Mending the Rips

Cutter's Log - Stardate 0102.41.90
Current Song - Sara Smile (Hall & Oates)

Recent complaints about the coverage area of NISB led me to read some history about the late Roman Empire. While I am no king, or dictator, I have before me a large coverage area. The Roman Empire didn't just vanish all at once, it became divided.

I keep my mind on that bit of world history because I'm seeing what I have predicted for the past couple of years.

That's the division of the coverage into smaller areas. The diehard fan focus has diminished in the past couple of years. Our understanding of other teams has become less and less. Our "high school sports world" has been limited to their own school and the nearest two or three. We're keeping fewer tabs. Each portion of the area believes that they are more superior than the others.

Maybe that is changing, but what is not changing is the way our regionals and sectionals and supersectionals are set up. When we enter a sectional tournament, what do we know of the opponent? If this trend keeps going, we won't know anything. We won't be able to understand the value of any win any more than what we do now.

I have always said that a team is so much better than a group of five people.

SYNERGY!!!!

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I have to hold back and ask myself this: Have I evolved a great deal, or has everyone else scaled back? Which of the two carries a greater truth?

You'll find that I cover large schools and big schools, Jo Daviess County schools and Bureau County schools, the Western Big 6 and Little 10, and football and bowling. Sometimes I'll even venture into the Chicagoland side of things when our area teams enter that realm. So I guess I've seen almost everything. Is that wrong? Is it wrong to claim that my knowledge of this particular world is more superior than others?

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If I had to make a determination at this time, I would say that NISB pretty much have three great factions: The New-Mor-Rock-Ster portion, the Winnebago portion, and the Little 10 portion (which is sort of invisible, but is noticable when it comes to just the content side of things).

Any business person would respond to that with wanting to focus in on these three portions more than the others. That would leave out a few chunks. If we abandon them, and later try to expand into them, how will the reception be?