By Denny O'Brien
©2009 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.

Editor's Note: View Denny O'Brien's clarification relating to this column.

There won’t be an official preseason gathering of the Conference USA football media this year, but the league is still planning festivities for its annual Football Media Kickoff.

Instead of convening in Memphis, New Orleans, or Dallas to spend time with C-USA coaches and selected players, the C-USA media will have access to a video teleconference on Thursday, July 30, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. It’s a huge departure from the amount of access the media has had to coaches and players in the past.

Traditionally media members have enjoyed a more personal free-for-all in which individual reporters could conduct intimate, face-to-face one-on-ones with coaches and players. Each school had its own table, and media members had free reign to roam throughout a hotel conference room and spend as much time with each coach and player as desired.

It paved the way for interesting storylines as writers were given more runway to pursue interesting angles without interruption from colleagues.

That’s unlikely to happen this year as each coach will be allotted only 15 minutes to entertain questions from the entire media brigade via satellite. Instead of asking an individual coach anywhere from eight to ten questions, writers will be lucky to lob one apiece.

The decision to switch to the new format no doubt can be attributed to the attendance at last year’s event at the Memphis Peabody. The number of attending media was significantly lower than in years past, which was almost expected given the cutbacks that are persisting across the print media.

C-USA’s geographic diversity certainly doesn’t help matters, either. Where leagues like the SEC and ACC can provide centralized locations that make it logistically and economically feasible for the media to meet, C-USA doesn’t offer such a luxury.

Not to be overlooked is the impact the Bowl Championship Series is having on the decision to axe the traditional format. C-USA schools lack the bountiful BCS bucks, and for some it just isn’t financially prudent for coaches and players to book travel for a two- or three-day event.

Another element of the annual media day that should suffer is the coverage it received from CBS College Sports. During the past two events, the network was present and produced a comprehensive show that included on-set interviews with coaches and players from each school.

This year it will be replaced by a one-hour preview show.

This experiment is hardly ideal for drawing attention to C-USA football and its member schools. But if C-USA’s video teleconferencing format is at least moderately successful, don’t look for the traditional media meet-ups to return.

Media mobilizing on C-USA’s behalf

C -USA football coaches aren’t forecasting the league pecking order this preseason, but fans can still expect to see a predicted order of finish.

Thanks to an effort organized by Ted Lewis of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, there will be a preseason media poll released for C-USA. The ballot will include top-to-bottom predictions for both divisions, as well as an overall champion and all-conference selections.

Lewis, who has covered Tulane for the Times-Picayune, organized the media poll with league media relations directors and the individual writers who cover member schools. He did so as a response to a decision by the league to not have its coaches participate in a preseason poll.

There is speculation that league coaches aren’t releasing a preseason poll due to plummeting ticket sales at some league schools. That thought is married to the hypothesis that unfavorable positioning in a preseason poll could lead to unfavorable returns in preseason ticket drives.

But that isn’t stopping the media from releasing its own poll, which is scheduled for release during the week of the C-USA Media Kickoff.

In addition to voting on the league running order, the media will vote on first- and second-team all-conference selections, as well as anointing a top player for offense, defense, and special teams. Votes will be based on nominations received from each school.

Voters must submit their ballots by July 15.

NOTE FROM EDITOR: Bonesville will publish Denny O'Brien's preseason ballot and preseason all-conference teams once the selections are revealed later this month.