More newsworthy: Wooden's death or college conference restructuring

I guess the noob owes us a beer.

 

Rue McClanahan's death or Japanese prime minister resigning?

 

I can think of two writers I know who, if they were writing Wooden's obit because he coached at nearby Big State U, would have to continue it in the next day's paper

 

It is a big deal, you're right.
Yet, thanks to the ESPN crawl overkill, I'm getting the same 24-36 hour overload I had when Joe DiMaggio died in the same plane crash as JFK Jr.

 

I give ESPN credit for this: Wooden's reign predates the WWL's founding, and sometimes they want to act as if sports history only began when they did.

In this case, it might not be possible to overkill.

 

More newsworthy... you are kidding, right? Wooden all the way.

 

I thought Wooden's death, although not truly surprising, is a huge story.

I haven't run a single line on college conferences changing. As Don Nelson once said "90 percent of the things that get talked about never happen." I really don't think there will be much change in the next five years.

 

What planet do you live on?

 

The college stuff is fun to knock around, like sports talk shows have been knocking around LeBron for the last two years. Wooden is/was the greatest living college basketball coach, if not basketball coach period.

My guess? Conference restructuring won't happen, if it does, until October. College presidents are heading out the door for summer, nobody wants to deal with this now. That said - they don't want to be caught by surprise while they're on vacation so they want to have their ducks in a row.

 

Facts take precedent over unconfirmable rumors and guesswork, which is all the conference shuffle story is now. So you give Wooden more coverage.
IF your paper had an exclusive with quotes from parties involved about a done deal for restructuring, you could lead with that. And boy, would some people on your staff deserve raises.