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I got my media guide in the mail today. It looks pretty good. I actually liked our covers better the last couple years, but overall, it's not bad. There were a few new things that I liked and a few things I would change. One thing I was actually hoping we would do is add more pages. Since the NCAA limited the maximum number of pages to just 208, I was hoping we would increase our page count to match it, but we're still at 180.

About the season tickets, I called the ticket office today to see if they were supposed to come with the media guide and they said no. They said they weren't even mailed out yet and probably wouldn't get started on that for at least another week or two. Since our home opener isn't until October (don't get me started about that)......they have a few weeks to work with to get them out in time is what I was told. It all makes sense, I was just hoping to see where my seats were.

As for road game tickets, those will come on their own as well. Like many of us who got their Wisconsin tickets, I asked about Ball State tickets because I ordered those too and he said Ball State hasn't sent them out yet. So it looks like it will be a little while on these as well. At least now I won't be hovering around the mailbox every day to see if they are here yet.

I wish the season ticket orders would come soon. I ordered a Flex Plan and want to turn them right around into tickets ASAP once I get them in the mail.

Good to hear. I thought we wouldn't see them as soon as past seasons due to our home sked.
Ball State better get them in the mail soon....2 1/2 weeks til the game! Muncie ain't Madison but it's better than nothing the first month.

Less than 10 days til the Badgers go down...

dear Lord what the NCAA wont regualte...
I think all D1 schools should withdraw from the ncaa and pay players and sell beer at games and keep all the revenu for football.

BGSU33 wrote:One thing I was actually hoping we would do is add more pages. Since the NCAA limited the maximum number of pages to just 208, I was hoping we would increase our page count to match it, but we're still at 180.

This strikes me as an odd complaint. Adding 28 pages would please you for some reason. The media guide has room to grow instead of having to cut things in the near future. It's not about quantity anyway, but quality. I've only had a couple of hours since I got home to leaf through my media guide, but I have to say I'm very pleased with it.

MACMAN wrote:dear Lord what the NCAA wont regualte...
I think all D1 schools should withdraw from the ncaa and pay players and sell beer at games and keep all the revenu for football.

What on earth are you on about?? Sell beer at games? Yeah just liek the do at Cincinnati Basketball or they used to do at Colorado State football. The NCAA does not regulate alcohol at games.

In fact join the Falcon Club and I"ll get you a beer at halftime of the Temple game in the South endzone, in the stadium!

Or, if you are a big roller you can sit in the luxury boxes and enjoy beer and hard liquor!

UK Peregrine wrote:

BGSU33 wrote:One thing I was actually hoping we would do is add more pages. Since the NCAA limited the maximum number of pages to just 208, I was hoping we would increase our page count to match it, but we're still at 180.

This strikes me as an odd complaint. Adding 28 pages would please you for some reason. The media guide has room to grow instead of having to cut things in the near future. It's not about quantity anyway, but quality. I've only had a couple of hours since I got home to leaf through my media guide, but I have to say I'm very pleased with it.

I'll only say this much....our guide has improved greatly in recent years from what it was in the past, no doubt. But the last couple years, it has remained very much the same design with little change or improvement. Like facilities, media guides need improvement all the time. My point about expanding page counts is this.....we actually lost two pages in the guide and went from 182 last year to 180 this year. Aside from that, having worked in an SID office for eight years, I've seen a lot of media guides during that time. While we have made improvements, if you compare our guide to many schools out there, it falls well short of how good it can be. That's my "complaint." Compared to many other guides, it has few images (and the ones that are there are small) in the players bios section, it has a lot of shrinking font size (especially in the record section) instead of increasing page count, a lack of a creative template for the page format, etc. Check out our Doyt L. Perry Stadium spread in the guide as well, it's very weak. There are also some typos that stand out that could have been caught with spellcheck. These are the exact type of issues that are judged by CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America).

With the limitations on page count, this actually helps conference like the MAC compared to the BCS. At Virginia, we hired a publications specialist to improve the design of our guides while the SIDs have done the updated text and UVa's guides have improved greatly. Our former publications director actually just went to Kentucky, where UK has already had a nice design and will probably improve.

So if you wonder if I think we should add more pages, my answer is - heck yes. If we expanded bio sections with larger action shots, added more pages for a pictorial preview section, add paged to expand record sections, etc., we could easily expand 12-16 pages. Do I think we must have 28 more pages - no. Do I feel we could improve what we have - yes.

I've been getting media guides since 1995 and it is night and day compared to today's guide.

The last few years have been high quality publications.

I rarely leave home without it until January cuz there is always something to look up...especially with team and individual records falling on a yearly basis.

Always worth the $10!

Less than 218 hours....

Thank you BGSU33 for the explanation. Your first post just struck me as being odd with the page number complaint, but no real explanantion as to why you were upset. It is now clear that you just want something slightly better from the University than what is currently being distributed, not that the current media guide is bad or anything. In fact it is outstanding, you just want something even better. I'm cool with that. 8)

Falconfreak90 wrote:I've been getting media guides since 1995 and it is night and day compared to today's guide.

I found the '95 guide to be pretty solid as far as historical photos are concerned, though.

UK Peregrine wrote:Thank you BGSU33 for the explanation. Your first post just struck me as being odd with the page number complaint, but no real explanantion as to why you were upset. It is now clear that you just want something slightly better from the University than what is currently being distributed, not that the current media guide is bad or anything. In fact it is outstanding, you just want something even better. I'm cool with that. 8)

No worries. Like I said before, I think our guide has made some real improvements in recent years, but I know it can be a lot better as well. Of course, this is just my opinion, but I do feel it can be improved quite a bit.

I was also not impressed with the amount of photos that were not "high quality", especially the larger photos. The Chuck Sharon full page comes to mind in that it looks choppy and digitized rather than a nice, big photo.

33- you are right about the Perry Stadium page- why not use the massive sellout picture vs. NIU from a couple years ago instead of showing the scoreboard, tents, water tower and zero structural parts of the stadium.


That 1995 guide has some great photos including the only picture of the College Division National Championship trophy.

Dayons_Den wrote:33- you are right about the Perry Stadium page- why not use the massive sellout picture vs. NIU from a couple years ago instead of showing the scoreboard, tents, water tower and zero structural parts of the stadium.

It's better than the GameDay pic on p. 111 that reminds us that just 21 short months ago gas was 1.37 a gallon!

That 1995 guide has some great photos including the only picture of the College Division National Championship trophy.

you rang?