Zip for Akron's Zips coverage

AP wouldn't do more than first lede for its Ohio-Michigan papers? I thought all I-As got optionals.

 

And FWIW, the ABJ's beat writer did a notebook for Monday, so if something happened to him to miss the game, it wasn't long-term serious.

 

Only ranked and major teams get optionals.

 

I rarely see optionals from I-A schools that aren't ranked. We have three I-A schools in my state, none are ranked and I can not recall seeing an optional story for any of them this season except when playing a top-25 opponent.

Then again, we cover those schools home and away (well, we don't go to Hawaii with the dog school when the game won't be over until 1:30 a.m.) and scanning the wire isn't something we do for those games. So maybe I'm talking out of my butt.

 

I remember there was an uproar a few years back when some small school upset Kansas and didn't have a single writer at the game. I also remember something similar several years ago when Penn State went into Rupp Arena and beat a top five Kentucky team, but no PSU writers were there...

Sometimes you make a decision that winds up being the wrong one. Sometimes something happens that the readers don't know about.

 

I think AP is only required to do optionals for Top 25 teams. I remember the local AP guy celebrating when the local college fell out of the Top 25 because he essentially didn't have to cover them anymore...

 

ABJ covers Browns with beat writer/columnist/photo on road and goes to all road Indians, Cavs and Ohio State games. As for their Akron/Kent State coverage, they rarely go out of state. Didn't used to be that way, but it is now.

 

288 miles separates Kalamazoo from Akron. So you're talking two tanks of gas and a night in the K-Zoo Holiday Inn, maybe with a trip to Outback thrown in for good measure. Seems like a managable affair. But what's done is done.

 

The hometown newspaper of a FBS team has to staff every one of its games, whether in Kalamazoo, or on Pluto so to speak. That is all.

 

Not talking specifically of Akron. But what about those schools playing at Hawaii? Should the Ruston, La., or Monroe paper staff a LaTech at Hawaii game even though it will end two hours after deadline? Last week, Utah State played at Hawaii. Normally, three papers staff USU games even though it is the bottom of the barrel in I-A football. Only the 12k circ paper sent a reporter to Honolulu. The SLC papers covered it via television and a followup.

But I will agree. If the ABJ's policy is to not cover the hometown school's away games they are making a mistake. But is that mistake costing them any subscribers?

 

Ruston could buy a stringer if it doesn't want to send its beat person. And it's not a matter of whether it draws readers. A great read or a great expose doesn't automatically lead to more readers, either. It's a matter of doing what a paper should do.

 

Not taking the position that no presence in the pressbox is needed, mind you. Just exploring that train of thought.

But, unfortunately, EVERYTHING is a matter of readership to a degree. If it doesn't sell papers ...