Do SIDs know anything?

[TheMethod]

The two main SIDs I deal with -- football and basketball -- don't really seem to know much more than I do about the team I cover. And I think, most of the time, they're not just playing dumb. I actually think the coaches I cover, especially the football coach, is so paranoid that he's afraid his SID is going to leak things like, "Ed Quickfoot may or may not have sprained his ankle last week," and that it will cause his team to lose games.

The basketball SID is so woefully unhelpful that I don't even bother asking him to help me get interviews anymore, much less go to him for gap-filling information. Soon, I expect a new tier in media relations that makes it so that SIDs never actually have to talk to anyone.

 

[Moderator1]

Yeah? Pull that off and get back to me!

 

[pressmurphy]

The two main SIDs I deal with -- football and basketball -- don't really seem to know much more than I do about the team I cover. And I think, most of the time, they're not just playing dumb. I actually think the coaches I cover, especially the football coach, is so paranoid that he's afraid his SID is going to leak things like, "Ed Quickfoot may or may not have sprained his ankle last week," and that it will cause his team to lose games.

The basketball SID is so woefully unhelpful that I don't even bother asking him to help me get interviews anymore, much less go to him for gap-filling information. Soon, I expect a new tier in media relations that makes it so that SIDs never actually have to talk to anyone.

I rarely ever depended on SIDs for anything in the way of information on the team that would worthy of making it into print. I used them to arrange player interviews that I couldn't just do as hit-and-runs after practice, help me get credentialed home and away and to schedule time for me with the handful of coaches who did not want to be contacted directly by media.

Between HIPPA and the fact that any top 100 hoops coach or top 119 football can get them fired at any time, I can halfway understand why some SIDs are useless in the "I" portion of their job title.

 

[BYH]

Every SID is good except that new guy at VCU. Whomever he is!

 

[BillyT]

It's like anything else.

There are terrific ones and there are crappy ones.

The good ones have autonomy, but then there are those under the control of the athletic director and/or specific coaches.

I am not in the game today, but I remember some of the guys in New England Like Ed Carpenter at BU and Jim Norman at URI. As a toung sports writer, they were both of great help to me -- and others.

 

[Clever username]

I don't know. The ones I've dealt with recently have stunned me by the breadth of their knowledge of their teams, even going back a few years. One could tell the lacrosse players apart simply by the way they ran. She didn't even need to look at their numbers.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

Paging Just_An_SID ... and some other bum who recently became one ...

It sounds as if you've run into a bad one or two. I've been lucky in that two different SID, both at Division II schools, were among the best guys I've ever dealt with, regardless of title, experience or anything else. Just super people.

And, like you, I've run into a couple that I'm pretty sure I knew more than they did. Which isn't good when one considers that I wasn't covering their schools and programs on a frequent basis.

 

[2underpar]

a good SID can be an invaluable source. others not so much.

 

[forever_town]

Every SID is good except that new guy at VCU. Whomever he is!

Yeah. That jerk!

I guess I'm spoiled by the SIDs I've dealt with at the university I cover. They've all treated me well and helped me with what I've needed.

 

[slappy4428]

Every SID is good except that new guy at VCU. Whomever he is!

He's a damn sight better than the foof who used to be the SE at Richmond...

 

[Norman Stansfield]

I have a hard time believing there's a better group of SIDs in the country than the ones with whom I deal on my beat.

And no, they don't frequent this board...

 

[Moland Spring]

What you really need is an SID of one sport who hates everything involved in another sport. That can really help. But overall, I'd definitely be extremely wary of depending on an SID for a fact involving the team you cover. I would always, always, always ask, because you never know. But particularly if it's something the SID would only think he/she would know. Like if an assistant is looking for another job. Everyone thinks their guy is staying.
I know people who have been burned on that.

 

[Central-KY-Kid]

Louisville's basketball SID, Kenny Klein, is great. Football is OK, but not on his level.

Kentucky's football and basketball SIDs have their on and off days (three years in a row, they have "supposedly" forgotten our request for two seats at annual Kentucky-Louisville basketball or football game although we got confirmation both by phone call and e-mail).

Western Kentucky emeritus SID Paul Just, who has been involved with the Toppers since like 1872, has been great to deal with.

 

[partain]

The funny thing is sometimes the most overworked ones are the best. I covered a division II school in Texas a decade ago and the SID there was great. The college didn't have a journalism or public relations program so help was nearly impossible to find. I couldn't find stringers and he couldn't find people to help keep stats at games. This guy had a dozen sports to keep up with and always seemed on top of it.

The best part is he was great to me despite the fact that I was only there for six months (better job came along). We even carpooled to a basketball game in Oklahoma that would determine whether the school made it into the postseason. My paper didn't have the ability to transmit stories at the time, and the game went to double overtime. So I wrote the story out longhand while he drove and then called it in from a pay phone somewhere between Oklahoma City and Dallas. Funny how neither the school nor the paper felt an overnight stay was warranted!

I think what it came down to was he knew most of the town only cared about the h.s. football team--so he was happy to get whatever coverage he could.

 

[JayFarrar]

Hey now, my brother is an SID and he knows plenty.
He also helps with compliance, generates 95 percent of the content and then lays out the media guides for all the sports and maintains the sports portion of the school's website.
He also gets 10 p.m. calls at home from cranky-ass reporters who don't remember to call during the afternoon when he is at work, as they are trying to put together a preview story or some such nonsense and don't have the clue needed to realize that all the information they need is already on the school's website.
Reporter: Hey man, I was looking to see if you have any starters out for the game and if you have a contact for the opposing team
My brother: Did you check my website?
Reporter: No
My brother: It is all up on the site
Reporter: Since I got you on the phone can you go ahead and tell me?
My brother: Let me think, is your computer on?
Reporter: Yes
My brother: Okay, whispers sorry honey, its the paper, I know its after 10. And I know he woke up you and both kids. I'll put them to sleep. Don't worry about it. Do you have the internet up?
Reporter: Yes
My brother: go to www.myschool.edu/sports
Reporter: Okay
My brother: In the upper right hand corner, you'll see a link that says game notes. It is an injury update, I did it before I left, so that's the most update that I have and if you scroll down you'll the contact info for the other school
Reporter: Okay, I see all that.
My brother: You should have gotten this in your e-mail. Did you?
Reporter: Yeah, but I didn't look at it. I get so many worthless e-mails, I hardly read them anymore
My brother: Well, thanks
Reporter: Click
My brother: Stupid motherf*****
Reporter: That guy is worthless

 

[GuessWho]

Sometimes I think the SIDs at some of the schools in the BCS league I cover are devout practitioners of plausible deniability and only know what they need to know. But most times I think there's no way they can possibly be that clueless.

Or can they?

 

[Ace]

Sometimes I think the SIDs at some of the schools in the BCS league I cover are devout practitioners of plausible deniability and only know what they need to know. But most times I think there's no way they can possibly be that clueless.

Or can they?

I'm curious. What do you expect these "clueless" SIDs to tell you? Do you plan to interview them and quote them in the newspaper?

 

[Armchair_QB]

The good ones have autonomy, but then there are those under the control of the athletic director and/or specific coaches.

Given that the AD, you know, runs the ****ing athletic department the SID should be under his/her control.

That's like saying 'this guy's a good reporter because he doesn't have to answer to his SE."

 

[GuessWho]

Sometimes I think the SIDs at some of the schools in the BCS league I cover are devout practitioners of plausible deniability and only know what they need to know. But most times I think there's no way they can possibly be that clueless.

Or can they?

I'm curious. What do you expect these "clueless" SIDs to tell you? Do you plan to interview them and quote them in the newspaper?

Oh, just general stuff, like which player is banging the coach's spouse. And, yeah, I'm a great believer in quoting SIDs. Isn't everyone?

 

[mdpoppy]

The SIDs I work with know their stuff, they can pretty much spew the entire record book out on command. I just think the coaches I deal with are playing them like puppets.