Tracking Collegiate Coverage on the Internet

Collegiate track and field is becoming a growing presence on the Internet but the sport is still lagging far behind other high profile sports when it comes to cyberspace coverage. Unlike the plethora of Web sites for some college sports - football and basketball come to mind - comprehensive track and field coverage is somewhat limited, although that isn't to say there aren't some excellent sites out there.

Trackwire Online (http://www.trackwire.com/) has hosted a Web site since 1996. Its primary mission is to cover collegiate track and field and the site does an outstanding job as reflected by reader response. "We are able to provide comprehensive coverage to a narrowly targeted niche audience at relatively low cost," Tracker on-line producer Erik Palmer says. "Response to our site from readers has been fantastic. Through Tracker and other sites, followers of collegiate track and field now have a much greater volume of timely information available than ever before.

"However, we have been surprised to find that building a profitable stream of advertising and sponsorship revenue still requires an audience of a size that can only be attracted through a very general-interest approach to content."

This general interest approach is one taken by many track and field sites, Suite 101 included. Print publications with on-line sites that also take this general approach include American Track and Field (http://www.runningnetwork.com/atf/), Track and Field News (http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/) and Runner's World Online (http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/). While these sites provide excellent overall coverage for the sport, the collegiate aspect does not get an in-depth look.

Unlike many sports, collegiate track and field - or track and field in general for that matter - does not have its own page on such sites as ESPN.com (http://espn.go.com/) and CNNSI.com (http://cnnsi.com/). Track and field coverage tends to be lumped in with other "Olympic sports" and in this approach the collegiate scene is completely ignored.

This leaves sites such as Trackwire virtually alone in attempts to highlight the best track and field performers on the collegiate scene. "Our main function is to filter and report on any news that has impact on the NCAA D-1 indoor, outdoor and cross country championships, and to circumvent editors of mainstream sports media, who rarely choose to cover these events," Palmer says.

The NCAA has its own site, with pages dedicated to every sport - cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field included - but NCAA officials say they rely on individual colleges and universities as well as leagues and conferences to report results.

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