What do Sports Illustrated and the New York Times have in common? Besides the fact they are two of the most highly circulated national publications in the United States, they both received early invitations to tour the University of Oregon’s new $68 million football operations building, a building that the University can hardly call its own.

The Emerald, and other local media were denied a chance to tour the building — dubbed the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex after the project’s benefactor Phil and Penny Knight’s mothers’ maiden names — until today. Why, you might be asking? Well, It’s all part of the University’s push to solidify its continued national spotlight.

“For this particular project, we were hoping to get national recognition,” Phil Weiler of the UO’s strategic communications office told The Register-Guard. “We were concerned that if we gave local media (first access), that national media wouldn’t want to come (later).”

According to The Register-Guard, the University contacted Sports Illustrated and offered exclusive access in return for a multi-page spread. On July 25, SI photographer John McDonough, two freelance assistants and Register-Guard photographer Paul Carter — who was invited by McDonough — took an all-day tour of the complex led by a representative from the project’s architecture firm, ZGF Architects out of Portland.

McDonough produced six pages of photos for Sports Illustrated’s feature photo essay section, a section that usually features more than one subject. The Register-Guard — fortunate enough to have an accomplished photographer invited to the party — ran their photos last Wednesday, a day after Sports Illustrated.

When the Emerald attempted to get original photos, we were encouraged to wait until Monday when local media would be allowed to tour the building for the first time.

Today marks the official start of the 2013 football season, with interviews from key staff and players this morning and media tour of the new building this afternoon.