Getting credentialed for NCAA football (websites)

I've heard the NCAA will not credential any web site unless you have an accompanying print publication. Is this a hard and fast rule, or do some schools compromise?

 

The NCAA might not credential sites for things like the Final Four, but there are plenty of schools that provide credentials for sites. But it's got to be a major site, like a rivals.com or something like that.

 

It's a scout.com site that I just started doing work for, and I'm concerned that the school won't credential me. Gonna have to do my best sales job.

 

I think schools which have their own ties to whatever brand they subscribe to usually view sites like Scout or Rivals or whoever they are not with as competition and usually do all they can to exclude. The thing is, it really makes a certain amount of sense. Maybe I'm a dinosaur, but you really should have to meet some sort of standard to get in that box ... or else every blogger in America ... yeah, maybe I am a dinosaur.

 

The school I cover doesn't allow websites that have fan message boards to get credentials, UNLESS they have a print publication, too.

 

That policy seems fair to me. Having a web site doesn't mean you're going to be ethical or credible. At least newspapers try.

 

My school credentials Scout and Rivals, but they can only show like three minutes of press conferences on their site. They aren't allowed to post an entire 60-minute presser, which they used to do.

 

Has your site been credentialled in the past? Does the scouts home office have any way to help you? I'm sure they've dealt with this issue before. If nothing else, find other schools in your conference that credential scouts sites to use as exhibits that you aren't a fly-by-nite outfit, although I would think most places would have gotten that idea already.

 

I just started reporting for the website. I don't believe it's been credentialed in the past, because it hasn't tried. It's an extremely active community but there was never a reporter before. The competing rivals site is credentialed, but they have a magazine -- and some sort of dealings with the school, which could be trouble for me.

I'm urging the owner of my site to stress to the ath dept that I have a solid background as a pro reporter -- and not a fanboy idiot -- and would cover the team like a newspaper guy, but I'm afraid they may shoot me down.

 

even if the magazine isn't much, and only comes out a few times a year, some sites print them. The rivals site that I work for puts one out a few times a year and basically reprints older stories from earlier in the year and slaps it on the page via pagemaker.

 

It's only because there are so many fanboy douchebags that can use their rahrahtigers.com sites to get into the press box and eat the fucking popcorn and annoy the real writers.

No offense to the real journalists that work legitimate internet jobs. But you understand.

 

I understand completely. That's my concern, exactly.

I'm just hoping the school I'm covering doesn't have a one-szie-fits-all rule and will make an exception.