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CoSIDA's NCAA Convention blog

Date postedJanuary 13, 2011
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During the week of January 11-15, the annual NCAA Convention is taking place in San Antonio. Several of CoSIDA's leaders are in attendance at well, attending division-specific discussions and meetings and participating as workshop panelists. This included meetings with Dutch Baughman, Executive Director of the IA Directors of Athletics; Mike Racy, NCAA Division II Vice President; and Dan Dutcher, NCAA Division III Vice President.

In this blog, we'll update you on NCAA workshop topics, links, communications/digital media programming recap which is specific to CoSIDA members. CoSIDA leaders in attendance also will offer their viewpoints.

photo: From Jan. 12 "Emerging Online Trends: How Sports Communications is Changing" educational session which was a live webcast. Moderated by the Managing Director of Digital Communications Ronnie Ramos (l), the panelists were (l to r, seated): Dr. Bill Smith, University of Arkansas Assistant AD/New Media, Dan McKane, Executive Director, Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; and Andy Pawlowski, Nike Athletic Training digital services manager for basketball.

Representing CoSIDA in San Antonio this week:

  • Larry Dougherty (Temple University), 2010-11 CoSIDA President
  • John Humenik, Executive Director
  • Tom Di Camillo (PacWest Conference), CoSIDA 1st Vice-President
  • Eric McDowell (Union, NY), Chair of the CoSIDA College Division Management Advisory Committee (CMAC)
  • Rich Herman (Clarion), CoSIDA DII-SIDA President
  • Barb Kowal, CoSIDA Director of External Affairs

Many thanks to Erik Christianson, NCAA Director of Public Relations and Media Relations, for coordinating the CoSIDA Convention efforts and assisting CoSIDA with the hotel, registration and travel issues to attend the Convention.

• Follow the latest news from the NCAA Convention via CoSIDA's Twitter feed

• NCAA Convention Central (webcasts, latest news, Join the NCAA Convention Conversation on Twitter)

• main NCAA Facebook page

• InsidetheNCAA Twitter feed

January 15

A main message delivered during Friday's NCAA Convention session - much to the delight of athletic communicators and CoSIDA members - came from NCAA VP of Communications Bob Williams who addressed Division II college presidents, chancellors and campus leaders.

Williams' message centered around the need for strategic communications on each campus - and with the athletic communications/media relations personnel playing a major role.

Williams' message is captured here: NCAA VP encourages strategic approach to communications.

Excerpts from the story:

It’s one thing to communicate, but it’s another thing to communicate strategically ... Williams noted challenges that college athletics faces with the current “24/7” communications landscape ... Tell stories that communicate your purpose at every opportunity and through every available platform.

  • Define, unify and clarify the message.
  • Every message should revolve around student-athletes.
  • Align actions with messages.

“At the end of the day, we have to look at things in a different light,” he said as he encouraged the presidents to turn away from old paradigms and to examine how their communications operations are structured.

In particular, he urged a greater collaboration between university relations and athletics communications offices, noting that interaction between the offices on many campuses often can be near nonexistent. Williams said the NCAA is willing to do its part by making its platforms available to member schools and conferences. He encouraged college and university communications professionals to consider NCAA.org, NCAA.com and NCAA Champion magazine as vehicles for favorable portrayals of their student-athletes, coaches and administrators.

Williams also encouraged Division II chancellors and presidents to consider expanding the role of their sports information officers to athletics communications directors. The change, he said, would boost their function from tactical to strategic.

One of CoSIDA's major objectives is to help campus and conference leaders - as well as its members - advance the strategic communications model for athletic communicators. CoSIDA's work, with the continued support of national leaders like Williams, NCAA Director of Public Relations and Media Relations Erik Christianson, and others who spoke at the Convention, the role - and importance - of intercollegiate athletic communicators might indeed be shifting across the country.

NCAA Convention article links/topics of interest to CoSIDA members

Note: The "Honors Celebration" story includes quotes from Today's Top VIII recipients and Silver Anniversary Award honorees, many who are/were CoSIDA Academic All-America standouts.

January 13

NCAA Convention article links/topics of interest to CoSIDA members

Watch NCAA Convention Live Video Stream programming (archives available here as well)

Jan. 13: For NCAA, is relaxing rules on agents the best remedy?

Jan. 13: NCAA’s second edition of a study to gauge student-athletes’ satisfaction with their intercollegiate athletics participation: GOALS study emphasizes coach influence

Thursday morning, Eric McDowell (Union College), in his role as Chair of the CoSIDA College Division Management Advisory Committee (CMAC), was part of a panel addressing DIII members, delegates and SAAC representatives. The presentation, entitled "Defining the Educational Value of the DII Intercollegiate Athletic Experience," was moderated by University of Pittsburgh-Bradford President Livingston Alexander.

The SAAC delegates are pictured here during meetings, panels and breakout sessions.

The SAAC delegates are pictured here during meetings, panels and breakout sessions.

Serving on the presentation along with McDowell were Livingston Alexander (President, University of Pittsburgh-Bradford); Kitty Baldridge (Gallaudet University Faculty Athletics Representative); Shannon O'Brien (Presidents' Athletic Conference Associate Director); John Williams (NCAA Director of Championships) and field hockey student-athlete Jessica Maier (College of Notre Dame/Centennial Conference).

Here are McDowell's thoughts following the presentation. You can read his remarks HERE (in a PDF format).

"The Thursday morning panel was well-attended, and a wealth of information was exchanged by panelists and many questions were asked from the SAAC members as well. The student panelist, Jessica, said the SAAC group enjoyed my remarks on Wednesday and suggested that the group would love to hear more from CoSIDA at their July meetings. At January's Convention, they are really pressed for time due to the heavy legislation, long discussions and voting. I certainly hope to hear from her when we both return to our campuses. This would be a wonderful way for CoSIDA and athletic communicators to connect to the campus athletic leaders."

  • Larry Dougherty and John Humenik met with Executive Director of the Division 1-A Athletic Directors Association (ADA) Dutch Baughman. Discussions revolved around the ADA group building relationships with the DI CoSIDA leaders and the changing emphasis of CoSIDA being an organization solely focusing on the needs of its members to a viable national group making great inroads with other national associations and becoming a resource for others. Discussed was the growing popularity of the "Communications Watch for Today’s AD," compiled by Kowal and Humenik and sent by Baughman to his membership; a need for a CoSIDA-sponsored spring conference call with leadership from the D1-ADA group and CoSIDA's Division I leaders; and the creation of the CoSIDA Resource/Reference Library, now underway, to assist those outside CoSIDA with communications queries and questions.

January 12

ARCHIVE OF SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS WEBCAST

NCAA Educational Session- Emerging Online Trends: How Sports Communications is changing

see background to webcast, presenters:

  • Dan McKane, Executive Director, Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
  • Dr. Bill Smith, University of Arkansas Assistant AD for New Media
  • Andy Pawlowski, who heads the Nike Athletic Training team's digital presence worldwide for basketball
  • Moderator: Ronnie Ramos, NCAA Digital Communications Managing Director

NCAA Convention article links/topics of interest to CoSIDA members

Two excellent panels geared toward athletic communications strategies and tactics were presented on Wednesday, Jan. 12 at the Convention.

The first deal with emerging tools, tactics and strategies for digital communications in intercollegiate athletics. The morning panel, moderated by NCAA Digital Communications Managing Director Ronnie Ramos, was entitled "Emerging Online Trends: How Sports Communications is changing." Ramos and the three panelists, including CoSIDA member and frequent CoSIDA Convention presenter Dr. Bill Smith (Assistant AD/New Media at Arkansas), addressed the audience and nearly 200 others who watched and participated in the interactive webcast. You can view the CoverItLive archived blog and webcast here.

The second Wednesday panel with ramifications for athletic communicators was an educational session moderated by Erik Christianson, NCAA Director of Public Relations & Media Relations called "The Evolution of Sports Information and Communications." Christianson led an interesting discussion with three panelists - two former SIDs/athletic media relations professionals - Julie Ruppert, Northeast-10 Conference (DII) Commissioner, and M. Frederic (Fred) Volkmann, Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs, Washington University in St. Louis (DIII). They were joined by Vince Sweeney, University of Wisconsin (DI) Vice Chancellor for University Relations.

They are all advocates of the athletic communications branch of intercollegiate athletics. Addressing NCAA delegates, AD's, assistant AD's, coaching association leaders and members of the media, they discussed the importance - and evolution - of the intercollegiate sports communications professional. Their message: make the athletic communicator, the SID, a valued member of the senior staff. With the critical evolution these says of messaging and branding in an ever-changing communications environment, they unanimously supported CoSIDA members having an important role in institutional/conference reputation management.

In building her DII conference staff, for instance, Ruppert abandoned the old title - and job description - of the Conference's "media relations director" and instead elevated the position to that of "Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Communications." That role is filled by Jacob VanRyn, whose responsibilities are to "provide vision and strategic planning for the Conference's sports information and communication departments and bring the 16 institutions together to support the Conference's overall mission and strategy and the NCAA's DII Strategic Platform."

• Rich Herman (Clarion), CoSIDA's DII-SIDA President, along with other CoSIDA reps (Executive Director John Humenik, Eric McDowell and Barb Kowal) met with DII Vice President Mike Racy for a discussion of the DII communications strategic plan, the DII toolkit, the response to this initiative, the expansion of the Capital One Academic All-America program to include a separate DII AAA program, and to discuss the major DII communications project for 2010-11 - building a blueprint for the DII model communications office. DII hex graphic

Many individuals at the NCAA and its governing body, along with Herman and CoSIDA Executive Director John Humenik, are hard at work on this project.

"Many drafts have already been shared," noted Herman, "and this document will give structure for staff expectations, such as the number of communications staffers, their duties and roles, suggested reporting lines, and resources needed for success. Once the project is complete, Mike (Racy) will present it to the NCAA Executive Committee and President's Council for DII for approval; once approved, the plan goes to the commissioners' and ADA leaders for discussion and approval. It is our plan that by the end of the spring, this document will be done and shared with our DII members. It's another significant step forward as part of the DII Strategic Platform, and will be a tremendous benefit for athletic communications staff, and for athletics in general, at our DII level."

• Wednesday also saw CoSIDA's Eric McDowell and Rich Herman meet and address the entire national SAAC (Student-Athlete Advisory Committee) representatives in a joint session. Thanking them for their commitment and leadership, McDowell explained the roles of athletic communications in their departments, how the athletic communications professional can assist the student-athletes - and vice versa, by telling their stories and letting their unique talents, skills, achievements and interests be known. This way, themselves, their team, department and university as a whole may be showcased.

McDowell was invited to meet with the SAAC national group again in July at their annual meetings in Indianapolis.

• Tom DiCamillo, CoSIDA 2nd VP and the DII PacWest Conference Assistant Commissioner/Media Relations, met with his respective Conference Commissioner’s group and Presidents' representatives.

• Meetings with the Board of the DII ADA (Athletic Directors Association) and Board of the DII Conference Commissioners also took place. Attending were CoSIDA President Dougherty, Executive Director Humenik, Herman and DiCamillo. With both groups, discussions revolved around the work CoSIDA and the DII-SIDA Board did to advance to DII branding platform; the expansion of the Academic All-America program for the fall of 2011; and the DII Model Communications Office project. Herman teamed with Jeff Ligney of the Great Lakes Conference to present a proposal to streamline and place deadlines on game score reporting/statistics updates for DII sports.

Related News

Calendar

Important Dates

All Events +

  • 06/23/26 / 11:59 P.M.
    M/W At-Large Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
  • 06/30/26 / 11:59 P.M.
    M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA)
  • 07/07/26 / 12:00 P.M.
    W At-Large Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
  • 07/08/26 / 12:00 P.M.
    M At-Large Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
  • 07/14/26 / 12:00 P.M.
    M Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)
  • 06/07/26 / All Day
    2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
  • 06/08/26 / All Day
    2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
  • 06/09/26 / All Day
    2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
  • 06/09/26 / 11:59 P.M.
    Baseball Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA)
  • 06/10/26 / All Day
    2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
  • 06/16/26 / 12:00 P.M.
    Softball Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)
  • 06/16/26 / 12:00 P.M.
    M/W At-Large Academic All-District Released; National Voting Begins (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
  • 06/16/26 / 11:59 P.M.
    M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America Nomination Deadline (NCAA, NAIA)
  • 06/23/26 / 12:00 P.M.
    M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-District Released; National Voting Begins (NCAA, NAIA)
  • 06/23/26 / 12:00 P.M.
    Baseball Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)
  • 06/23/26 / 11:59 P.M.
    M/W At-Large Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
  • 06/30/26 / 11:59 P.M.
    M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA)
  • 07/07/26 / 12:00 P.M.
    W At-Large Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
  • 07/08/26 / 12:00 P.M.
    M At-Large Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
  • 07/14/26 / 12:00 P.M.
    M Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)
  • 06/07/26 / All Day
    2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
  • 06/08/26 / All Day
    2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
  • 06/09/26 / All Day
    2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
  • 06/09/26 / 11:59 P.M.
    Baseball Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA)
  • 06/10/26 / All Day
    2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas

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