Media guides becoming extinct

The state of the economy has forced families and businesses to find ways to cut costs. College football conferences and programs are no different. Two Bowl Championship Series conferences will no longer print media guides, another is considering a similar move, and three BCS schools have announced that they will not longer print media guides for their sports. The media guides provide statistical and biographical information on players and teams for both media and fans. Depending on the conference and school, the cost savings can exceed more than $200,000 annually. "Athletic departments across the country are looking for ways to operate more efficiently from a financial standpoint," Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said. The Atlantic Coast Conference and Big Ten will no longer print conference media guides. ACC spokesman Mike Finn said the move will save the league $70,000 to $80,000 depending on the method used as a substitute for the guides, such as flash drives or digital publications. The Big Ten also will no longer produce printed media guides, which spokesman Scott Chipman said would save the league about $40,000. Three Big Ten schools - Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan - already have announced they will no longer print media guides for their sports. The Southeastern Conference has discussed ceasing printing conference media guides, but has not made a decision because officials are still considering the impact of the guides. "The decision on cutting SEC conference guides will take into account cost containment and technological advances as well as the public and media relations benefits," spokesman Charles Bloom said. "The institutions took this into account when voting to send a proposal for NCAA consideration that would allow institutions to continue to print media guides but not make them available to recruits." The schools' decision not to print guides means fans will no longer be able to purchase them, but several spokesmen said that will not result in a significant decline in revenue. Most schools give season ticket holders and boosters copies of the media guides and only a small percentage is sold. At Florida, for example, less than 1,000 of the 23,000 football media guides the school prints are sold. Fourteen thousand are sent to Gator Boosters as part of their ticket package and about 3,200 are distributed to the media. The remaining amount is split between the sports information department, football office, and sponsors. There is some debate as to whether ceasing publication of media guides will actually result in any savings for the schools. The money not spent on the guides will be used in other areas, such as enhancing the school's Web site, to compensate for not having the guide to send to recruits. "Our communications, marketing and Web site services staffs have embraced new media and continue to be innovative with Web site content," Alvarez said. "... We believe there are a number of different approaches we can take with our online content, and our staff will continue to work to determine what works best for our student-athletes, coaches, fans and media." The Big East is not following the trend and said it has no plans to eliminate media guides. "We don't think we need to do that," spokesman John Paquette said. This report contains material from the Associated Press. michael.dirocco@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4500