BYU Athletics Launches New Website

Welcome to the new BYUcougars.com. Months of research and development went into the creation of this new website to provide Cougar Nation with the latest news and information about BYU Athletics. The new BYUcougars.com is a work in progress. It is certainly not a finished product. There are a lot of new features and new technology that are still in development, so keep checking back over the next several months.

We are also working on some mobile apps that will be very exciting. Look for a launch date later this summer.

As part of the launch, we want to welcome aboard Voonami as the new host of BYUcougars.com! Voonami is a local company that has been instrumental in the development of the new site. As we have learned over the past couple of months, Voonami offers radical support and epic solutions!

VIDEO

Following the announcement of BYU football independence and the move to the West Coast Conference, BYU Athletics began working on the new website. Research showed BYU fans wanted more video, more video and more video — with greater flexibility and HD-quality footage.

As you will note there is a lot of video options built into the new site — with more on the way. The video player suggests related content following each video, plus an advanced search engine can be found on the right side of the video page in the sidebar menu. This allows you to search by sport, athlete, staff, opponent and more. Fans can also browse the most recent and most popular videos.

Click HERE to see some of those options.

Most of the 1,100-plus videos on BYUcougars.com were created for the old website with a resolution size of 284 x 204. The new player will feature HD video at 728 x 410. The new player also gives viewers the option to watch at full screen and provides quick access for video sharing via email or a variety of social media options.

BYU Athletics is very excited about it’s partnership with BYUtv and Ooyala — our new video platform. BYUtv is working on a new website that will feature games, highlights, reruns, video on demand and a bunch of other exciting content. Look for it fall 2011 — BYUtvsports.com.

In the meantime, you can now watch BYUtv and its vast library of on-demand video for free on your iPad and iPhone. Click HERE to download the free app.

SCHEDULE

BYUcougars.com provides several new schedule features, with more that are currently being developed. Cougar nation can now view a master calendar, sports schedules, a broadcast schedule and upcoming sports camps. Clicking on an athletic event will take you to its Game Day page, where times, locations, releases, live stats and broadcast links can be found. You can also find directions to road game sites and their current weather conditions.

SOCIAL NETWORKS

BYU Athletics is working to increase accessibility through social media. In the BYU Fan Zone menu, fans can access social media pages, media guides, CougarMail, blogs and more. Fans can also sign up for RSS feeds of individual sports by clicking HERE.

Facebook and Twitter pages for individual sports can also be found on this page as well.

OTHER FEATURES

The new website includes links to the new Sports Camps website and a new BYU Photo store. The Sports Camps site allows you to search for camps by sport and gives detailed information on signing up, dates and lodging. At BYU Photo, fans can purchase university sports photos in sizes 8 x 10 to 16 x 20 with options for matting and framing.

The home page and main pages for individual sports show links to other news stories relating to BYU Athletics in an “In the News” section sponsored by The Daily Herald. This feature gives fans quick access to relevant news stories and features pertaining to BYU sports.

We have updated the BYU Athletics staff directory with contact information, summaries and full text bios. Profiles for athletes and coaches show links to recent photos, releases and news articles.

Several other areas of the site are currently in development including CougarClub.com, BYU compliance, athletic facilities and many others. Check back frequently for additional features and content from the athletic communications team.

We invite you to explore the new byucougars.com and send us your feedback through the button located on the bottom right of the page. Our goal is to provide Cougar Nation with the best website in college athletics.

Here are a few other features:

• Site-wide search capabilities
• Simplified navigation
• Improved athlete and coaches profiles
• Detailed information about games and venues
• Links to BYU-related stories by external sources
• Search options for related content