To improve the quality of news in your sports department, try these reporting ideas. There will be some resistance, but it will be worth it if you try.
Stories by the numbers
1. Football play-by-play
Build a database of all offensive and defensive plays from all games played by State U or your local professional team. Analyze the most recent games or the team's seasons statistics in a weekly column. Best resource is the play-by-play provided by the home team's sports information office or public relations department.
The database should be structured so that it includes quarter, ball position, down, distance, team in possession, play, result of play, tackler(s), penalty and time of game.
Keep individual game play-by-play in separate tables, then combine tables to determine team tendencies and individual performance.
College and professional coaching staffs spend a lot of time each week analyzing their opponent's tendencies. We should do the same thing. Similar databases can be built for basketball, baseball or any other sport where a substantial amount of information is kept. Small papers could do high school sports though reporters will have to do own play-by-play.
2. Spending on sports
High schools, colleges and universities spend millions and millions of dollars annually on sports. Where does the money go, and does it make a difference in the outcome? These kinds of projects are exactly what the computer is to be used for. It allows for analysis of lots of information easily.
Are the schools in compliance with federal gender equity laws? Last year, I found that the girls high school basketball team uses hall lockers to change for practice. Along that same hallway was a locked boy's basketball gym. Colleges and universities are a lot better about Title IX, but there are exceptions. Recently, I found five Division I-A schools still had a 30 percent gap between the percentage of women enrolled and the percentage of the women participating in sports.
3. Workers compensation
No professional team owner or general manager ever has anything nice to say about the cost of their workers comp. Generally, workers comp records are public. Build a database with the last five years of injuries sustained by players for the local professional team. Is there a pattern? What does the team physician say?
4. Outside income contracts
This will allow you to track over the years how much money your top coaches are making from endorsement contracts and other deals. Coaches are required to provide their presidents with a report of all outside income contracts. Get them and begin to build the database.
5. College athletic department audits
Also keep drive charts.
NCAA rules require that each athletic department have its books audited by an outside firm annually. Open records laws should be strong enough to get copies of the reports from the public institution. Private schools will resist, but ask anyway. Build a database from the reports to find trends in spending and revenue generation. Get copies from the other schools in your school's conference for comparison.
6. Season Ticket Holders
Ever wondered who sits in the best seats at a college football game? Most athletic departments now have their season ticket holders in a database. Ask for it and have fun with the powerful people in your community. Use it against campaign disclosure lists and see how the similarities run.
These are just some of the ideas that I have used my computer to help me with. There are others many others to try. Sports is a game of numbers, and computers crunch them better than reporters. Get to know spreadsheets and relational software. It will give you some top notch Page 1 stories.
Tom Witosky can be reached at (515) 284-8522, or send e-mail to glrumper@msn.com.