NCAA, Newspapers Draw Blogging Battle Lines

Reporters at Kirk Ferentz's news conference Tuesday were handed a surprise by Iowa officials: A notice detailing conditions and limitations of the NCAA Blogging Policy.

That policy, which also gives the host institution final authority on whether a credential holder or credential entity is following policy, allows for only five blog entries per half, one at halftime and two in an overtime period of football and basketball games.

What sparked this missive? No one knows for sure, but the educated guess is that it was aimed at the Cedar Rapids Gazette, which hosted separate live blogging sessions by Mike Hlas and Scott Dochterman during last Saturday's Maine-Iowa game.

This isn't the first time the NCAA has cracked down on blogging. In June 2007, Brian Bennett of the Louisville Courier-Journal was thrown out of the press box for posting live updates on a Louisville-Oklahoma State baseball game. The NCAA said in a memo to reporters that "no blog entries are permitted between the first pitch and the final out of each game." Scott Bearby, an associate general counsel for the NCAA, told the New York Times that the governing body had a right to protect the contracts it establishes with television networks and its own Internet providers.

But when the Courier-Journal threatened legal action, saying the NCAA's action was a violation of the First Amendment, the governing body backed down, allowing reporters to "blog about the atmosphere, crowd and other details during a game but may not mention anything about game action."

Even with the clarification, the NCAA appears to be on shaky legal ground. Not only does the governing body appear to be in violation of the First Amendment, there are restraint of trade issues considering that many member institutions are tax-supported (public) institutions.

Comments

[Pete]

The NCAA can't violate the First Amendment. Ever. No matter what it does.

The First Amendment restricts Congress, not private entities.

They're not saying you can't blog the game, they're saying you can't do that and keep your press pass, and getting a press pass (or access to the sporting events, for that matter) is not a constitutional right.

Does it suck? Yes. Are they on "shaky legal ground?" Not even remotely.

[Brian Foley]

That Louisville situation took place in the 2007 NCAA Super Regional that the Cardinals hosted against Oklahoma State.

I had to follow the NCAA policy at the D-2 Northeast Regional and did not one issue at all about running a live blog. They didn't even check what I was doing at the game.

Editor of The College Baseball Blog

[Ricky]

I covered college football for the past two seasons for a college newspaper(not this year) and I never had any problem or heard of anyone having any problems. I imagine it's up to the school to care or catch it. And if you're blogging that much during a game, you're probably missing a lot and distracting yourself from your job, unless your job is blogging.

That said, I don't see why they are being so anal. Nobody who has access to the game on TV is going to choose to follow a blog instead. I had to do a little arguing with some SIDs over web videos at a swim meet once, but that was an obvious TV issue for them. Blogging a college football game isn't.

And Pete is right on with the legal issue. Don't like the rules, go sit in the stands.

[Ike]

"During Anderson's at-bat, the crowd suddenly erupted in applause, the sort of celebration one might expect from a bases-clearing double into the gap."