NCAA puts guideline on media guides

LANSING, Mich. -- In the rough and tumble Big 12, Missouri is always looking for an edge to impress recruits.

The Tigers thought they had found one with a mammoth 614-page football media guide -- unofficially, the largest in the nation -- that is mailed to prospective student athletes. But now the NCAA is taking it away with an edict that colleges trim their media guides to a maximum of 208 pages for next school year.

The new rule has sports information directors across the country scrambling to decide what will make the cut when a hundred or more pages in some current guides must be scrapped. And many of them aren't happy.

"Our football coaching staff believes putting together a first-class book helps sell the program," said Chad Moller, Missouri's director of media relations for athletics. "Now we will have to find other creative ways to make our book stand out from the crowd."

Schools such as Nebraska and Georgia are faced with the prospect of cutting their football guides in half before the start of next season. Publications go to print this summer.

Men's basketball guides are the only other publication likely to be widely affected by the new rules, which were adopted last month.

Supporters of the NCAA rule say restricting the size of the guides will save universities money. It reduces the pressure for lower-income programs to keep up with college athletics' big spenders by producing glitzy guides.

"It's about leveling the playing field," NCAA spokeswoman Jennifer Kearns said.

The proposal also affects recruiting because the guides often are sent to prospective student athletes.

"From a recruiting standpoint, it's more impressive to drop a 20-pound book on the coffee table than a 6-ounce book," said Mike Nemeth, a Mississippi State associate athletic director. "This will put everybody in the same ballpark."

The Bulldogs produced a 296-page football media guide last year, at least in part to prevent being dwarfed by larger volumes published by Florida, Tennessee and other Southeastern Conference rivals. Many schools devote space in their media guides to alumni in the pros and draft pick histories, although it's not clear how much weight -- if any -- the books have with recruits.

"It's probably way down the list," Nemeth said.

Mississippi State expects to save a few thousand dollars on printing costs with the smaller guides, money the department gladly will spend on other projects, Nemeth said.

But the overall cost savings aren't much for a major program. Michigan State, for example, spent about $60,225 last year designing and printing its 300-page football media guide. A 208-page guide would cost about $18,000 less. The Spartans' overall athletics budget is about $55 million.

Smaller guides could result in shorter player profiles, abridged records sections or more selective lists of letter winners -- a slap to team members, Michigan State associate athletic director John Lewandowski said.

"It's their keepsake, the record of their careers," he said.

The NCAA will allow schools to distribute some extra information to media through the Internet or material printed in black-and-white format. But documenting records and milestones in such a way could eliminate some of the cost savings realized through smaller media guides.