NCAA Bans Live Blogging

[WillR]

Is there a difference between written information and spoken?  I don't think the NCAA would be able to prohibit people calling on cell phones to provide updates, if for no other reason than it would be even harder to enforce.  

Perhaps the NCAA just wants to stake out the right to get people to sign up for text updates for a nominal fee.

[Chris '03]

[quote billhoward]
Wasn't there a blog live from the NCAA lax tourney?[/quote]

Yes and no. There was a live blog but it was from a guy watching from his couch as I recall.

[billhoward]

As a condition of the ticket, the arena (or the business renting the arena) can enforce rules for fans such as no movie cameras, no professional cameras but snapshot cameras okay, and probably no blogging or no published game reports although as you note, how would you enforce it? For the NCCA lax tournament in Baltimore, I believe video cameras were banned but no mention made on the size or type of the still camera. I brought in a 100-400mm zoom, which probably falls outside the range of snapshot camera.

If the NCAA persists in this blog-banning silliness, the newspapers collectively, not just the Louisville Courier-Journal (the affected paper here), could say, "You want sports coverage? Okay, it will include blogged game analysis," which is the term they'll use (as the CJ did) to describe the ongoing game reports.

The NCAA realizes its popularity is a wax and wane thing, much like that of a movie actor/actress. You need to have the right mix of arrogance and accessibility. It can set virtually any rules it wants for college hoops coverage, but it falls off pretty fast after that. They'd be nuts to ban blogging at, say, the college soccer finals. Or swimming.