Sports Field Guide

The Daily Northwestern sports staff spent New Year's in Tampa covering the Outback Bowl.

The Daily Northwestern is covering the Outback Bowl live and online this afternoon, sending two reporters and a photographer to Tampa for the Wildcats’ football game against Auburn. The newspaper is live game-blogging (or glogging) with Cover It Live, a web-based tool that allows live commentary during any event, not unlike the the glogs offered on ESPN.com, MLB.com and CBSsports.com.

So far, the Daily Northwestern staff has posted updates about every six to seven minutes on key plays like the following:

Sherrick PICK-Manis strikes again! He came out of nowhere to intercept a pass by Auburn wideout Kodi Burns, intended for Mario Fannin. The play was slow to develop and Fannin was wide open for several strides, but McManis read it and came flying in to make the game-changing (and possibly game-saving) interception.

Northwestern trails 14-7 after a very slow start.

The Daily Northwestern staff is also tweeting the game, something they have not done since covering the lacrosse team’s national title run last spring. Like many news outlets, the newspaper’s staff worried about the NCAA’s draconian blogging policy that allows about four tweets per half. The NCAA still hasn’t grasped that more coverage means more exposure (and, yes, more money for the NCAA). Tweeting and blogging won’t replace watching the game on TV, the main worry for the NCAA. Some of the Northwestern’s tweets even refer readers to the TV broadcast:

If you haven’t been following our live blog or watching the game, you’re missing an exciting one. McManis just made an incredible pick.

So why tweet and glog sports events? Fans unable to watch or listen can get updates or follow coverage as they work. Plus, more people get their news cues from headlines on Facebook and Twitter, entering web sites from posted stories. And fans already read news from their cell phones. Last week, the Daily Toreador, whose print publication has ceased for holiday break, still covered the craziness around Mike Leach’s firing by going all digital. So you’d better learn these skills sooner than later.
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