Bowling Green State University’s budget issues have extended to the athletics department Web site.
The bgsufalcons.com site has been revamped with ICS (Internet Consulting Services) Sidearm having
designed a new site and serving as the host.
CBS College Sports was the former host, but Jason Knavel, the assistant athletics director for athletic
communications at BGSU said CBS was planning a price increase to serve as the Web host.
"We still wanted to make sure that we were going to get a quality athletic Web site. We had to look
at other options based on the increases CBS College Sports was making in their cost structure for their
Web site," Knavel said. "We took bids from a number of places and ICS Sidearm gave us a great
quote. They are a company that has experience with Division I athletics.
"We were pleased with the bid they gave us, with their experience and their ability to help us do
what we wanted to do," he continued. "ICS Sidearm is a company on the rise and they are kind
of pushing the boundaries. They are doing some new things. They are really trying to break into the
market in a bigger way. They are willing to work with you. We were pleased with an opportunity to maybe
do some things that haven’t been done on other sites or least some things we could put on our site that
weren’t available under the CBS College Sports umbrella."
BG’s Web site had been with CBS for the last eight years.
"I’m sure there will be some adjustment time for people, but there’s no doubt from a navigation
standpoint … it’s a huge upgrade," Knavel said. "Over the next couple of months as people
get used to it, they will find how much easier it is to navigate around and find the information they
want."
Knavel said the new site would be clutter-free, have better organization and video, including highlights,
features and live streaming videos.
"Within the athletic department we are restructuring our video and it’s going to give us an
opportunity to have more access to people who are trained to deal with video," Knavel said.
"So by having that ability and opportunity we wanted to make sure we had a site that was built to
handle video capabilities.
"While we’re not quite at the point yet where we’re really implementing that, it will be possible
over the next year to really increase the video aspect of things on the Web site."
Also planned for the new site are an e-newsletter every Monday with the stories and highlights of the
past week; a text messaging service to receive scores and news about major events on a cell phone; the
ability to Twitter at twitter.com/bgathletics to receive daily news and notes about the athletic
department; an athletics department blog; live stats; more photo galleries; easier access to ordering
tickets; and a new athletic department store.
"The e-newsletter and the mobile updates were available on the old site, but it was on a very
limited basis. It was handled by CBS College Sports on their own," Knavel said. "These we will
have total control over and they will come out of athletic communications. I think they will be welcome
additions for the fans to help keep updated on BGSU athletics."
Also with the ability to Twitter, Knavel said it’s a way to keep in touch with recruits and fans
"like you haven’t before. It’s something that we have to get involved in. The Twitter page has
jumped off the map in a hurry for us."
Knavel said that many of the additions to the Web site are to get information to Falcon fans as quickly
as possible as the days of relying on traditional media are dwindling and athletics departments need to
rely on the most current technology.
"I still believe in what the traditional media does, newspaper, radio, television, but we have to
look at other options as well," Knavel said.