ranked in both sports, that's a pretty good piece of work considering the amount of copy you're asked to produce. It's really two full-time beats that are pretty much year-round, plus enterprise in the summer.

So generally, the other sports are covered by other reporters, whether it's G.A. people or someone else. Now, when those other sports become big stories, the beat writer often will be called on to jump in, as Brian was with the baseball team. While he wasn't going to cover the College World Series regardless, the paper will.

U of L baseball averaged fewer than 500 fans per game during the regular season and was a bubble team in the NCAA Tournament. It received periodic features and staff coverage of selected games, and that's about it.

To be honest, the beat is becoming more and more of a bear. In the past two weeks, Louisville has notched national top 10 finishes in women's golf (in Florida) and men's track (in California). Now baseball.

Anyway, to question anybody's commitment to covering college baseball because of regular season games in which there is limited reader interest seems a bit strange.

Oh, and Brian does a great job and is a great guy, though I'm a bit disappointed we didn't see an NBA-esque jersey toss into the crowd or something.

Was he wearing a UK jersey? That would have been priceless.

[Bob Slydell]

That would be interesting...a mass-blog exodus by the newspapers. That would be great.

I doubt anyone except our industry would be on our sides. Peeople would just be pissed there was no coverage. Go look at the comments on the CJ.

[pressmurphy]

The latest battle with the NCAA seems to be an extension of battles on other fronts in the world of sports over the years.

The PGA Tour at one time tried to assert that the results (specifically the scores in relation to par) were their property while a tournament was in progress and could not be reported online in live time.

I believe MLB has been in a tussle or two of late with companies offering fantasy baseball stats, with the MLBPA also getting involved. The players association doesn't like that the names of their members are being used -- at one point Barry Bonds was the last holdout on granting permission for the use of his name.

I believe MLB asserted at one point that they owned the rights to all statistics generated from games. I found that laughable since there is a limited set of numbers available in the world (zero through nine), so copyrighting their various combinations is preposterous. It's like someone suing songwriters who use the notes of the musical scale -- do, ra, me, fa, so . . .

  One other issue that comes into play with regards to the latest NCAA power play is that high school associations tried following the (failed) lead of the LPGA in recent years by placing big restrictions on photography at championship sites. New York's H.S. association hit fotogs with it on opening day of the 2006 state semifinals, and the issue reared its head in Louisiana and Wisconsin this winter.

  The Associations are selling the rights to individuals or companies who want to sell images to the public for $20 or $30 a pop, something that many newspapers already routinely do through Pictopia or their own fulfillment process.

  In each case -- preps, fantasy sports and the golf tours -- I can understand why they think they need to do this. but I think they all would have dropped the idea had they done a more thoughtful analysis of the effects. I think the latest NCAA move falls under the same heading -- an idea with a very limited amount of merit to it but one that will likely do more damage than good over the course of time if they continue to enforce it.

[Bob Slydell]

And sportspredictor, it's not about where we can work. It's about people telling us HOW we can we can work. Of course we can find a wireless network, maybe, and blog. But for someone to tell me how I can do my job, especialy since I've done it that way before, is bullshit.

Agree with that. But again, if what he's writing is so important, he can find a way to get the story (or blog in this case) filed and then fight the powers that be.

What if there was a slight rain yesterday, was Bennett supposed to sit out in the rain and work on his computer?

Let's face it -- sports teams have provided press boxes all along because it was in their best interests. Why would you expect them to continue to provide such things if it is no longer in their best interests?

I doubt we're seeing the start of the end of the pressbox. My whole point is organizations telling us how we can work. It is just like the state HS associations and the photo question that has been discussed on here.

And what is to stop a reporter from calling into his paper and have someone blog with no name on it. Just the CJ's blog? Are tey going to kick out all three reporters. What is a photog is calling it in.

Is reporting on an event going to turn into a cat and mouse, catch me if you can game?

[Major Batman]

I'm somewhat involved in this ... Here's the lowdown from my vantage point.

This is an ESPN powerplay. The mouse has the broadcast rights and bitched to the NCAA about blogging taking away from their exclusivity.

The NCAA, despite needing additional exposure for a growing sport, buckled. In fact, they turned on the people who have covered them all season in favor of ESPN, who showed one regular season baseball telecast. But they bought the rights ... money talks, might makes right, etc.

Why ESPN chose college baseball to crack down on this when thousands of newspapers and web sites live blog football and some basketball, I have no idea.

It should be an interesting week in Omaha - with this popping up and Ron Polk blasting the NCAA folks at every turn.

[RedCanuck]

Yeah, I'm with DanOregon, and it seems Major Batman has some of the information I'm looking for.  I wondered what exactly ESPN managed to weasel into their contract, and if maybe they were letting NCAA do their dirty work.

Legally, I think you'd have to try to define what constitutes a broadcast in this age and I'm not sure what kind of precedent is out there.

[occasionally]

Golf Week was blogging throughout the NCAA Division I golf championships (men and women).

The difference between golf, and the prior week when Louisville played at Mizzou, and many of the other examples cited, is that ESPN has the rights to televise every super regional game. Those rights don't extend to the regionals. Does anyone televise the golf championships (maybe The Golf Channel)? As for regular-season college football, that's controlled by the home team, not the NCAA.

[micropolitan guy]

I'm guessing a bunch of us will be blogging this fall during college football games. Does that mean Lincoln Financial Sports can call the NCAA and get one of its bitches to eject us?

The NCAA does not own the broadcast rights to any Division I-A college football game. The schools and conferences do. So the NCAA cannot directly tell you anything. The school can threaten to revoke your credential if you blog live play-by-play from the game site.

The NCAA does own the rights to the post-season tournaments it runs, such as the baseball tournament.  And thus it can revoke credentials, and probably threaten not to credential outlets that violate its policy. It would not make it impossible to cover, for  example, the CWS. Players are available in the parking lot as they head to their busses. But it would make it considerably more difficult.

And the NCAA does not make billions off of college football, since there is no I-A playoff. Many of the member schools do make a bundle, tho.

[Omar_dont_scare]

Love the comment from the reader on Bennett's blog about how the paper might want to consider just dropping this whole thing "so the baseball team gets the attention it deserves."

Jesus, we're doomed.

Exactly my thought reading the comments. I also enjoyed the ones that said "Why didn't you just go across the street to the bar and watch on TV and continue your reporting?"

People have no idea what we do.