Signing Day Followup

Does any one sporting event deserve 10 consecutive hours of non-stop coverage? If it was the Super Bowl we would call it overkill, but no one seemed to have a problem with ESPNU going wall-to-wall with coverage of National Signing Day; a day when high school football players can officially sign their college letters of intent. It would be nice to think that the players did not see their shadows so we can forgo another six weeks of media coverage, but with the nation's #1 recruit still undecided that's not likely to happen.

National signing day is now behind us, but not quite over yet. The Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State is hosting a live online chat February 14 to discuss the issues and challenges related to this new sports media phenomenon. So if haven't yet made those Valentine's Day plans you can get in on the free conversation at this link. The discussion will take place at 1 pm (I'm assuming that's Eastern time).

I also wanted to call your attention to a call for a special issue of the International Journal of Sport Communication. The issue will focus on Innovative Communication in College Athletics, which is obviously a broad topic and one open to several different approaches. The deadline for submission is June 30, 2011 with the issue scheduled to publish in December. Other information, submission guidelines and contact information can be found here.