DMN...Whatever

[Big10Ponyfan]

I called the DMN at 11 a.m. on yesterday to alert them to the Ryan Harp commitment. I talked to an editor who said the information would passed along to Kate Hairapolous (The Greek Tragedy) and not Todd Wills. Kate is the basketball "guru".

I live in FW so I don't get the DMN. I read online. Saw nothing. What is it in the paper?

Now I know they have their policy of printing commitments -- a policy they appear to be ignoring from time to time -- only when they talk to the players. But you would think, local school, high profile kid. How hard is it to track him down, even if he lives in Abilene. It's Doherty's first big recruit.

But man, Calvin was foaming at the mouth to report that secondary violation two weeks ago.

Call it selective journalism or lazy reporting. If it didn't appear, that's unacceptable. No wonder why the DMN continues to lose its relevance by the day. That paper has become nothing but a waste of time.

I only read them for SMU coverage because nobody else covers us.

[SMU Football Blog]

I too sent a note to Wills. And Wills does talk about basketball recruiting. See the recruiting Buzz blog on 8/14 where he talks about John Roberson's interest in SMU. Though, Kate Hairopuolos does handle basketball recruiting duties.

Now I don't normally get into such DMN hates SMU talk, but I will point out that the day the secondary violation was reported in the paper, it was reported by Watkins, who was in Oxnard at the time. Keith Whitmire was handling practice reports the days before and after.

[Thumper]

Whitmire was on campus and Watkins got the story from California?

[McClown27]

I found it odd as well. I would guess this signing works against the media cycle, as most of the attention is on the upcoming football schedule. Hopefully, they will do a weekend story highlighting Doherty's recruiting acumen.

[The PonyGrad]

Hope springs eternal, eh?

[MrMustang1965]

Your phone call to the DMN finally saw results with a story on Harp's commitment on Saturday, Aug. 19.

[Stallion]

You are so full of righteous indignation at the treatment of poor ole SMU. Well what about these recent commitments:

Ryan Harp committed to SMU 8/16 published in DMN 8/19

Jeremy Kerley committed to TCU 7/20 published 7/24

Gary Johnson one of the TopBB recruits in the Country committed to UT on 7/3 and published 7/06

Roger Holland committed to A&M 6/5 published 6/12

Daniel Baker committed to A&M 6/05 published 6/12


All of these kids are Top 100 or Top 20 players in their sports. I saw some exceptions to the rule generally with guys like G. J. Kinne who had well publicized new conferences to announce their commitments but they are the exception to the rule. More likely the DMN has an agreement with Rivals that if Rivals breaks an exclusive commitment it won't publish the story for a few days. The DMN may be doing a bad job in timely publishing commitments but it has nothing to do with discrimination against SMU.

[MrMustang1965]

You are so full of righteous indignation at the treatment of poor ole SMU. Well what about these recent commitments:

Ryan Harp committed to SMU 8/16 published in DMN 8/19

Jeremy Kerley committed to TCU 7/20 published 7/24

Gary Johnson one of the TopBB recruits in the Country committed to UT on 7/3 and published 7/06

Roger Holland committed to A&M 6/5 published 6/12

Daniel Baker committed to A&M 6/05 published 6/12


All of these kids are Top 100 or Top 20 players in their sports. I saw some exceptions to the rule generally with guys like G. J. Kinne who had well publicized new conferences to announce their commitments but they are the exception to the rule. More likely the DMN has an agreement with Rivals that if Rivals breaks an exclusive commitment it won't publish the story for a few days. The DMN may be doing a bad job in timely publishing commitments but it has nothing to do with discrimination against SMU.

I agree that that the DMN IS doing a bad job in timely publishing commitments for all of the schools that you list above.

[mavsrage311]

Stallion, thats a great observation if true. Is it possible that the Bevo (Belo) corporation owns Rivals?

[MrMustang1965]

Stallion, thats a great observation if true. Is it possible that the Bevo (Belo) corporation owns Rivals?

Talk about a conspiracy theory! But no...it appears it is not. Here's the web site info about Rivals.com.

The forerunner of Rivals.com, AllianceSports was an Internet sports pioneer, establishing the very first premium subscription-based network of college team and recruiting sites, and building the first recruiting database in 1996. In January of 2000, Seattle-based Rival Networks purchased AllianceSports, including all of the team site and recruiting properties. Rival Networks, whose business model relied exclusively on advertising revenue, subsequently went out of business. The founders of AllianceSports re-entered the online sports market in May 2001: led by Shannon Terry and a team of experienced professionals, publishers, and technology experts, the original AllianceSports vision was reborn under the category-leading Rivals.com brand.

[MrMustang1965]

Stallion, thats a great observation if true. Is it possible that the Bevo (Belo) corporation owns Rivals?

Talk about a conspiracy theory! But no...it appears it is not. Here's the web site info about Rivals.com.

The forerunner of Rivals.com, AllianceSports was an Internet sports pioneer, establishing the very first premium subscription-based network of college team and recruiting sites, and building the first recruiting database in 1996. In January of 2000, Seattle-based Rival Networks purchased AllianceSports, including all of the team site and recruiting properties. Rival Networks, whose business model relied exclusively on advertising revenue, subsequently went out of business. The founders of AllianceSports re-entered the online sports market in May 2001: led by Shannon Terry and a team of experienced professionals, publishers, and technology experts, the original AllianceSports vision was reborn under the category-leading Rivals.com brand.

[Big10Ponyfan]

Stallion,
It's your opinion.

I disagree. I'm not asking for flowery reporting. I want it to be fair. But really, the way they left the Tubbs firing story led people to believe it was over trite violations. We know there was more and they didn't work hard at it, in my opinion. Never was it mentioned that the team's absurd academic progress was laid out it. The fallout of that was Fall. In fact, that was something I pointed out when I made my first post in April.

There are people on this board who have been told of other things about the Tubbs era.

Surely, you cannot believe that there is no agenda by the DMN on the way it covers its beats, us, UT, A&M or the state legislature. I would be shocked if you do.

[PonyPride]

No, Belo does not own rivals, but they do have a business relationship through which Belo gets most of its recruiting info (like the top 100 lists) from rivals. When there's a story interviewing a local recruit, that's done by an actual Belo-employed reporter.

[Stallion]

Since when does the DMN have to drag the TRUTH out of a university like SMU> I thought it was the other way around. I thought a university had an obligation to be honest and truthful to its alumni and constituency. Truly a unique argument you make to blame the DMN for the perceptions caused by the Tubbs firing. Only at SMU!!!

[jtstang]

But really, the way they left the Tubbs firing story led people to believe it was over trite violations. We know there was more and they didn't work hard at it, in my opinion. Never was it mentioned that the team's absurd academic progress was laid out it. The fallout of that was Fall. In fact, that was something I pointed out when I made my first post in April.

There are people on this board who have been told of other things about the Tubbs era.

Holy freaking cow. Congratulations, that is the single most ridiculous DMN post ever made on this site, and I am including everthing mr. pony and McClown ever said. SMU has the duty to its fans and alums to come clean about the Tubbs firing and it has intentionally swept it under the rug knowing full well that the perception is still to this day burgers and Cheer. Copeland opened the door with his comments about "NCAA violations" beyond what was published in the paper and the PR braintrust that is SMU athletics quickly slammed it back shut. Any residual negative perception about the Tubbs debacle is wholly and solely the fault of SMU. DMN did not work [deleted] the story? For godsake, a press release from the athletic department detailing the alleged violations would have made it much easier.

When wonderboy Doherty was slapped down hard for violations a couple of weeks back, Orsini was the first one on the podium telling exactly what they were and how minor they were.