Inspired by our friend, PB at BON, I've decided to compile a list of my favorite mainstream media (MSM) writers who focus on teams in the Big 12. I realize that without them people who run blogs, like myself, would have a lot less to write about.
First, I've excluded the national writers (ESPN, SI, Sportsline, Fox and Sporting News) intentionally. I wanted to focus on the guys I read every day, not the guys who will occasionally read and those who will occasionally write about my team.
Second, if I'm reading about an opposing team then I also initially prefer blogs over papers. The biggest reason why is because if I want to know what's going on at a rival school, I'm more likely to get a recap of various articles from a blog more so than a newspaper.
If you have a favorite writer for your local paper then please feel free add in the comments section below.
- Hand-down, no mainstream media member covers Texas Tech sports better than the Lubbock Avalanche Journal / Red Raiders.com. There are three talented writers who cover the sports I have time to cover and they are all incredibly talented at what they do: Don Williams for Texas Tech football, Jeff Walker for Texas Tech men's basketball and George Watson for Texas Tech baseball My biggest gripe about the LAJ is that there's no RSS feed for any of these guys. That would make me happy. The bottom line is that I can't do my job if they don't do theirs, and for that I thank them.
- SAEN's Tim Griffin consistently writes about the Big 12 like no other writer. You would think that other papers would catch on and have a writer solely dedicated to the conference as a whole in addition to the teams, but that's not the case for the most part. His weekly Big 12 Insider has more information in it than most writers have for 2 weeks and he reads blogs, which is great. And shame on SAEN for not having Tim listed on their webpage of columnists.
- DMN's Chip Brown does as good a job as any covering the Longhorns, but he knows the Big 12 as well as one could ask.
- The Chron's Joe Durarte is a blogging machine and keeps Longhorn fans updated throughout the day. I'd love to see MSM cover Texas Tech in the same capacity.
- The Columbia Tribune's Dave Matters (Missouri football) and Steve Walentik (Missouri basketball) do the best job of covering their team through their paper's blogs. Matters is in-depth and detailed in his practice reports, which Tiger fans should be thankful for and Walentik covers Mizzou basketball with the same type of enthusiasm and depth.
- FWST's Wendell Barnhouse is an excellent local writer who does an excellent job covering the college game collegiately.