Did schools eliminate Sports Information Directors?

[MissouriValleyUnite]

I was looking up a school's SID and noticed one wasn't listed. Then I went down the rabbit hole of looking at all the other schools and couldn't find anyone with an SID.

Does anyone know if schools eliminated SIDs? That was a pretty noteworthy position for generations. I know Bradley had one a couple years ago.

None at Drake
https://godrakebulldogs.com/staff-directory

None at UNI
https://unipanthers.com/staff-directory

None at UIC
https://uicflames.com/staff-directory

None at Illinois St
https://goredbirds.com/staff-directory?path=general

None at Bradley
https://bradleybraves.com/staff-directory

None at SIU
https://siusalukis.com/staff-directory

None at Valpo
https://valpoathletics.com/staff-directory

None at Indiana St
https://gosycamores.com/staff-directory

None at Evansville
https://gopurpleaces.com/staff-directory

None at Murray St
https://goracers.com/staff-directory

None at Belmont
https://belmontbruins.com/staff-directory

[pafan]

Evansville didn't eliminate the role. It's been re-titled as "senior associate athletic director for communications" or some lengthy title. This happened at Evansville a long time ago -- probably when Marty was still our HC.

Looking at some of the other MVC members, it appears to be a trend. Drake, UNI, ISBb, and Bradley all have job titles covering "Athletic Communications".

It probably suggests the expansion of the role over the years. 20 years ago we all had traditional media at every game. These days, the role of media outlets has shrunk and the role of the web site and the school's own social media has grown.

[ReZyNeZy]

Valpo has a "Associate Director for Strategic Communications"
I agree that the role of "traditional media" has shrunk, heck, Valpo only gets a large showing of local news outlets when football season comes around, and even then, most of those outlets are more willing to write articles about the high school team as opposed to the college team.

Largely, media takes care of itself now. ESPN is at every game and stats are freely available online either through ESPN or through partnerships with live stats companies. In the NIL era, some kids are even going the route of hiring managers to deal with the brass tacks and the media relations. (I even knew of a HS 3 star in Valpo who had a "consultant" as hiring a manager at the HS level is largely not allowed).

[racernation]

Dave Winder at Murray was the SID before his title changed to Associate AD of Athletics Communications

[squirrel]

Similar situation at Bradley:

Senior Associate AD for Marketing and Fan Outreach (TJ Christie) who then has 7 staff, 4 of which are in the traditional SID space. (2 cover MBB, Cody Roskens, who handles MBB, MSOC and Valley on ESPN) and Dave Snell who does special assignments such as the coaches show and internal media productions. Their title is Assistant Director of Athletic Communications. The other 2 staff, one handles major women's sports (with the same title), while the fourth has just the Communications Assistant title and handles Olympic sports.

[tribecalledquest]

Similar situation at Bradley:

Senior Associate AD for Marketing and Fan Outreach (TJ Christie) who then has 7 staff, 4 of which are in the traditional SID space. (2 cover MBB, Cody Roskens, who handles MBB, MSOC and Valley on ESPN) and Dave Snell who does special assignments such as the coaches show and internal media productions. Their title is Assistant Director of Athletic Communications. The other 2 staff, one handles major women's sports (with the same title), while the fourth has just the Communications Assistant title and handles Olympic sports.

And it’s a shitty department. The product that comes out of there is horrendous.

[ReZyNeZy]

Well despite their titles in the modern world, they are still very much needed. Brandon Vickory had his work cut out for him following the major media intrigue from the comeback victory yesterday.

[FunchessonPopcorn]

Similar situation at Bradley:

Senior Associate AD for Marketing and Fan Outreach (TJ Christie) who then has 7 staff, 4 of which are in the traditional SID space. (2 cover MBB, Cody Roskens, who handles MBB, MSOC and Valley on ESPN) and Dave Snell who does special assignments such as the coaches show and internal media productions. Their title is Assistant Director of Athletic Communications. The other 2 staff, one handles major women's sports (with the same title), while the fourth has just the Communications Assistant title and handles Olympic sports.

And it’s a shitty department. The product that comes out of there is horrendous.

What kills me is they have a Sports Communication career path, which might have a casual observer assume they’d value quality output as kind of an advertisement unto itself. That would seem to be an incorrect assumption.