College Mug Shots

Trying to track down high-resolution mug shots of coaches and players from NCAA institutions is a constant struggle.

Some schools have high resolution mug shots available if you go to their site and click on their roster. That's always nice.

Some schools have ftp sites that include all mugs, logos, etc. That's even better. But there doesn't seem to be a list of these ftp sites anywhere so you still have to contact each school individually to ask if they have such a site.

Is there a central ftp location that has all of these schools available? I often wonder how tv always seems to have mugs but us print/online media have to work to obtain them.

I know the NCAA sometimes has an ftp site available for the men's basketball tournament that includes mugs and vector logos, but I'm wondering if there is anything similar to that for football and all sports for that matter.

Any thoughts?

 

First, how is an FTP site more convenient than having the hi-res mugshots right on the bio pages?

Second, e-mail the SID. It's not rocket surgery.

 

There isn't a huge advantage to having an ftp site over mugs on the bios page. The nice part of having an ftp site is that you can often bulk download the files. It may seem like a small savings of time, but every little bit helps these days.

If I want to compare all the quarterbacks in the SEC to all the quarterbacks in the Pac-10 and I want to run mugs of each, I have to contact 26 SIDs and wait for them to respond. The chances of them getting back to me in a timely fashion is pretty unlikely. Sure, I might get 17 of them within a day or two, but if I'm trying to build this page today, it would be nice to have a central location to pull them from.

 

If you want to do something like that, either deal with the crappy small mugshots for some teams or do the smart thing and use wire photos. The helmets usually look better. No one knows or cares what most football players look like without them.

 

I wouldn't want to settle for the crappy small mugs. That's the whole point. And the fact that people don't know what most football players' faces look like is exactly the point of using them. I disagree that nobody cares. It's a way of trying to put a face to the names.

Plus, I was never planning that package in the first place. It was just an example.

Why such a hater?

 

Nobody did the SEC/police lineup mugshots joke? Petty must be under the weather.

 

The hate comes from a place deep in my black heart reserved for lazy journalists who want everything handed to them on a silver platter and post the same thread in two different sub-forums and come up with shitty examples and think mugshots humanize people because their design sensibilities suck.

 

I've always felt that sports-information departments, especially D-I, should have the hi-res mug shots available on their website. I'll settle for having one of those websites where you can click on the bio mug and make it larger up to the point where you can right-click and save a usable one.

I know it eats up bandwidth. And I know print outlets are not necessarily the priority anymore. But this is one way SI departments can help us greatly.

And Vers, you may not think mugs have any place in your design, but I like them in mine.

 

collegepressbox.com

 

I emailed them for a password. Thanks.

EDIT: Got it, and it's a fabulous resource. If an FBS school is releasing any head shots, they're all here.

 

Thanks, Shot. That's going to be great. I guess us lazy journalists have shared a resource that makes our jobs more efficient. Now we have more time to post BS on these boards. Oh, wait, Vers already has that covered. Guess the rest of us can get back to work now.

 

;D