NDSU Rescinds Ridiculous Policy

[ORUJason]

A week ago, NDSU established a policy that only media that had a contractual agreement with NDSU could have access to head coaches for interviews.  It was very restrictive included telling live bloggers that they couldn't blog from live NDSU events.  But the athletic director forgot to run this policy by the NDSU president, and now he has been forced to reverse the policy.  Why would they think this is a good idea?

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ndsu-rescinds-media-policy-just-days-after-it-takes-effect-195537314.html

 

[ORUTerry]

Wonder what compelled them to pursue this policy?  Obviously some has control issues. Where were the grown ups?

[Hammersmith]

Please remember that almost all of the media attention over this has come from the company that lost the broadcast bid. I'm not saying I like all aspects of the policy or that NDSU didn't screw up in the announcement of said policy, just that most of what you've read about it is misleading or false.

For instance, the policy did not prohibit live blogging. It prohibited using a live blog to do a continuous play by play. You could write about individual plays, injury situations, overall game flow, substitutions, score and time, etc.

I think the interview thing was (deliberately) misconstrued as well. It didn't mean you couldn't talk to the head coaches, you just couldn't broadcast the interview on the air without permission. That's still a little much(and the part most of us were uncomfortable with), but it wasn't the gag order that the media implied. Also, there's a pretty strong feeling that the restriction would have been limited to local, competing media, not outside sources like opposing teams' media or national media.

The policy mostly came about because NDSU and its radio partner are trying to build a Bison-themed radio station. It's a brand new thing up here and they were trying to give it as many advantages as possible right out of the gate. NDSU gets a good share of the advertising revenue(100% during games and 30% during other Bison-related content), so both parties have a strong incentive to make this station work.

Additionally, Forum Communications(FCC - the media company doing all the complaining) lowballed the bid thinking that, even if they lost the bid, they could get much of the benefit of a contract for no cost. They're known for breaking every rule they could get away with. Here was a viewpoint from a competitor who also didn't win the bid. It shows that FCC included demands for exclusive access as well. http://kfgo.com/blogs/news-views-with-joel-heitkamp-1/961/hypocrisy-1/

There's lots of blame to go around on this one, and nobody's hands are clean. I think contracts like the one NDSU attempted will become the norm for P5 and upper G5 teams. And that's kind of what NDSU is(our athletic department looks more like a lower-P5 or upper-G5 than a typical FCS/mid-major - mostly because of football). NDSU tried to get ahead of the curve and it backfired due to the politics and culture of the upper Midwest. Three years from now when the next contract is negotiated, we'll all probably wonder what the big deal was.

[Old Titan]

This just the latest from the egos who insist you must intentionally mispronounce their mascot name.

I've lived and traveled up and down buffalo country my entire life; I've never heard anyone outside of the NDSU faithful refer to "tatanka" as "bi-zohn". 

[ORUalum]

this is not unheard of.  i was following a Dallas Cowboys game once overseas on a newspaper live chat and they specifically said they did not have the rights to type play by play when someone asked why they were assuming people were watching the game.  i guess everyone is trying to squeeze every last dollar out of athletics.

[ORUalum]

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