Importance of athletic websites survey


he's right....Texas A&M has a web team whose sole job is to website only....on national signing day they had vido of all their recruits to view on the website...no way an SID at a HBCU has that type of time to do all of that...

at a school like TAMU...they have so many SIDs in addition to web staff it's pitiful....and they pay the SIDs an average of $50K for 2 sports max and they don't have to do nothing but pass out stats to the media and conduct a press conference literally...

I know that's a different animal but you would be surprised how many HBCUs actually have control and access to update their websites...most still have to send their info to a 3rd party who may post it if they have the time

and as for student workers....I'll bet you anything their student workers are getting compensated better...work study for the average student (undergrad) doesn't pay well but at most schools they are receiving student hourly which comes directly from a department's budget....you know we're not draining our small budgets for that...you got to be creative how you acquire extra help..

now some SWAC schools get folks to help out free of charge but they still don't take advantage of it.....
 

The lack of decent athletic websites at HBCUs centers around two things... Clueless leadership of ADs and lack of concern from coaches. It has absolutely nothing to do with money.

Coaches are screaming for extra pay and better facilites and in most cases schools are accomodating them, so the money is there. Maintaining an athletic website in the SID office is easily cheaper than salary increases and facilities.

I don't blame this problem on the SID. I blame it on the ADs who don't put pressure on this office to maintain a decent website. Many of us would have loved to work for 35K while in grad school or fresh out of college. It does not take a lot of money to stock the SID office with a competent web person. A high level developer is not needed when you buy the template for a sports website for under a $100. You can even contract the entire design for a few $1000s and anyone can maintain the site afterwards. So I refuse to believe money is a factor here.
 
Jafus (Thinker) said:
Same Old G,

I am stating both. It takes money to make money. I believe our leaders review it in terms of an invesment. I do not believe our leaders view the ROI high enough to set aside capital for a website (as well as capital for operations) dedicated to athletics, especially since our budgets from our state legilators are so minial in covering the overall operation priorities of our universities.

It is becoming a question of resources. How do you quantifiably measure the significance and monetary value of athletics to a university (Of course we are obviously bias by nature {fanatics})?
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I half agree with you. They don't see the ROI. But the sad thing is that they don't have to invest much. You could donate solutions and they would get turned down or neglected because of ignoracne...sad to say that stretches beyond athletics at HBCU's.
 
What about the fact that your athletic budget operates in a deficit and is not allowed to have in subsidies granted by their respective state governments?

Our HBCU NCAA Division I AA/Division I athletic departments do not even operate our athletic budgets at even the average budget of other NCAA Division I AA/Division I department across the landscape.

http://www2.ncaa.org/media_and_even...ne/20050625_d2_summit_financialstudy_rls.html

Budgets at all three subdivisions in Division I were larger. Operating revenue and spending were $29.4 million and $27.2 million in Division I-A, $7.2 million and $7.5 million in Division I-AA, and $6.2 million and $6.5 million in Division I-AAA. In addition, athletics spending as a percentage of total institutional spending is lower in Division II (2.7 percent) than in Divisions I-AAA (3.0 percent), I-AA (3.6 percent) and I-A (3.8 percent).
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If you are really that frustrated with your institution's athletic website presence earmark your annual (monthly/semi-monthly) contributions to be used solely for that purpose.

Bring it up at your athletic booster club meeting and get them to push the issue a long with their annual contributions to the school's athletic department and things will surely change.

NOTE:
I fully understand the frustrations many of us have with our institutions. As frustrating as it may be, we must continue to push the envelope and push forward.
 
Jag Voice said:
The lack of decent athletic websites at HBCUs centers around two things... Clueless leadership of ADs and lack of concern from coaches. It has absolutely nothing to do with money.

Coaches are screaming for extra pay and better facilites and in most cases schools are accomodating them, so the money is there. Maintaining an athletic website in the SID office is easily cheaper than salary increases and facilities.

I don't blame this problem on the SID. I blame it on the ADs who don't put pressure on this office to maintain a decent website. Many of us would have loved to work for 35K while in grad school or fresh out of college. It does not take a lot of money to stock the SID office with a competent web person. A high level developer is not needed when you buy the template for a sports website for under a $100. You can even contract the entire design for a few $1000s and anyone can maintain the site afterwards. So I refuse to believe money is a factor here.
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Correct me if I am wrong but everyone pay a webmaster to take care of these webs, but supervision is one issue and the other is the final approval of what will be placed on the site.
 
our website REALLY needs updating... but after talking about it with Noise Talka, he said that even so AAMU has one of the top 3 websites in the SWAC... it doesnt even have anything on it about the men winning the SWAC tournament. Now SOME sports are better updated.. .especially volleyball... Is the volleyball coach putting presure on whoever is over the website? When we first hired an SID everything started off great... after time went by it seemed as if it was neglected.... Alcorn BETTER throw money at their SID or someone will get him.... He is TOTALLY on a different level from any other SID in this conference. After I saw Alcorn's basketball media guide, I knew they had someone special.
 
MACHIAVELLI said:
Alcorns media guides were like that prior to the current S.I.D.
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Yes they were and they continue to be the best in the conferance.
 
orange tiger said:
Most HBCUs have webmasters who also do other duties on campus.

At most white schools, the webmaster only has one duty and that is to make sure the website is updated the minute something new happens.

Notice if a game is over by 10pm on a Saturday night, the HBCU website will not get update until sometime Monday afternoon but at the white school it will be updated less than 30 minutes after the game is over.
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The Larger Schools have a more people on staff to manage there websites. The are able to split the website in to different section, so one person isn't just doing the entire site and in most cases the Sports section of the site is managed by athletics.
 

MightyDog said:
Correct me if I am wrong but everyone pay a webmaster to take care of these webs, but supervision is one issue and the other is the final approval of what will be placed on the site.
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I think that's the case for university websites.. not sure if it's the same for athletic websites.
 
DaGSUMan said:
The Larger Schools have a more people on staff to manage there websites. The are able to split the website in to different section, so one person isn't just doing the entire site and in most cases the Sports section of the site is managed by athletics.
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You probably are right but Alcorn proves you can get the job done with a small staff. I think that's the main issue here. Alcorn is maintaining a great website with the same or smaller budget than other HBCUs while others are making excuses.

They simply have placed a higher priority on maintaining a top notch athletic website.
 
Jag Voice said:
You probably are right but Alcorn proves you can get the job done with a small staff. I think that's the main issue here. Alcorn is maintaining a great website with the same or smaller budget than other HBCUs while others are making excuses.

They simply have placed a higher priority on maintaining a top notch athletic website.
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Alcorn Website is design and maintained by
http://www.athletewebservices.com/home.htm
 
looking at the comments its interesting to see yalls opinion on websites....

but it all comes down to the powers that be........I sure every SWAC school wants a quality website but the folks who want it ain't the ones signing the checks
 
The bottom line is this...

If schools want a quality athletics website done (updated & maintained) "in-house" they will have to provide the resources to make that happen...(meaning HUMAN RESOURCES).

Maintaining and updating a website for 18 athletic teams is a FULL-TIME job. period. We're getting ready to launch a new site at JSU (p.s. it will be the best in the conference...if I should say so myself. lol). and I've put in place the only system I think can work for it at small schools like ours (SWAC). We are going to use students from our communications dept. (specifically those interested in sports media).... and assigning them sports for the web.

All content will still have to go through us, but they will be responsible for keeping their sports' page fresh.

It helps us out in the office, while at the same time you give the students good experience.

But it's not very realistic to expect such small SID staffs to have the time to really devote to the sites.

hell look at how much my TSPN post time has slacked off. lol.
 
I really don't understand why there is an issue with websites.

After reading all this I went back and took a look at AAMU Website.

This website has more on it than I care to read.

The Department of Athletics is on the AAMU Website with all sports, administration, Bulldog club, ACRG and other things. The ACRG is one of the links that is currently on the Athletics links and we have a volunteer that maintains the link.

My first take is that those who have a need for something other than what I see on the AAMU website, probably need to develop a plan for what they need and present it to the decision makers. Most of the time I find that our needs are not met because no plan of action is submitted. Most of the time it is they know I need it.
 
MD:
I just went to your site and it's real nice. It's represents your athletic department well.

A lot of HBCU athletic sites are not as nice as AAMU so I think that why this topic was started.
 
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