Clarion-Ledger Mississippi State beat

Yep. Don't forget to put something in the collection plate. lol

 

Dude, get a grip. This IS the next level for probably 80-90 percent of the people who read these boards.

This is the largest newspaper in the state. Covering a major SEC beat full-time. The teams may be good one year and not so good the next, but MSU has a generally competitive athletic program in football, men's basketball and baseball. Major university and all that goes with it, including recruiting.

It doesn't mean you will stay there forever. But do a good job and you WILL get noticed. You'll rub shoulders with the big boys regionally and nationally. And even if you don't move on, it can be a dream job for the right person. True, Starkville ain't New York City, but it doesn't cost like New York City, either.

Anyone who has aspirations of covering major college athletics should be all over this. Rusty will have tons of great applicants.

 

Correct, and well put.

 

Truth. If I wasn't still somewhat new at a job, I'd go after this hard (and by that, I mean apply).

 

What does it matter if the teams are good or not? News is news. SEC athletics is SEC athletics. The on-field performance of the teams doesn't affect the job requirements one bit.

 

I'd say interest is higher if the teams are contenders for conference or national titles. Spotlight shines brighter. Stakes are higher. GameDay may come to town. SI writer will swoop in to do a feature on stud LB's imaginary girlfriend.

Even among the die-hard locals, more people will read the "State U. wins" stories than read the "State U. loses" stories. A winning team will get more eyeballs on the writer's stories.

 

Honestly, in my experience, the worst teams to cover are the straight mediocre 14-14 type hoops teams or 6-6 football teams. Really bad teams have interesting storylines. So do really good ones. Those middle-of-the-road teams, meh.

 

Lot of truth in that. One thing that I learned covering a couple of really bad teams is that there are always stories to be told. They often have little to do with wins and losses. For the players, coaches and fans many stories and memories will remain long after the results are forgotten.

It's been 30 years since I played high school sports. I could not tell you what our team's record was or what the game scores were. But I have vivid memories of certain events, both on and off the field, and people who were part of my life. That's what lingers.

 

Bingo. One of the better stories I wrote last year was on a girls basketball team that was in the tail end of a winless season, and in the middle of a three-year stretch where they didn't win a game. It was a brutal streak, too. There weren't many buzzer-beater losses in there. When I asked how many losses it had been in a row, no one was sure. They'd stopped keeping up with their record.
Despite that, the girls all stayed pretty upbeat. They played hard even though they lost most games by 30 or 40 points, and knew going in that's how it was going to end up. They all had different reasons for sticking it out, most of which boiled down to loyalty, friendship and doing something with their friends.
There were a lot of different facets to it. We'd always just mentioned their stuff as a capsule at the end of the boys' gamer, so it was nice to be able to present a different side other than "Podunk girls lose by 50 again."

 

There's a huge difference between dropping in for a feature on a winless high school team and covering a bad major college or pro team on a daily basis. I'm guessing you weren't dealing with SID or media relations people trying to stonewall you. I'm guessing the players weren't blaming the media for their problems, either, and they didn't see you as the enemy. I'm not denying there are plenty of good stories to be had covering bad teams, but there's no shortage of them, either, when you're covering a winner.

 

Even on a beat like Mississippi State, there will always be at least one good team to write about in a given school year, almost without fail.

I've been in the area as sports editor since mid-2006 and there's been this:

2007: Liberty Bowl, men's basketball NIT (3-1), baseball reaches Omaha
2008: Men's basketball NCAA (1-1), new football coach Dan Mullen hired at season's end, Ron Polk's last baseball season
2009: Men's basketball NCAA (0-1), women's basketball NCAA (1-1)
2010: Gator Bowl, Men's basketball NIT 1-1, women's basketball (2-1, Sweet 16)
2011: Music City Bowl, baseball reaches NCAA Super Regional
2012: Gator Bowl, baseball wins SEC tournament, Rick Stansbury men's basketball soap opera

... so there hasn't been a season without at least one, and usually two, significant on-field developments to spur readership.

 

An excellent job. Like others have said earlier, there's only 14 primary SEC beatwriters and while the Ledger has been hit hard by cuts elsewhere, their big-time college beats haven't suffered.

As others have shown, this is an excellent job in its own right or a great stepping stone to a beat with more national significance.