Posted on: Friday, July 1, 2005
NCAA has become misguided
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
If James Fenderson wants to prove that he led the University of Hawai'i football team in rushing in 2000 or Glenn Freitas someday tries to show his kids that he once topped the Warriors in scoring (1995), they won't be able to use the official media guide to do it.
Sportscasters Jim Leahey and Bobby Curran won't find some of the usual information at the same flip of a finger, either.
That's because the official source of all UH football information has been ordered by the NCAA to trim 16 pages from its 2005 guide ... or else.
At UH, officials say that means chucking the year-by-year leaders section and some other areas deemed non-essential to get down from 224 pages.
Yes, this is what it has come to: the NCAA police force, no longer content to keep track of players' meals, will be counting pages now, too. And, 208 has been determined to be the magic number.
Can there be any surer sign that the football season is upon us?
At a time when "cost containment" is the flavor of the month, this is how the NCAA has chosen to reel in expenses, though UH said it will not likely save much from the $20,000 it spends on the guide.
Never mind that there are many more high-cost areas left untouched, this is where the NCAA is putting its foot down on fiscal sanity.
Of course, "media guide" has long since become a misnomer since coaches use them as basic recruiting tools and athletic departments, such as UH, distribute them to season ticket buyers and boosters. At UH, 6,500 guides are distributed, most of them to people other than the media, a spokesman said.
Lois Manin, UH sports information director, said the Warriors' guide, which players often hang onto as a memento of their career, player bios and facts will be largely retained but made to "fit better" in the tighter format.
UH's editing task, however, pales in comparison to some marquee football schools. Michigan has to trim its heretofore 416-page guide in half. Notre Dame could be a few legends light as it comes down from 464 pages. Nebraska's 440-page Big Red will look more like Mao's little red book.
Ostensibly, we're told, forcing all schools to adhere to one set of guidelines is supposed to also help "level" the recruiting field. As if New Mexico State will start nabbing would-be Oklahoma recruits just because the Sooners' once 364-page tome no longer resembles the Gutenberg Bible.
Clearly, players pick their schools more on name and winning tradition than the size of guidebooks the heritage is contained therein.
Meanwhile, there is one book that could use some trimming and that the NCAA has somehow overlooked in its mandated rollback: the NCAA Manual.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
