There are debates about media access to coaches and players in most sports, but those are often particularly notable in the college ranks. And part of the reason why is that a lot of professional sports media access policies are set by the leagues, but in the college ranks, important parts of the policies are set not even by the conferences, but by individual schools.
That can lead to some groupthink, especially when it comes to reducing access. If some successful schools do it, others often copy them. And individual coaches have a lot of power over how much access they do or don’t provide. And the latest to do something there is Clemson, with Tigers’ head football coach Dabo Swinney explaining this week his decision to make his offensive and defensive coordinators available to media only four times a year instead of the previous twice-weekly was driven by looking at other schools. Matt Connolly has more on that at On3:
“Just, you know, one of those things I hadn’t looked at in a long time. I think the last time we had any type of media change was maybe 2010 or ’11,” Swinney said. “And just one of those things in the offseason you’re looking at, and it was kind of eye-opening to me that we were very different from most of our peers, if you will. Maybe a way to take a little bit off our staff and help them a little bit – not take some time away here and there. So that’s really it.”
…The four days Clemson coordinators will be available during this season are — Aug. 28 to preview Duke, Sept. 18 to preview Florida State, the open week Oct. 9 and Nov. 6 to preview Georgia Tech.
“I think we’re still, even with the little tweak we made, I think we’re still probably more accessible than most,” Swinney said. “But it was just something I felt like looking at our competitors, from a national standpoint all across the board, just felt like it was a good change.”
On some levels, Swinney has a point here. Connolly notes that Georgia, Alabama, and others don’t make their coordinators regularly available during the season. And yes, there are certainly some time demands for coordinators with talking to the media, especially considering mental preparation for that as well as the actual time spent. And coordinator access is something not always offered at even pro levels; the Professional Football Writers of America have managed to get coordinator access at least once weekly in the NFL, but some CFL coordinators have pulled off not talking to the media at all. And “You can only talk to coordinators four times a year” is far from the most restrictive move made by a NCAA coach or program.
But it’s still disappointing for media, and ultimately for the fans those media serve, to receive less access to coordinators. Coordinator interviews can often be some of the more illuminating out there, especially in post-game interviews where they can offer some specifics about what the team’s plans were with certain schemes and adjustments. (Of course, they don’t always answer those for secrecy reasons, and of course, writers can ask the head coach to. But in the cases where there are some answers available, they’re often more in-depth from coordinators than the head coach.)
And it should be noted that, despite the often-cited desires for secrecy from football coaches, access is far from always negative. At the very least, it offers the ability to get a team perspective out there on a particular situation. And that can really matter with coordinators and scheme or play calls.
If something doesn’t work on the field, and a writer is able to get an explanation of what the plan was and why it didn’t work, that can then be judged as sufficient or not by the writer and their audience. But it at least has the team perspective shared. If that perspective isn’t available from the coordinator (or others, including the head coach or players), then discussion of those situations turns into guesses from the writer and audience, and that’s far from always more positive for the program. (It should also be noted that coordinator media availabilities have some benefits for the coordinators as well; beyond getting their side of the story out there, it helps make media members familiar with them, which can sometimes help when they’re looking for head coaching jobs.)
And just as other teams reducing coordinator access led to Clemson following suit, the Tigers’ move here may see other schools follow suit. As Sweeney notes, many policies at this level are set by looking at “What does School X do?” That’s how Clemson set theirs. And now other schools that currently offer more coordinator accessibility might decide “Well, Clemson got more restrictive, so maybe we should too.” And while that has advantages for secrecy and for lowered demands on coordinators, it carries some issues for media and fans.
[On3; image from Ken Ruinard/The Greenville News, via USA Today Sports]
