NCAA and Iowa: You Will Blog When We Tell You to Blog

Well, well, well. It seems as if the University of Iowa and the NCAA want to stifle communication coming out of ... press boxes?

Before Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz's press conference Tuesday, a notice was handed out to media members detailing the NCAA's absurd blogging policy from its sporting events.

Here is that policy:

Each Credential Holder (including television, Internet, new media, and print publications) has the privilege to blog (e.g., real-time or time delayed journal entries) during competition through the credential entity. All blogs must be free of charge to readers. All must adhere to the conditions and limitations of this NCAA Blogging Policy. A blog description includes in-competition updates on score and time remaining and a description of the competition taking place during the given time. The NCAA and host institution shall be the final authority on whether a credential holder or credential entity is followingn the NCAA Blogging Policy.

The following is the NCAA's policy for the number of blogs allowed during a competition or session (i.e., where more than one contest takes place under the same admission ticket). They are applicable to both genders.

Basketball/Football: Five times per half; one at halftime, two times per overtime period.

OK, what's causin' all this commotion? I dunno, but maybe Gazetteonline.com's liveblogging sessions hosted by Scott Dochterman and myself from the Maine-Iowa game may have irked someone, somewhere. Why? Who knows? Dochterman was doing a lot of play-by-play, so maybe they didn't like that. Maybe they didn't like me allowing outsiders to come in and make occasionally catty remarks? Maybe the Big Ten Network or Learfield or some suit at Iowa just didn't like what they saw.

Maybe some other newspaper's Web site rankled someone.

Maybe I'm completely paranoid. I never rule out that possibility.

Liveblogging, with a give-and-take between the host at the game and those who come in to offer their own observations ... I'm not sure where that fits in. It seems bizarre, since you can do the very same thing about the game from any other place you want.

I'm going to do another liveblogging session at the Florida International-Iowa game, and I'll play by the rules of the the mighty, mighty NCAA. At least I think I'll be playing by its rules. Look for the link to the liveblog at the Gazetteonline.com sports page on Saturday morning. I'll begin around 10:45 a.m.

Hopefully, I'll stay within the lines of the NCAA's rules. Because I'd sure hate to go on probation. Or worse. Guantanamo Bay is a miserable place to spend an autumn, I hear.

For some background on how this all flared up over a year ago somewhere else: