Sports Coverage

[Jacks02]

For those of you who like to complain about coverage of SDSU athletics in Sioux Falls, here's a link to a discussion on the NDSU board. Really makes me realize what a blessing it is to have a great beat writer like Chris Solari for SDSU sports coverage.

http://www.bisonville.com/cgi-bin/ya...num=1136341590

[FargoBison]

Re: Sports Coverage

Please, NDSU has and always will get great media coverage from the Fargo media. I don't know what this Ih8daSioux guys problem is but I don't think he has the clue about how good the Bison do have it. Both the Forum and WDAY give NDSU a lions share of the local media coverage. The only problem I have with the FM media is that I wish some more games were on TV but I do also realize that one statewide game is more then most IAA schools get from their local media.

[Jacks02]

Re: Sports Coverage

Fair enough answer for me. I don't know how the media coverage is in Fargo, if its one fan that has a beef thats understandable. I hope you don't think I posted the link as a slight to NDSU or Fargo. My intent was to give credit to Solari, as I feel he does an excellent job for promotion of SDSU athletics.

[FargoBison]

Re: Sports Coverage

I didn't think you were slighting NDSU one bit I just wanted to make it clear that this poster over at Bisonville has some kind of Vendetta against the Forum and the media coverage is actually quite good. I also agree that SDSU gets great coverage from Solari, he definately does a great job covering SDSU athletics.

[SDSUFAN]

Re: Sports Coverage

I have spent some time recently in the Fargo area and prior to that I always checked the Fargo Forum for updates on NDSU. The Bison are the only game in town for the Fargo Forum. They do a fabulous job of coverage. Jeff Kolpeck seems to be always on the ball and is always keeping close tabs with Gene Taylor the NDSU AD for news. To imply NDSU does not get coverage by the Fargo media is incorrect. They do have some competition from Concordia and MSU-Moorhead who are a river across from Fargo. They too, get good coverage.

Sixty miles between Brookings and Sioux Falls appears to be a quantum leap with the Sioux Falls media. Its not helpful when guys like Mike Hendricksen assert that SDSU is not part of the Sioux Falls market as he has done on this board. Also Stu Whitney was not helpful in his top 10 sports stories in South Dakota, having SDSU move to D1 as the 9th story. It was a very sarcastic review for SDSU. Stu did seem impressed with the SDSU women bb program though. He also took a shot at Dr. Miller and Oien.

We got some problems with some individuals but there is good coverage by Chris and the Argus. TV coverage seems to be good on KDLT and KYSF. KELO seems to be in bed with USD, but having two out of three tv providers is not bad.

I think the further we get into D1, we will have less and less problems with those who don't see fit to give SDSU the time of day.

[filbert]

Re: Sports Coverage

While the Fargo media seems to have accepted NDSU's D-I move fully, the Sioux Falls media is still trying to "balance" their coverage between D-I SDSU and D-II USD and Augie. Throw in the (IMHO) excessive coverage of Sioux Falls' minor league pro teams and you have an ongoing issue.

The expected D-I coverage for newspapers (in this unbiased observer's opinion;-) ) include game-day capsules for all of their major colleges' football and men's basketball games, and follow up with the beat reporter's story the next day--that's for all games, home and away. Weekly or more frequent columnist articles (i.e. not from the beat writer but from the paper's sports columnist) discussing the major college's program are also part of the expected coverage.

The Argus is unable and/or unwilling to do all of this for SDSU. Probably more unable than unwilling, as having the beat reporter file reports from away games would (obviously) require the paper to put Solari on an airplane and go to SDSU away games.

Some of this may go back to SDSU, who may need to consider making space on the plane for Sioux Falls beat reporters, or otherwise do more to accommodate the media in order to get more/better coverage.

The situation is however getting better and will continue to improve. When SDSU puts a men's basketball team on the court that would beat the Skyforce (not an outrageous goal) and the casual SD fan gets behind the Rabbits, you'll see more and better coverage.

[SDSUFAN]

Re: Sports Coverage

Fargo to me is the Sioux Falls of North Dakota. They got West Acres Mall and SF has Empire. Every big box retailer in SF is in Fargo, but the Fargo media is very well aware that they have a state univerisity within their media market. I think they really get behind the local teams when they are winning.

When you compare ND with SD, in terms of state assisted school, UND seems to have a great abundance of support in the ND legislature. They have a larger student enrollment than NDSU, but NDSU is located in a more populus area, and got a better media to cover them.

With Brookings, we are better than Vermillion, but we dont have the newspaper or population that Grand Forks has and UND does get good coverage from the Herald. I not sure but there are Grand Forks ties to some of the media in Fargo and its not surprising to see clips in Fargo about UND sports and maybe that adds the intensity of the rivalry between UND and NDSU.
It seems much more obvious in ND despite one is D2 and the other D1.

I think we should be concerned if UND decides to go D1. I think the Grand Forks media will really promote UND if they make that move. What if any kind of problem this presents to the SDSU and NDSU working relationship for finding a conference remains to be seen.

No doubt winning is going to fans in the stands. I regret using the term fairweather, I think SF Jack properly correct me and I should have used the word "casual". Its  a reality. Winning seems to generate media coverage and new fans. ;D