GatorCountry in UF Super-Alliance

The oldest and most reliable college-team brand on the Web - GatorCountry.com - joins TheInsiders' Florida super-alliance.

If there were any voids to fill with GatorCountry.com, Ray Hines imagined them all when he founded the leading website covering University of Florida athletics some eight years ago.

Hines, after all, comes from a long line of Florida graduates. His grandfather, father, uncle and mother were Gators. And an early Internet pioneer, Hines linked up with many displaced Gators on embryonic message boards and together they fretted about slaking their appetite on any crumb of information regarding UF sports.

That's not to mention that, in Ray Hines' world, the Internet is a critical link to his beloved university.

"I'm deaf, so it also really helps me communicate with others and keep my thumbs on things that I would not normally be aware of," Hines says. "I've actually been on the Internet since the late eighties, so it's a big part of my life."

Which makes the latest chapter in GatorCountry.com's evolution all the more earth-shattering. Hines is taking his site to TheInsiders.com network, where he will team with a veritable online and offline Dream Team for coverage of Florida athletics. The most significant marriage will be between Hines and GatorCountry.com with Fightin' Gators Magazine and publisher Dave Stirt, founder of Gator Bait Magazine and considered the most credible and trusted source of Florida coverage in the print world.

That alliance allows GatorCountry.com to offer three subscriptions for less money than the competition charges for one:

• Total Access Pass: In addition to premium content and members-only message boards at GatorCountry.com, subscribers will have access to everything on TheInsiders.com network, including football and basketball recruiting information and other expert analysis, all college teams, NFL teams, draft and free agency and player databases, Major League Baseball and much more. The competition offers much more limited access.
• Year Subscription to Fightin' Gators Magazine: This is included free with an annual subscription to GatorCountry.com. The magazine is a separate purchase at the competition, as well as an additional $49.95.
• Year Subscription to TheInsiders Recruiting Yearbook: This also is free with an annual subscription to GatorCountry.com. Included is the pre-season guide and the post-Signing-Day wrapup edition. Other publishing houses charge as much as $100 for similar publications.

Also, as supplies last, the Athlon Football Preview Issue is included with all new subscriptions. This is an offer valued at several hundred dollars for just $99.95, which incidently is what the competition charges for its more-limited, online-only subscription.

Click Here to Receive All Three Subscriptions for One Low Price

"Florida fans now really have something to look forward to," said J.C. Heckman, CEO and founder of TheInsiders.com and Citadel Media, which publishes Fightin' Gators Magazine and more than 30 other college and NFL team magazines. "This is the best alliance of content and community I’ve seen in the history of this business. This was not an easy deal to put together because all of these people are outstanding in their own right and don’t need to partner with anyone to be successful. I guess the idea of combining an unbeatable and dominant force like this was too much for any of them to turn down. I can’t imagine a better situation. I just want to congratulate all of them, from the recruiting guys, to Dave and Ray Hines for putting egos aside and focusing on what is important, bringing the best people together to create the best content for Florida fans! The network is very lucky to have this many great people working together and I believe Gator fans are fortunate as well."

Hines, a webmaster by profession, has built GatorCountry.com into one of the powerhouse team sports websites on the Internet, one that certainly is the oldest college-team brand on the Web. This is expected to create great synergy with the Florida fan base. According to Heckman, the network's research reveals that the Gator fanbase is second, nationally, only to Notre Dame's.

GatorCountry.com's Dream Lineup does not end with Hines and Stirt. Jamie Newberg, TheInsiders.com's national football recruiting editor, and Scott Kennedy, the network's Southeast recruiting analyst, long have been considered the top recruiting analysts not only for Florida, but for the entire Southeast. They will be joined in providing football recruiting analysis and reporting for Florida by Larry Blustein, the renowned publisher of FloridaKids.us, the leading website about Florida prep sports.

"Gator Country has always been the big untouchable gorilla when it comes to websites," Newberg said. "Ray has put together one of the largest communities on the net and a great brand with super content and interaction. It is an exciting time and a great pleasure to welcome Ray and Gator Country aboard to TheInsiders.com. It's going to be a great ride."

Kennedy added, "Getting a chance to work with the biggest Florida Gator site on the Internet is very exciting. Seeing FightinGators and GatorCountry join forces to provide the best product possible is exciting for the fans of the Florida Gators as well as those of us who get the opportunity to provide coverage of the Florida Gators past, present, and future."

TheInsiders.com has long had a strangelhold on college basketball recruiting evaluation and analysis, led by national editor Dave Telep, to go along with Mike Sullivan, the former national editor at Rivals/Alliance, as well as stalwart Jeff Goodman in the East, the renowned Tracy Pierson and Greg Hicks in the West, and noted college and NBA Draft analyst Chris Monter in the Midwest.

To ensure that Gator Country and Fightin’ Gators remain healthy, Dwight Johnston, longtime partner of Stirt (heading sponsorship sales for Gator Bait for years) has also joined this super-alliance.

The Insiders.com has been the No. 1 independent network of sports websites for well over a year now. According to Nielson NetRatings, TheInsiders has 60 percent more users than the competition. The network also has syndication and content partnerships with the biggest sports sites on the Web, including Yahoo! Sports, SportsIllustrated.com, FOXSports, CBS SportsLine and SportingNews.com.

Gator Country's addition to TheInsiders comes on the heels of the network's recent, significant announcements regarding the addition of Sullivan to its basketball recruiting team, the acquisition of Inside Pitch (Mets) and Diehard (Red Sox) Magazines and the addition of SchoolSports.com and School Sports Magazine as the leader of its high school sports network.

"I looked long and hard at both networks, but the total package of what TheInsiders has to offer made the decision easy," Hines said of his decision to move GatorCountry.com. "They have superior recruiting coverage and Dave Stirt and Dwight Johnson have great connections with Florida and experience in this business. Through the leadership of Jim Heckman and his experienced team, the network has a better handle on local and national advertising, better marketing reach through their distribution deals, better product offering with their online-print bundles and better technology, especially their Scout database, which tracks players from the high school level to the pros.

"I am excited at what we have to offer Florida fans. It's more than I imagined we could offer when this all first started."