First of all, thank you to those who have stuck around for day 1. This is a learning curve on the back end for us too in terms of publishing stories on a different platform. Also, with SB Nation have a more story + comments all in one platform and Rivals having stories and threads separate, it is a different game to manage. I did notice some questions here earlier and I'll try to provide some answers.
- Prefixes and titles - For most of the day we had one prefix available: Off Topic. That appears to be fixed now after talking with Rivals. I am making sure we change avatars and put titles in our handles on the board too so we differentiate ourselves from regular posters.
- Media Appearance Stuff - I have gotten both Casey and Jace approved for full season credentials for men's basketball and the last two home football games. Jace also has been approved for road games at Illinois and Indiana. As we figure out our travel budget Casey wants to go to several road basketball games as well, and what games we are not at we have a great network with the other Rivals sites where they can get us stuff like postgame reactions. that makes it much easier for us if someone can ask questions for us from Piscataway on a Tuesday night. Casey and Jace will be at media availability for football and basketball.
- Other Sports - This is what I want to make the focus of what writing I do personally. I really want to expand on volleyball, soccer, baseball, etc. Right now I will likely start with a weekly "other sports" wrap and then work in some interviews with various coaches and athletes. From H&R I still have very good relationships with the SIDs for baseball, soccer, and volleyball, so I am looking forward to shedding light on those programs.
- Recruiting news - Being centralized in Indiana gives us a leg up on basketball recruiting. We're going to get to as many events as we can. I am in Indy so I will try to get to a few games for Myles Colvin and Kanon Catchings. I also have a personal interest in seeing Flory Bidunga as much as possible since he plays for my Kokomo Wildkats. He has a game so close to my house I can walk there, and I know I will see him multiple times this year. The single-day shootout at Brownsburg in December is going to be great for that as Catchings and Bidunga player back-to-back. We will use the Rivals network extensively as well to supplement.
- Thanks for your Patience - You guys are the ones paying to be here, so we appreciate your patience as we work to get content AND work with a new system. We pretty much got access to it on about Saturday, so there is a lot we're adding. I think day 1 went better than expected (and yes, I expected some blowback from the move), so we're happy to be here.
