NDSU's New Media Policy Goes Viral

If you’ve been following the news, this past week, North Dakota State University announced that they’re basically limiting who has access to their sports teams. The story has gone viral even making DEADSPIN. That's pretty big.

So, if you don’t work for KVLY you’re not going to get all of the access you need to cover those Bison sports/beats. Yeah, that sounds like a marvelous idea… Seriously, small division I school NDSU (they're a Mid-Major at best) thinks they’ve become so big that they should now limit what the Inforum beat writers and other local television stations can cover. Wait, what? Makes no sense at all. For those people that don't pay attention, the football beat writers for the Fargo paper do a fabulous job covering Bison Football. Limiting them would hurt the Bison football fans.

So, let's get this straight if ESPN wants to hold another College Gameday on the NDSU Campus, I am betting this new policy will somehow disappear... at least for a day, to accommodate ESPN, right? Sure they will, because it will feed the egos at Moo-U. You know, because they're the big-time.

Yeah! I am going to call Bison $hit. Mike McFeely had a great response to NDSU’s new policy. I find myself agreeing with Mike and not needing to take a shower afterward.

"You must protect that brand, just like Ohio State, Alabama and Oregon do," McFeely penned. "That is the world in which you reside. Sure you're forced to play South Dakota State, Northern Iowa and Western Illinois, but I know people in Boston, San Francisco and Miami don't view you that way. You are big-time.

"That's why the teeth-gnashing over Kolpack and Izzo is so childish. What have they done for you? What coverage have they provided? What following have they helped build? They are yesterday's news, just like the longtime basketball season-ticket holders who are getting squeezed out of your new arena."

Rob Port of Sayanythingblog fame used this as an opportunity to take a shot at the NDSU President Dean Bresciani. Ahem, while he holds some of the blame, the individuals in the NDSU Athletics Department that came up with this misguided policy are the ones that should be the focus of the media's anger. What the hell are they thinking? NDSU is a public university in a very small Midwestern state, it's not some prestigious school with their own channel on ESPN/NBC. It's time to grab some reality folks.

"About the only thing NDSU has truly excelled at under Bresciani has been winning football championships, Port wrote. "And although those championships really have very little to do with Bresciani – I’m pretty sure he’s not calling plays or recruiting players – he has managed to cast a pall over that success with this terrible, awful policy."

Port is right, outside of five (for the NDSU fans that can't count, that's back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back) FCS football champsionships, NDSU hasn't accomplished much in Division I sports. It's not like they have a high-profile hockey team or basketball team. So, NDSU might want to re-think their elitist new media policy.