So the more and more we think about this NCAA rule about no live-blogging in the press box, the more insane it seems. It might be one of the dumbest Internet decisions we've seen an athletic organization make, and considering Major League Baseball once did a promotion with Creed, that's no small achievement.
Even Josh Centor over at The Double A Zone — the "official blog" of the NCAA — calls the policy "arcane" and sorta blames ESPN ... but we can't put this one on the Leader. It's not like the College World Series marks the first time anyone has ever live-blogged something from press row that was on ESPN.
Let's take a look at some of the parameters of the idiocy.
• If we are understanding the NCAA correctly, someone who is sitting in a press box providing "live" updates from a game is breaking some sort of ridiculous "rights" policy, but someone who is watching the game on ESPN and doing the same thing is not. We do not know if this applies to anyone who might update their site from their blackberry from the stands. We hope they eject their ass too. Oh, and if a friend of yours texts you asking the score, you better not tell write them back. The moral of the story: If someone from the NCAA is giving you grief about live blogging a game, just step 50 feet away. The NCAA has now, by definition, given the proverbial guy in the basement better access to his/her readers than someone in their own press box. SMART.
• For years, the Associated Press and other wire services have been providing in-game updates to editors from the site of important events. (This is why the game story of a title game is almost always ready the second the game's over.) This is different because ... well, because the Associated Press just stopped using typewriters, we guess. Fortunately, nothing involving the College World Series will ever be considered an "important event." So wait: When exactly does it count as "acceptable" to file a game story? Will NCAA hoods be scoping the press box, making sure all the typing is limited strictly to Word files? DON'T HIT THAT SEND BUTTON, BUDDY.
• Hey, why didn't they throw Chuck Klosterman out of the Final Four? That would have been incredibly entertaining to read about.
• CSTV — one of the two national media outlets that actually cares about the College World Series — had been planning on live-blogging every CWS game. They can't now. This is an outstanding decision by the NCAA, because it denies coverage of a signature event to a fanbase that might want to read it.
It's gonna be fun to watch them scramble in the next couple of days, though. We give this policy, oh, a week.