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Worst access?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Pulitzer Wannabe, Nov 8, 2007.

  1. Not players, but coaches/managers.

    I assume 1 through 100 is probably football. But who has legendarily horrible access? Who is a nightmare to cover?

    And, the second question I would ask is, should access even matter? Should good writers/reporters be talented and tenacious enough to do great work regardless of "access"?
     
  2. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Pick an SEC school ... any school.
     
  3. The reason I thought of it was because Maisel mentioned something about Callahan turning Nebraska into a fortress or something like that. Seemed like an access dig, though I wasn't quite sure. Seems like it's just par for the course in college football these days and maybe the NFL, too.
     
  4. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    Alabama gives you selected assistant coaches once before the season and once during the spring. And that's it. Otherwise, all Saban all the time.
     
  5. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    Fixed.

    "All Saban all the time" makes it sound like the guy's available quite a bit, even if that wasn't your intention.

    And hondo's right: If it's an SEC school, the access sucks.
     
  6. Mira

    Mira Member

    Access matters if the program wants coverage. If the program narrows access and makes it hard to do your job, find other content to fill the news hole.
     
  7. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    "Other content" is way down the list of things our readers say they want, and they don't give a rat's ass if the access is good or bad. They just want lots of content on the local team, and they don't want to hear how hard it is to make that happen.
     
  8. Montezuma's Revenge

    Montezuma's Revenge Active Member

    Unless you're talking about a program nobody cares about in the first place, that's really ignorant.
     
  9. Well, if you work in Alabama, it's kind of hard to decide that you're not going to have as many Alabama stories any more. Fans don't care about your access. They just want to read about the Tide.

    I guess what I'm wondering is, should us beat guys and columnists and assorted other writers be stalking players on campus, calling assistants in their office, etc., etc.? Are we letting them dictate too much to us what "access" they allow?
     
  10. Lugnuts

    Lugnuts Well-Known Member

    high school = don't stalk
    college = stalk only if it's really important
    pro = stalk away

    just my opinion.
     
  11. Some Guy

    Some Guy Active Member

    Pretty much all major college football sucks as far as access goes. The only program I can think of that was remotely helpful is USC. And I only had to deal with them once. Might have caught them on a good day, who knows?

    As for the question of should access matter: A good writer is a good writer, and can turn good stuff no matter what the access. That said, good access always makes your stuff better. No exceptions. It makes average stuff good, good stuff great and great stuff even greater.
     
  12. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    I've put this to more than one SID: Two of the most successful college programs of the past 25 years are Miami and FSU (seven national championships between them). Those two schools are also historically the best in terms of allowing access to players, and the coaches allowing access to themselves (although FSU has tightened up a bit in recent years -- but still nowhere near SEC paranoia).

    Therefore, the correlation between allowing little access for the media and winning games doesn't exist. Nada. It's not there. If anything, given the fact that coaches are notorious copycats, I'm surprised more tight-asses haven't followed the Bobby Bowden model.

    But they haven't -- much to our chagrin.
     
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