August 16, 2024 | Read Online

Extra Points Update: New Pricing and Where We're Going:

This is why we ask for money

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

As we head into the start of another Fall athletic season, I wanted to take a moment here to update all of you on where Extra Points is going, what we’re hoping to build, and share some information about pricing updates.

Let’s start with the pricing news first. I have a few changes I want to share.

Effective September 1, 2024, a premium Extra Points subscription will now cost $9/mo, or $84/year.

This pricing update will apply to all current monthly plans. If you’re on an annual plan, you will not be billed again until your plan expires, but monthly plans will be charged the new rate in September.

If you’ve been on the fence about upgrading to an annual, now would be a great time to pull the trigger. For the next week, you can upgrade to an annual subscription for just $63.50/year.

Click here to upgrade and save 15%

The premium Extra Points subscription gives you a free digital copy of my book, “What If? A Closer Look at College Football’s Great Questions”, access to Athletic Director Simulator 4000 (which, by the way, got an update today), and access to all four newsletters we write every week.

Okay. Why are you adjusting the prices, and what are you using that money for?

Very fair question. There are two main reasons for this.

We haven’t touched pricing since April of 2021, when we raised the price to $8/mo. Sadly, a lot of other things have become more expensive since then, from our newsletter software, Stripe fees, travel and labor costs, and much more.
Behind the scenes, we’re also doing a lot of growing as a company. We’ve recently made hires to support our marketing and outbound sales efforts, social media, technical product, administrative support, and freelance writing. We understand that getting where we need to go takes resources.

Okay, where do we want to go? What should Extra Points readers and community members look for this season?

We have some big plans. Those include:

We’ve got the Extra Points Bowl on Nov 23 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. We’re supporting this event because we care about the athlete experience at the DIII level, we care about DIII football in Ohio, we want to better understand event sponsorship and management, and we want to have fun. We’re looking at this as dipping our toes into the event sponsorship space, and we’re taking all of you along for the ride. Expect lots of coverage on the behind-the-scenes process of this event, OAC and PAC football, and ways for you to be involved.
We are launching a new and improved FOIA Directory Product. I get emails and DMs about this all the time, and I can promise you, it will be ready soon. We’ve spent a lot of time over the last few months building a better technical experience from our last directory, and we think this will be a tool that can be very useful for newsrooms, researchers, athletic departments and other industry professionals. We’re not quite ready to share beta versions of this tool, but I promise, it’s coming.
We plan to hit the road. My editorial travel schedule isn’t written in stone yet, but my hope is to get out of the home office and on campus at least four times this fall season, not counting our trip to Canton for the Extra Points Bowl, or any campus or conference speaking engagements. I have a pretty good idea where some of those will be, but we’re still suggestible!
Continue making the best newsletter we possibly can. Regularly having freelance contributors means I can spend more time making that extra phone call, reading the extra book, or being more active in sales and product meetings. Whether I’m personally writing three or four days a week, I still plan to write the most original and interesting things I can about off-the-field stories in college athletics.
Experiment where it makes sense. Do we get back to selling Extra Points merch? Set up an EA Sports College Sports 25 Dynasty for our subscribers? Produce more original video? Partner with other publications? We’re always talking to folks and looking for new ways to make Extra Points better. I’m always open to your ideas, too.

We also want to build off our successes this year, from our industry-leading coverage of the development of EA Sports College Football 25, to our conference realignment coverage, to our new ownership structure.

We also offer significant bulk discounts for athletic departments, sports management departments, newsrooms and private companies

We save significant money on processing fees when multiple accounts are one credit card, and we’re more than happy to pass that savings on. I know hundreds of ADs and commissioners read this newsletter. If you’d like to buy multiple seats so your coaches, associate ADs, staffers and others can have access to Extra Points, please email me at matt@extrapointsmb.com for a quote. We can usually cut the individual subscription price in half, and often, by more than that.

I know a lot of y’all are forwarding the emails around your departments anyway. I’m happy to help you pay for those! 🙂

We also offer heavily discounted Extra Points subscriptions for our advertising partners. To discuss advertising campaign options, please email sales@extrapointsmb.com

What can I do if I want to access Extra Points premium, but I can’t afford nine bucks a month?

I understand not everybody can pay for every subscription they might like. Fortunately, all readers can earn rewards for referring Extra Points to their friends. We give a free month subscription for just referring two people, and other rewards include a free annual subscription, access to draft copies of my next book, a Zoom call, and more.

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Thanks to all of you, I’m now well into year four of doing Extra Points for a full-time job. I like where we are right now, and I like where we’re going. With your readership and support, I’m confident we’ll get there.

Thank you all. Here’s to a great season, and thanks for your support!

-Matt