Tree, forest, etc: APSE gets excited, writes strongly worded letter to NCAA

At a lot of schools, getting players after games might be the only time all week you could talk to them.

What are you going to regurgitate if you don't have access?

 

Wow, that's totally an appropriate comparison!

 

Well, I just said in that post you quoted that "access is important." Therefore, I think access is important. I just don't think the access is being used correctly in many cases. I think something like the APSE letter can be used as a jumping-off point to reevaluate different ways of doing things. Some papers have been forced to do things differently, and they've succeeded in the short run. Maybe there's something to be learned by looking at ways to adjust and adapt instead of complaining that the sky is falling because we can't do things exactly like we used to.

 

Ya, that kind of thing sounds like micromanaging run amok.

 

The NFL had a similar rule or at least they did as of 2008. I think you could post quarter summaries, but couldn't blog anything resembling play-by-play. I don't necessarily agree with the rule, but I don't know why anyone would want to blog play-by-play, although a lot of people do that on Twitter.

 

Is it worth it, though? Is talking to players valuable enough in 2013 to offset costs of covering beats the way we cover them?

We have to pay to travel.

We have to expend resources on being at the games, even home games.

We frequently soft-pedal stories because schools and teams hold the access hammer - this isn't an economic cost, but it's a cost in quality.

Maybe in 2013 it's still worth it. Will it be by 2033 or 2043? I'm skeptical.

 

This is the NCAA we're talking about here.

 

I doubt it would be anything they would police, unless there was someone they wanted to make an example of... Still, it's an idiotic rule.

 

And the PGA Tour, unless they dropped their recently-wielded hammer.