Tag Archives: football

IU Football Symbolizes Decisions Universities Must Make About Importance of Athletics

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As an IU alum and football fan, this was obviously of great interest to me. The Indianapolis Business Journal’s recent article on the state of the school’s football program seems to highlight the risk vs. reward dilemma facing larger universities’ athletic budgets. When is it worth a major investment, and when should the pursuit of winning be scaled back?

Athletic Director Fred Glass has emphasized marketing, been the point man in radio and television commercials, and is leading the charge into a season that promises football financial gains not seen in Bloomington in a very long time.

While success on the field is not guaranteed, Glass is promising significant attendance increases and a continued rebirth of the football program that he believes will lead to critical fiscal gains for the school and its athletic department.

IU has a long way to go, and some critics wonder if it’s wise for the Hoosiers to chase the likes of Ohio State University … or even the University of Wisconsin. IU’s $55.7 million athletic department budget looks small compared with the Buckeyes’

“College athletics is a very dangerous investment for schools,” said David Ridpath, a professor of sports administration at Ohio University and past president of The Drake Group, a not-for-profit that bills itself as a watchdog for academic integrity in the face of big-time college sports.

“Schools can get caught up in chasing bigger programs with many more resources, and it becomes difficult to justify the expenses based on true return on investments.”

Expansion Now “Front Burner” Issue for Big Ten Conference

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How can I justify putting this post on our blog? Hmm, well it’s sort of education-related … and it’s definitely profit-related.

The Big Ten athletic conference is looking seriously at expanding to 12 teams. The last team to join was Penn State in 1990. Schools reported as top candidates to fill the current void include Rutgers, Syracuse, Missouri, Cincinnati and Louisville.

Brian Kelly’s boys in South Bend remain doubtful. The Chicago Tribune explains the rationale behind expansion:

Jim Delany never will be a contestant on "Top Chef," but the Big Ten commissioner frequently has used a cooking analogy when asked about the prospects of Big Ten expansion.

"A back-burner issue," he has called it.

Not anymore. According to a league official, the Big Ten will release a statement Tuesday saying the matter has moved to the front burner.

The first sign of change came from former Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez, who told Wisconsin’s athletic board on Friday that Delany "is going to take this year to really be more aggressive about it. I just think everybody feels [expansion] is the direction to go, coaches and administrators."

A league source on Monday cited a "growing groundswell" of support among athletic directors for expansion.

In 1990, the Big Ten became the Bigger 11 by adding Penn State. (The Nittany Lions had to wait until 1993 to vie for their first Rose Bowl.) In 1999, Notre Dame stiff-armed the league’s overtures, and that put the issue on ice.

Why is it being revisited now?

The biggest reason, as always, is the stuff that doesn’t grow on trees: money. If the league expands to 12 teams and two divisions — like the SEC, Big 12 and ACC — it would create a Big Ten title game that could be worth $5 million or more to the league. The Big Ten Network would love to televise it, and the conference has a 51 percent ownership stake in the network.

Personally, I must admit that I love the Big Ten Conference. So much so that even though I’m an Indiana man, I even root for Purdue against "outsiders." And I think the conference embodies the characteristics of many Midwesterners like myself — the competitiveness, the penchant for good sportsmanship, and the plight of being terrible at football.

So I have mixed feelings about this move (should it happen). The money would be nice, but I think mega conferences like the Big East can get so convoluted they lose their identity, so expansion should be treaded lightly. Your thoughts?

Butler U. All About Business

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Seems more than the Butler football team (10-1; Pioneer Football League champs) and basketball team (ranked in the top 10 in the nation) are making good news in November. The school recently announced a new brand and approach for its business school. The school explains:

A new branding effort that includes key messages and a graphic identity for Butler University’s College of Business (COB) is intended to increase visibility and awareness of the College’s real life, real business™ mission which guides its unique approach to business education.

This applied, experiential structure runs throughout the COB curriculum, from freshman year through graduate programs in the form of live cases studies, semester-long research projects with local and international companies, the development of real student-run businesses, executive career mentoring, required internships, and leadership assessment, coaching, and development.

According to COB Dean Chuck Williams, the real life, real business branding effort is directly tied to the COB’s promise to students, parents, and employers to deliver an innovative, experiential business education on top of an already exceptionally strong foundation in business fundamentals.

“Many universities say they offer experiential education because they have a class here or there,” says Williams. “In the COB, it’s present in everything we do.”

The main messages of real life, real business include engaging learning experiences, empowered self-discovery, business relevance and collaborative partnerships. These messages will be integrated and communicated in new marketing materials – recruitment brochures and a new alumni magazine – but will receive the most attention on the new website, www.ButlerRealBusiness.com, in the form of feature stories and videos.

The branding effort is also aimed at increasing awareness of the College’s outreach to the Central Indiana business community, which benefits both the College and businesses, Williams says.

“Real life, real business works because we have businesses partnering with us to bring real life business problems and situations into the classroom. We look forward to sharing the stories of these partnerships and in turn encouraging others to collaborate with us in the future.”

The branding effort was developed by the COB’s marketing director with support from Butler’s University Relations department. Advising the College throughout the process is the College of Business Strategic Marketing Board, a group of 12 local business professionals representing Butler University, Butler Business Accelerator, Eli Lilly and Company, Clarian Health Partners, Compendium Blogware, Pensar Ideas, Forum Credit Union, the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, Centaur Gaming and the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership.

Wisconsin Tourism Foundation (WTF) Changes Branding Over Abbreviation, Takes Heat

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Anyone even remotely associated with social media these days is familiar with the cute little abbreviations that dominate text messages, Twitter updates, and — unfortunately — now general correspondence. You know, LOL (laugh out loud); BRB (be right back); OMG (Oh my God); and of course, WTF? (What the … "frig?").

Naturally, the latter has become a bit of a sticking point for the Wisconsin Tourism Foundation (WTF), causing the organization to ultimately change its name to the Tourism Foundation of Wisconsin  (TFW) — even though it had been around for 30 years. Communications company Ragan.com took the TFW to task for caving into the confusion, rather than embracing it. From their PR Junkie blog, they offer:

Wisconsin, you blew it.

The Associated Press reports that your Wisconsin Tourism Federation — WTF — quietly rebranded in July, changing its name to the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin — TFW.

Get it? WTF to TFW.

So, what prompted this rebranding? After all, Wisconsin’s WTF was around well before teens, and later adults, started saying WTF to mean “what the f***.”

“Blogs started poking fun at it,” the Association Press reported.

Because blogs started poking fun at it? Really? One blog, it seems, made fun of it. That blog is called YourLogoMakesMeBarf.com. On July 1, the blog posted the Tourism Federation’s logo with this comment, “would really think someone would warn them about this kind of stuff.”

Ouch. Better call up the PR SWAT team for that one.

Other blogs and articles are claiming the people of Wisconsin cracked wise about the acronym endlessly, and the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin, a group of businesses in the state, finally got sick of it. Clearly, the blog YourLogoMakesMeBarf.com played a strong hand in the decision, given the timing.

It was a big mistake. This organization had a marketing goldmine. Wisconsin’s “WTF” was branded in 1979. So, WTF, optimize it! Next time someone types WTF into Google, there’s your site. Someone types WTF into a Facebook update or Gmail e-mail and an ad for Wisconsin appears.

What are your thoughts? Should the WTF have changed its name, or simply celebrated its unexpected entry into the world of new age jargon?