Curley Center Chat Addresses Coverage of Initial Eligibility

While NCAA rules limit when a college coach can talk about an incoming student-athlete, media members almost invariably focus on standout high school students headed for college or pursue in-depth stories about recruiting.

Along with those somewhat opposing perspectives come ethical issues that touch on everything from privacy to the potential high-stakes pressure of intercollegiate athletics. And that backdrop poses problems for everyone involved—coaches, the media and the student-athletes themselves.

The related ethical challenges, responsibilities for all parties involved and even typical outcomes will be discussed at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28, during an online chat conducted by the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.

"Issues in Covering Initial Eligibility" is free, and people may access and participate in the session by visiting http://sportsjourn.psu.edu/chats online.

Participants include: Coquese Washington, women's basketball coach at Penn State, and Steve Wieberg, a sports writer who focuses on intercollegiate athletics for USA Today.

Malcolm Moran, the Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society and director of the Curley Center, will serve as moderator. The hour-long session will focus on journalism coverage of recruits, recruiting and many related issues with insights and opinions from the perspective of of a coach as well as that of a journalist.

In addition, the user-friendly format of the online chats allow for abundant interaction and questions from participants all over the world. Others involved with intercollegiate athletics, fellow journalists, college students and sports fans all may ask a question, comment or follow along by simply navigating to the chat online.

The Curley Center explores issues and trends in sports journalism through instruction, outreach, programming and research. The Center's undergraduate curricular emphasis includes courses in sports writing, sports broadcasting, sports information, sports, media and society, and sports and public policy, which is cross-listed with the Penn State Dickinson School of Law.

The John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State University routinely offers informative discussions about the nexus of media and sport and this week's topic should be of interest to anyone who covers college athletics and recruiting.

This ad really needs no explanation, except, where are the Bama Bangs? Auburn fans apparently did not like it. Oh, yeah, people here in Fayetteville protested because the local Old Navy was selling LSU gear.

Week 1 Movers

 

The NCAA.com Power Rankings are based solely on team statistics. Unlike traditional polls that allow individuals to subjectively rank the "best" teams in their opinion, these rankings are simply based on current stats for both offense and defense, taking into account teams’ ability to produce positive results on both ends of the field.

 

A strength-of-schedule factor is also included to reward teams that play more BCS opponents. The same SOS factor carries across the whole season for a team, meaning the weekly shift in ranking is accounted for completely by that week’s statistics.

 

 

I guess I did not realize the NCAA was in the business of ranking FBS teams (thanks @DrSaturday for the tip), a seemingly meaningless exercise since the NCAA does not sponsor a championship in FBS. Nonetheless, here are the Week 1 Power Rankings according to the NCAA in which Virginia (?!?) is in your top 5. And, oh yeah, be sure to click on "shop" while there to help the non-commercial endeavor.

 

Okay, work with me on this one for a second. What does the Mountain West have that no other conference except the Big Ten has? It has its own television network, The Mtn.

 

The network is 50% owned by Comcast Corporation and 50% by CBS College Sports, but has poor distribution numbers. In fact, the network has regularly battled with cable systems for broad-based distribution, not just sports tier distribution.

 

Enter Kansas. Maybe Missouri. Likely Kansas State. Possibly Boise State. Heck, even Baylor is attractive. Now the Mountain West grows from 9 schools to possibly 13 or 14 schools. The conference increases its geographic footprint and adds schools traditionally good in basketball.

 

All of a sudden, the Mountain West could have a #1 seed from the 2010 NCAA Basketball Tournament (Kansas), a #2 (Kansas State), two #3s (Baylor and New Mexico), plus BYU (#7), UNLV (#8), Missouri (#10), and San Diego State (#11) for a total of 8 teams. Given the NCAA basketball tournament revenue distribution formula, this would add serious $$$ to the conference. According to the NCAA website, conferences received $206,020 per game in which their member institutions played. That would have been 18 games in 2010, or $3,708,360.

 

Plus, the potential to add additional $$$ from increased subscriber fees due to greater distribution of The Mtn. TV network. And, it would rival the Big East Conference for basketball dominance. Sort of a West-of-the-Mississippi hoops superconference.

 

The schools leftover from the raids of the Big Ten, Pac-10 and possibly SEC will be schools not strong in football. But they are hoops powers, and the MWC has had hoops success (Utah has a long history of basketball success as well). 

 

In my mind, the MWC should forget about trying to dance at the BCS party and focus on reaping the available $$$ from basketball dominance.

I wrote this last summer (June 10, 2010) before knowing that BYU would thumb its nose at the Mountain West, but I still think this idea carries merit. The Big East, ACC and Mountain West could, under this scenario, dominate college basketball. It is obvious the Pac-12 and SEC are interested solely in football riches. I think Baylor, Kansas and all of the other schools at the Thanksgiving Little Kids Table should focus on basketball and not worry about the BCS.