Sports Field Guide

DN's story on Joe Girardi is among several solid features offered during 'winter break.'

College sports journalists remain as busy as ever (despite being on holiday break from school) thanks to new media opportunities.

No longer do college staffs have to wait for students to return to campus and read old news in a print edition. Now, sports fans can receive updates on their favorite teams as easy as you can say Twitter. Or Facebook.  Staffs at schools like Northwestern, Iowa State, Texas Christian University and Boise State, among others, continue to cover their football and basketball teams as if the semester had never ended. [A nightmare for many students, I'm sure.]

And this coverage is not limited to live-game blogs, Twitter feeds and photo galleries. Not that there’s anything wrong with any of that. Hunter Atkins at the Daily Northwestern just filed a wonderful feature on alum Joe Girardi – a pleasant surprise for someone checking through Facebook’s live newsfeed on a numbingly cold afternoon. College staffs are relying more and more on Facebook to promote stories linked to their main websites, knowing readers are getting more and more of their news from social networks.

Here are a few other stories to check out during a blazing cold winter ’s evening:

• An interview with Michigan’s new athletic director.
• Video of press conference and  story about Kentucky’s new football coach, Joker Phillips, in Kentucky Kernel. Joker? (Let the puns and bad headline references commence.)
• USC’s offensive coordinator interviews with Chicago Bears, tweets the Daily Trojan.
• Arizona guard Garland Judkins may be transferring to Texas-St. Antonio, The Daily Wildcat reports on Facebook.
• Plus, you should take note of the comprehensive and innovative coverage offered by Boise State’s Arbiter on a site dedicated to the Fiesta Bowl. [How can a team go 14-0 and knock off two BCS champs and not be, at least, a co-national champion? Because of the greed by select (and powerful) NCAA conferences, for starters.]
• Preview coverage of tomorrow night’s national championship game between Texas and Alabama from the Daily Texan and Crimson White.

Anyway, every college sports staff should post stories on both Facebook and Twitter, promoting content found in the sports section. In addition, you should sign up for as many Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds as you can, locations that can offer great sports info and story ideas.

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