Football team ‘night out,’ a pre-game ritual that costs colleges

College football coaches can sure be selfish, at times. And misguided.

The recent Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics reveals that spending at many college sports programs is out of control. A group that represents athletic directors will present some cost-cutting measures to the NCAA in the next few weeks.

Among the cost-cutting measures – Asking schools to eliminate housing teams off-campus before home games, a practice where teams check into a local hotel. Some football coaches are opposed to this cost-cutting measure, believing the hotel minimizes distractions for players who, presumably, can’t stay out of trouble.

Tips for job/intern interviews

After what I would call a successful internship interview with the Dallas Morning News this morning, I thought it would be appropriate to share that experience. After all, moments like these are the culmination of all my hard work. Here are the two biggest tips I can give you for impressing your potential employers.

Tips for teaching sports writing

Teaching a sports journalism class next semester? Here are a few things to consider.

1. Create a class blog where students must post stories with links, photos (and audio/video whenever possible.) You can use either Word Press or Blogger, but several more sites, such as Weebly, have popped up as well. I’m also creating a Facebook page and asking students to Tweet on their respective teams.

Running coverage ‘cross the country

More than 70 teams converged on Terre Haute, Ind., for the cross country pre-nationals this past weekend on the same course where nationals will be held next month. (BTW, LaVern-Gibson Championship Cross Country Course is a great place to watch a race – except when the wind chill drops below 30 as it did last year. My hands are still defrosting.)

A few college newspapers covered this major Division I event won by perennial powerhouses Oregon (men) and Washington (women). Here’s some of the coverage.

Put final score in all stories

Nice lead on Florida’s 23-20 football win over Arkansas by the Independent Alligator. But the final score is not included.

Here are some excuses I’ve heard for leaving it out. But it’s in the mainbar, main graphic, cutline – and, everybody knows the score! That’s ridiculous. Not every reader knows the final result. Online, readers don’t see these print visuals. So insert final scores in every story.

Here are some other stories on the game.

What the heck’s a balaclava?

Love how George Vecsey explains the history of the balaclava in today’s column. He also takes a swipe at night baseball.

That’s right, kids, they used to play World Series games in the sunlight, which is why those times are called the Good Old Days.

I also lament that baseball is now played in frigid temperatures late at night.

Sports scholarship opportunity

Just received info on this great opportunity. Here’s the press release.

The application process for the 2010 Association of Women in Sports Media Internship/Scholarship program is officially open. The deadline to apply is October 31. Full-time female students currently enrolled in college are eligible to apply for the internships. Applicants do not need to be members of AWSM to apply.

Since 1990, AWSM has placed about 100 female college students interested in sports media careers in paid internships with employers such as Sports Illustrated, ESPN, USA Track & Field and some of the country’s most respected daily newspapers. Internships are offered in print, online, media relations as well as broadcast.

Applications can only be submitted through the AWSM website. Visit awsmonline.org for more information about the program, or go directly to http://www.awsmonline.org/internscholar_app.html to apply.

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Manage your time well and cover high school sports

So, it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything for this site. We journalists do get busy sometimes. Especially for students when those two or three weeks of the semester come around where everything collides together and you find yourself wasting time just trying to work out a schedule. I was there last week. Exams, stories and assignments become due within 48 hours of each other. And you still have to deal with the daily responsibilities that come with living on your own.

That’s why I want to stress the importance of time management. For a normal student, it’s a little easier working out a study schedule. But you’re a journalism student, which means you have to create a study schedule and use your free time working on stories and getting published. This gets trickier when you have to manage your time around the schedules of your sources. Don’t set a specific time for anything , unless it is something like an interview appointment. Just tell yourself, ‘I need to get this done before this time.’ A great way to do this is by using a daily checklist. Be careful not overload yourself though and give everything on your list a priority rating (high or low).

Converging with online media

Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, but a lot of thing have been going on with the Murray State News, especially the sports desk.

We finally have our staff determined for this year, which means I don’t have to worry about finding and helping contributors. But with an established staff, comes changes to better the sports section.

With the ever-growing popularity of online media and social networking, we have created a twitter account where we post breaking news about Racer athletics. Feel free to follow us at http://twitter.com/MSUNewsSports.

Another sports media resource

IU's National Sports Journalism Center site offers columns from several top journalists, along with breaking news and links to other resources.

Indiana University just launched a Web site dedicated to sports media, one of many sites that have started to pop up across the country during the last several years. Think sports journalism is still the toy department? You’ll find programs and minors at dozens of universities across the country – with many more to come. Sports (and its subsequent coverage) reflects who we are in many ways, yielding research in sociology, psychology, economics, business, and mass communications. Anyway, check out the site for IU’s National Sports Journalism Center and see for yourself.

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