The call was polite enough.
Why weren’t we covering the (now ended) Texas A&M women’s basketball team’s run in the NCAA tournament?
I understand, I truly do, especially with Texas A&M. When I was publishing newspapers in Texas, I spent quite a lot of time in College Station. A good friend of mine was head coach of the Texas A&M judo team, which has been ranked in the top 3 in the nation in judo for years.
I spent a lot of time on the mat with that team, working out with them and occasionally coaching them. I exerted a lot of time, energy and money to help the kids on the team, so I am fond of Texas A&M and follow their judo team to this day.
And while they are an SEC team, they are not a local team, nor are they a state team. Therefore, Texas A&M really falls outside our two highest priorities for coverage.
With a relatively small staff of three full-time sports employees a few freelancers, we cover MTSU sports aggressively. Truthfully, we consider coverage of MTSU – including their sports – as our franchise. We do more MTSU, and do it better, than any other news organization in the world.
We also cover an enormous amount of sports form our local high schools. Then we try to throw in the Titans and Predators, as well as some Vandy or UT coverage.
Sadly, we can’t cover every college in the nation. We can’t provide extensive coverage of every SEC team, and if we did decide to invest heavily in conference-wide coverage, it would be in C-USA.
The sad thing is we simply can’t be all things to all people. We are focusing more and more energies and monies on local. Our investment in Rutherford County is growing and will continue to increase, but sadly for me, and at least one other person, that means not much Texas A&M coverage.
I am very fond of the maroon, but this paper is printed in True Blue.