Media Notes

New NASCAR championship policy may affect nets' coverage

In Charlotte, Jim Utter reports there "seems to be a growing uproar over how ESPN covers the emerging championship battle in the Nationwide Series, which is likely to produce many race winners this season not running for the title." NASCAR has a "new policy of limiting drivers to earning championship points in one series," and some believe ESPN is "obligated to produce almost separate coverage of the drivers in each race running for the championship but perhaps not in contention for the win." Utter writes networks "sign up to broadcast and cover races -- not points standings." Utter: "The new NASCAR policy may have changed who wins a series title but by no means did it guarantee new race winners or alter the way a race should be covered. If that's what NASCAR wanted, it should have come up with a better plan" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 3/3).

LIVE FROM BRISTOL: The '11 WNBA Draft will be held Monday, April 11, at ESPN HQs. This will mark the first time a pro sports league will conduct its draft at the net's facility in Bristol, Conn. (ESPN). On Long Island, Mark La Monica wrote ESPN hosting the draft "may not be the best thing in the world," as it is "one thing to broadcast a draft, but it's another thing to host the draft in your own studio." La Monica: "Of course, those lines between business interests and solid journalism ethics were blurred long ago at ESPN" (NEWSDAY.com, 3/2).

RUNNIN' WITH THE REBELS: On Long Island, Marcus Henry wrote HBO goes "above and beyond the call" in its documentary "Runnin' Rebels of UNLV," which debuts March 12 and offers a "look into the high-flying UNLV Runnin' Rebels under controversial coach Jerry Tarkanian." HBO "gets credit for exposing both sides of the Runnin' Rebels heyday, everything from the controversy involving ... the recruitment of former New York City high school superstar Lloyd Daniels to the photo of several Rebels players sitting in a hot tub with Richard 'Richie the Fixer' Perry, a convicted sports event fixer." Tarkanian "comes off as both a controversial and sympathetic figure" (NEWSDAY.com, 3/2).

PREP SCHOOL: Online high school sports hub MaxPreps.com has partnered with N.Y.-based mobile applications developer GameChanger Media Inc. to promote GameChanger's mobile scorekeeping applications. MaxPreps will encourage its network of more than 10,000 baseball and softball coaches to use the free GameChanger products, with the alliance then potentially extending to other sports. The use of the GameChanger apps will then greatly streamline the publishing of game results and stats on MaxPreps.com. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed (Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal).