Coming off a collapse at Rutgers, where the Arkansas Razorbacks gave up 21 consecutive points and lost 28-24, the Hogs football team could use some positive news.
Fans are wondering aloud if their Razorbacks can win another game.
The university is under scrutiny from some state legislators because of overspending by the Advancement Division, so the school could use some good news, too.
The UA, the state’s largest and most powerful educational institution, seems to have surrounded itself in a cloak of secrecy and stubbornness. It is a state institution fueled in part by state taxpayers, but it seems to find itself being scrutinized more and more because it has become so powerful.
So the UA could use something positive right now.
That isn’t what it received Monday following a mass email sent out by Derek Satterfield, the assistant media relations director in charge of football, in which he announced a change in press box policy.
Press boxes have always been open until the final story is filed. Stories for the fans.
Not anymore at Arkansas, according to Satterfield,who was trained for his job at the University of Tennessee, where relations with the media were often strained. Now, the UA press box will close three hours after the end of football games.
At that point, reporters may load their laptops, recorders, notepads and other tools into their bags and walk a quarter of a mile to Bud Walton Arena, where they can set up their laptops, recorders, notepads and other tools in the press room there.
To be totally honest, this new rule - which apparently was made because they feel like they can - doesn’t affect me. I’m usually finished much faster than reporters because I’m writing a column.
Reporters have to go down on the field to wait for the end of the game. Coaches and players aren’t available for about 30 minutes after the game. Then the interviews are done and reporters walk back up through the stands to the press box, transcribe their interviews, and they begin to write generally somewhere between 1 ½ and 2 hours after the game.
Anyone who has ever written knows that once you get started you don’t want to be interrupted.
As a past president of the Football Writers Association of America, I’m appalled that this rule was made. To arbitrarily do it a third of the way into the season makes absolutely no sense. Newspaper, television and radio reporters work too hard to be treated this way.
Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema had nothing to do with this. Maybe Athletic Director Jeff Long didn’t either.
Bielema was very open, honest and sincere in his remarks at Monday’s news conference. He may have been the person most disappointed by his team’s collapse in the final 23 minutes last Saturday against Rutgers, but he is well aware the fans are hurt and confused.
Bielema tried to be positive and said that hopefully the Hogs can build off the loss.
That’s what the fans need to believe. They need to know that he realizes the monumental chore he has taken on at Arkansas.
The UA and the football program didn’t need a silly policy change about the press box hours.
A 2010 Commission report on the impact of the University of Arkansas on the future of the state of Arkansas, requested by then-Chancellor John A. White, ended with this paragraph:
“Communicate regularly with business, education, government, and the media leaders throughout the state regarding the progress being made. Harness the power and prestige of the 2010 Commission in communicating the vision for the University and the implications for the state of realizing the vision.”
“Communicate” being the key word.
Sports, Pages 19 on 09/25/2013