North Dakota State sets new rules for media covering teams -- and quickly rescinds them

On Friday, North Dakota State University announced a batch of new restrictions on media covering their athletic teams. The Bison, who are something of a national curiosity because of their five straight Football College Subdivision titles, announced an assortment of restrictions that were described this way by the Fargo Forum newspaper:

"The guidelines would have prevented outlets without NDSU broadcast-rights agreements from providing much of the coverage they do today. There would be no extended game highlights on special TV programs; no live coverage of regularly scheduled press conferences; no radio shows, pregame or postgame coverage on NDSU facilities; no live play-by-play blogging; and no one-on-one interviews with head football or basketball coaches without NDSU's written consent."

The intention was to give advantages to rightsholders who have official relationships with NDSU. As the school's director of sales and broadcasting, Jeremy Jorgenson, spun it: "We've grown so much that we need to protect our brand."

The brand has been built, as much as anything, on the five straight Football Championship Subdivision titles that NDSU has won. The school has an understandably rabid following throughout North Dakota and, to some extent, northwestern Minnesota.

But "protect the brand" didn't go over well. In the Twin Cities, The Fan's Justin Gaard, who does sideline reporting for University of Minnesota football games, offered this three-tweet salvo. Keep in mind that his station carries the Vikings, Wild and University of Minnesota football and basketball.

Fargo columnist and talk show host Mike McFeely offered this sarcasm laden column and the school wasn't feeling much love anywhere. Deadspin weighed in: "It's unclear to us how a public university can enact these kinds of restrictions."

Do the math: Angering the media that closely covers the biggest sports story in town is not a winning proposition, plus it's not going to get much support from Bison fans, who would find themselves with less coverage from the outlets that have covered them for years. (Did we mention that a local radio station on Monday rebranded itself as "Bison 1660" and now has broadcast rights to NDSU games and other athletic shows?)

So, on Tuesday, North Dakota State took it all back.

School president Dean Bresciani said he wasn't filled in on the changes -- and he apparently wasn't happy having to play the "I didn't know" card. "This is not the way NDSU treats local journalists and our many loyal fans who value the breadth of news coverage NDSU enjoys," he said in a press release.

And the school's athletic director, Matt Larsen, added: "I erred in not bringing these ideas forward for the president's review, and I regret the damage this has caused to the administration, institution and university community."

Here's the Forum story about the changes being wiped out.

Larsen, by the way, promised that he would be contacting media outlets to let them know that they are "welcome and appreciated" at NDSU events.

Then, he'll go back to protecting that brand.