NCAA Sets Limits For Tournament Access

Yes, it is a pandemic, we all know that.

Friend who covers Michigan passed on this letter about how colleges will be limited to five media spots for NCAA.

Sounds like it will be five for each team and 15 national spots at each game.

There aren't any in-person interviews anyway with everything on Zoom.

Thoughts about skewing to national over local so much? 15 spots at each game. Are there even 15 national outlets and will they each have multiple people in Indiana to cover every site?

I think about NCAA.com, AP, ESPN.com, Sporting News, Yahoo, The Athletic, USA Today, CBSSports.com, that's 8 that would typically staff and some of them would, indeed, have somebody at every site. Am I missing somebody?

I think closer to 10 local would handle the Power Five schools, noting small majors will likely have two (hometown paper, student paper).

 

New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal would probably have some kind of presence, maybe not every site. Given the proximity, I would think Chicago Tribune as well. Does Indy Star covering an event in its backyard count as local in this case?

 

There is nothing for local TV stations to shoot. NCAA has never allowed them to shoot anything but the locker room interviews (which there aren't any) and stand-ups in front of the NCAA banners or street scenes. I don't think they will be credentialed. All they could do is stand outside Lucas Oil and maybe interview fans as they come and go.

 

Those also make sense, but I can't imagine any of those outlets committing 4 people to be at every site the first weekend. Indy Star will probably co-opt USA Today coverage and other Gannett papers that make the trip. They could really knock it out of the park with the reporting they could have with school beat reporters and their people.

 

This may be much ado about nothing. I would imagine that a lot of newspapers and websites won't even send a reporter since the games will be televised, the interviews will be done over Zoom and I can't imagine that any practices/gatherings will be open. I would be shocked if a single student who doesn't go to college within a short drive of the arena is there. Aside from a dateline, what are you getting out of sending a reporter? Maybe more reporters would jump on a plane if their team reached the final weekend, but I just can't see it for a first/second-round game.

Maybe I'm wrong. Has there been a lot of basketball writers travelling this winter?

I could see a world where press row for the men's and women's tournaments just feature a writer or two from the local newspaper, the regional AP reporter, a beat guy or two and then some writers from national outlets that can afford it.

 

You make a good point is the juice worth the squeeze of being there

 

Knowing Gannett and Gatehouse though, Indy Star and USA Today would provide coverage making some editors think they don't need to send someone.

 

Wait til next year, when these limitations are permanent b/c they worked so well this year.

 

USA Today will send 2 staffers, make them take iPhone photos from their press box seat, and then have 15 basement bloggers making $10/hr write clickbait pieces about twitter reactions to big moments.

 

@PaperClip529, Dave Matter at the Post-Dispatch has travelled all season, but he had to drive to every game he covered. Which meant a lot of long-ass drives from Columbia, Mo.

 

Holy cow, you're right. Possibly ride-share with the radio broadcasters?