UNBELIEVABLE !!!!!!!

I'm out here north of Tucson and the local paper here has articles daily on Arizona football. Even a lot of basketball articles now. I understand this is a little different scale, but still the constant coverage helps motivate the non-university crowd to become more alignred with U of A sports.

The articles the Star does are fine, just not enough of them. I only see the on line version not the actual daily paper so not sure what that's like.

If they really want to make BSU Muncie's team then more needs to be done there. Maybe they feel the interest is not there. Well, maybe true, but not providing in depth coverage certainly will keep it that way.

Thought it was interesting the other day when the Indy Star had the story about the new BSU helmets a day before the StarPress did. One thing you guys need to recognize is that the various Gannett newspapers all contribute to every newspaper they own. That is why you'll see Muncie writers in the Lafayette paper and Indy paper and vice versa. It's just what stories the editor decides to use. It's a product of their inability to effectively evolve as their print media business continues to shrink.

Our newspaper seems to have an agenda. They seem to want to shape opinions more than just report the news. I personally don't see that publication as worthy of my time, though I still look at it often just to see what kind of distorted crap they are pushing that day.

I'm not surprised Ben is leaving. The StarPress has had several talented young sports writers in the past few years and I've spent quite a bit of time with them in various high school press boxes. They are good kids and I wish them nothing but success.

I won't speak about the Muncie Star but I do think the work of Joel Goddett and the Ball State SportsLink initiative is excellent. There is a heck of a lot to sink your teeth into and even position break downs every week at least once or twice.

Print media is another story and I have been fighting the lack of coverage in the print media for 40 years and continue to do so. It is better than before by far but has a long way to go. I have lived through our evolution from the old Indiana colliegiate conference to the short lived midwestern conference and then the MAC.

We have come a very long way from those perspectives.

Three things jump out to me as the most significant improvements in our stature/exposure: ESPN Deal, SportsLink capabilities and ability to schedule historical powers and occasionally now beating them - that generates huge media coverage!

Before ESPN I think in the entire history of BSU football we maybe had 2 or 3 games ever broadcast and those were regional only! Print media coverage (today a withering resource) was almost non existent.