APR headlines pouring out...yikes...

[RollinHills]

The SPT coverage of Bulls football and other sports is what it is because there really isn't that big of an audience in the TB area for it.   How many people that arer here complaining about it are subscribers of the Times?

Care to guess how many readers of the Times are interested in what goes on behind the scenes at USF Athletics.  

Face it, there just isn't a whole lot of interest in USF atheletics in the bay area period.   If on;y 4000 showed up to the spring game, how many readers are even remotely interested the APR?

[Bobcat99]

A lot of online editions have good news about their teams:

Sample

Ohio State gets another good report card

I'm guessing neither of the local papers carried anything..?

Do a search and you'll see how deficient our coverage is.

To be fair, Ohio State getting a good report card IS news. They fudge their football numbers in a way that is utterly comical -- they had the lowest graduation rate of any team playing in a bowl game this past year.

[MavTechKNIGHT2]

Guys, both papers have extensive APR news on the blogs. There are space constraints in what gets into the papers. It's not about positive or negative, it's about whether something is newsworthy. Only 11 percent of schools had any kind of penalty, so writing that USF is in the other 89 percent isn't worth that big of a headline.

I posted something on the blog Monday writing at length about where USF ranked in the teams from the top 10 percent, and posted a note Tuesday that said USF would be facing no penalty. I think that's significantly more than most papers did for their colleges. Seriously, pick your battles ...

Problem is news organizations seem to think the "worse" the news, the more newsworthy it is.

I bet you guys would have found room if USF lost scholarships.  Good news is OK every now and then.

[Jamie]

To be fair, Ohio State getting a good report card IS news. They fudge their football numbers in a way that is utterly comical -- they had the lowest graduation rate of any team playing in a bowl game this past year.

And sports in Columbus pretty much starts and ends with the Buckeyes.

[RollinHills]

What percentage of the St Pete Times subscribers are USF sports fans?  Of those how many would be even be interested the APR data?  

I think Greg Auman does a good job, especially considering the makeup of the readership of the SPT's.

[HarveyGlass]

Problem is news organizations seem to think the "worse" the news, the more newsworthy it is.

I bet you guys would have found room if USF lost scholarships.  Good news is OK every now and then.

That's the fact, right there.  Good post.

There is no question that bad APR news would be "news" and would have been printed.  But good news is no news.  That's not journalism.

[Greg Auman]

You guys really don't get it. Look at that APR overview story again -- that's a national wire story, where I specifically sent in USF information to be included. There's no comparable UF or FSU news in that story -- not because they don't have equally relevant information, but because their writers didn't deem it necessary. You have more coverage than the other two schools we cover, and you're complaining.

And do you really want more news on APR? Because it won't be pretty. On Wednesday I hadn't compared USF's numbers to the rest of the state or the Big East: USF's football score of 910 is the lowest in the Big East. The only state Division I program with a lower football score is FIU, which just lost nine scholarships. Men's basketball has the third-worst score out of 16 Big East teams. If those numbers don't improve drastically in the next year, there's the potential for scholarship reductions.

That's not spin, that's not bias, that's not agenda reporting. That's facts about the two biggest headline sports on campus. All I'm saying is be careful what you want me to write more about. I'll probably get a post on the blog about the score comparisons later -- not sure if you want to complain about me here, or on a different thread ...

[Brad]

You guys really don't get it. Look at that APR overview story again -- that's a national wire story, where I specifically sent in USF information to be included. There's no comparable UF or FSU news in that story -- not because they don't have equally relevant information, but because their writers didn't deem it necessary. You have more coverage than the other two schools we cover, and you're complaining.

And do you really want more news on APR? Because it won't be pretty. On Wednesday I hadn't compared USF's numbers to the rest of the state or the Big East: USF's football score of 910 is the lowest in the Big East. The only state Division I program with a lower football score is FIU, which just lost nine scholarships. Men's basketball has the third-worst score out of 16 Big East teams. If those numbers don't improve drastically in the next year, there's the potential for scholarship reductions.

That's not spin, that's not bias, that's not agenda reporting. That's facts about the two biggest headline sports on campus. All I'm saying is be careful what you want me to write more about. I'll probably get a post on the blog about the score comparisons later -- not sure if you want to complain about me here, or on a different thread ...

Report it all Greg, good and bad.  Bury us in Bulls information - no one will complain.  

BTW, we do like news when it isn't pretty, as long as it's true.  The APR story is very true, substantiated and serious - loaded with potential implications in the near future.   I think we all want that information and anything you can add to the NCAA report.

[HarveyGlass]

You guys really don't get it. Look at that APR overview story again -- that's a national wire story, where I specifically sent in USF information to be included. There's no comparable UF or FSU news in that story -- not because they don't have equally relevant information, but because their writers didn't deem it necessary. You have more coverage than the other two schools we cover, and you're complaining.

And do you really want more news on APR? Because it won't be pretty. On Wednesday I hadn't compared USF's numbers to the rest of the state or the Big East: USF's football score of 910 is the lowest in the Big East. The only state Division I program with a lower football score is FIU, which just lost nine scholarships. Men's basketball has the third-worst score out of 16 Big East teams. If those numbers don't improve drastically in the next year, there's the potential for scholarship reductions.

That's not spin, that's not bias, that's not agenda reporting. That's facts about the two biggest headline sports on campus. All I'm saying is be careful what you want me to write more about. I'll probably get a post on the blog about the score comparisons later -- not sure if you want to complain about me here, or on a different thread ...

...more...

[RollinHills]

I wonder how many of the people complaining about the coverage are paid subscribers to the St Pete Times.