Bye, bye media guides

Who's next?

Earlier today and friend told me Ohio State and Michigan have both decided to postpone publishing media guides this fall. Then tonight I learn Wisconsin is following their lead. At the tune of $150,000 to $200,00 in savings I can understand the fiscal decision.

Not all of the Big Ten schools have made this move, but within two years I could see all D1 schools cutting this out of the budget as others do the same.

State schools with shrinking budgets have to make cuts somewhere, and with all this information readily available online this choice makes sense. This also forces sports information offices to become a bit more creative and utilize new media initiatives. Hell, they have a lot more time on their hands now.

But I can be old school sometimes. I've been pouring over media guides since the 1980s. I remember one with Bernie Kosar on the cover for the Miami Hurricanes with his Youngstown afro and goofy smile.

Interesting, though, is just a few years ago the big-time programs were fighting a media guide competition. If not for the NCAA regulating them the Michigan's, Ohio State's and Nebraska's would have been printing 800-page media guides that were four-color throughout. Instead of a couple hundred thousand in savings these programs would have been spending millions.

With athletic budgets creeping close to $100 million a few hundred thousand doesn't seem like much. But when academics are being cut all over campuses this at least sends a good message. It should be noted, though, that these decisions to cut media guides does have a negative impact on printers around the nation. Losing a $100,000 contract hurts.