Batting .600 Or So

The way that college athletic communications offices update their web pages is almost always done through the content management system of the company that houses the site.

There are a few - TigerBlog believes that the very attractive scarletknights.com is one of them - that are not maintained by one of the few companies that schools have turned to to be their host.

The goprincetontigers.com site started out more than a decade ago, and though the name of the entity that has housed the site has changed about six times, it's really only been with two different companies. The first is what is now CBS College Sports, and for the last, oh, five years or so, with what is now neulion.

For those keeping official score, it went from its original spot with Fans Only to OCSN, which was the Official College Sports Network, an outfit that took over Fans Only. Then CSTV (College Sports Television) took over OCSN, and CSTV then became CBS College Sports.

Before that move, though, goprincetontigers.com relocated to a company called XOS, which then became Jump TV and is now NeuLion.

There are other companies that do this sort of thing, and in the world of college athletic communications, there are those who are vehement supporters of one company over another and who absolutely hate one company over another.

As for TigerBlog, he was happy with both, but the best part of NeuLion is that it enables Princeton to have its other site, goprincetontigers.tv.

Anyway, all of these companies have sites that follow a basic format, so when you do a redesign, it has to follow one of the established setups already in place.

Not that any of them are bad or anything. And, for TB's money, layout isn't as important from an aesthetic standpoint as it is from a functionality standpoint.

To that end, you want your website to be as easy to get around as possible for those who come to see the content. If it's difficult, you'll lose your audience.

TB will leave it to those who regularly go to goprincetontigers.com to decide if it's easy to navigate.

Each of the companies has its own content management system, which is how the pages are updated. Basically, you log onto the site and follow the form, which enables the schools to control the headlines, pictures, text and everything else, without having to know HTML code or anything fancy.

When you're done, you hit "save," and then the story appears shortly thereafter. Of course, you're at the mercy of the servers of the web hosts, but they're almost always reliable - and when they're not, you can't really do much about it.

One point to keep in mind is that on a college site, the spaces are predetermined for what can go in them, whether it's a photo, a video, a story, an ad, a blog. On goprincetontigers.com, the spot to the right side underneath the "news," "tigerblog" and "podcasts" tabs is a house ad, meaning Princeton controls what goes there (as opposed to two spots down, which is a NeuLion national ad space).

If you go to the site today, you'll see it has a reference to the first home events of 2010-11, which are two weeks from Sunday, or two days after the first events of the year.

The start of any new year always gets TB thinking about what storylines will play out over the next 10 months, as each athletic year is unique.

It also gets TB thinking about the sheer volume of events.

In 2009-10, Princeton's 38 varsity teams combined to play 619 games. TB counts games as head-to-head contests that contribute to a win-loss record, so that total doesn't include things like cross country races or golf tournaments, as well as a few others.

Of those 619 games, Princeton had a record of 361-247-11, which is a winning percentage of .592. The women went 192-110-5, while the men were 169-137-6.

If you look at Ivy League games only, Princeton's record a year ago was 156-83-4, a winning percentage of .650. The women's teams again did slightly better, going 85-37-2 to the men's teams 71-46-2.

Princeton had a winning record against every other Ivy League school a year ago, when the program combined for 12 Ivy League championships and the Ivy League's unofficial all-sports points championship for the 24th straight year.

Of course, with the new year two weeks away, Princeton - and every other Ivy school - is back to 0-0.

Will 2010-11 equal the previous years for athletic success? As TB always says, it's not guaranteed.

So let the games begin. And, as long as the content management system holds up, you can find out all the answers at goprincetontigers.com.