Quote from: MCScots2013 on August 03, 2026, 09:31:32 PMDon't worry—most schools find an away to tick off alums and spend a lot of money doing it. A decade ago Maryville spent over $10,000 on an architect's "Master Plan" that to my knowledge only resulted in the track.

I think you can follow the history of any institution by the failed master plans they produce.   

One of the more fascinating from Sewanee's recent history was the first plan put forward in the 1950s about going coed where they wanted to do something similar to the relationship that St. John's University and College of Saint Benedict in Minnesota have today.  It's why our library, former student union, and a bunch of dorms built around that time are located in that weird location a good distance behind our main quadrangle.

Quote from: y_jack_lok on August 01, 2026, 09:58:13 AMDoes anyone know if any of these schools (Trinity, Maryville, Sewanee) used consulting firms when going through their rebranding process?

Sewanee used a marketing consulting firm out of Chicago who had absolutely no clue about the institution and its history.    That was the first sign the Vice-Chancellor (our President) at the time had started to lose the confidence of the big name donors.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on July 31, 2026, 01:03:42 PMWhatever it was, it was too much.  I have never seen Trinity alumni as engaged on anything, and I have yet to see anyone who actually likes it.

Disclaimer:  I was part of one of the focus groups that explored a rebrand.  It was very early in the process and there was agreement that an update was needed but no proposals were presented.  The odd thing was that the thing that seemed most in need of an update was the athletic branding which was totally disparate from the academic branding and continues to be today.

This things tend to cause much gnashing of teeth over a long period of time.   There is still some upset among Sewanee alumni from an ill-advised and poorly implemented attempt at rebranding from about 20 years ago that was intended to steer us away from our heritage os the First University of the Confederacy.   That's how we ended up with the silly colon in all of our marketing and why so many people say "Sewanee University" instead of "The University of the South".   Hopefully Trinity's rebrand will not be as fraught.

Quote from: tigerguy on July 31, 2026, 10:44:13 AMHave not seen anybody making positive comments about any portion of it. The comments sections on Trinity's social media posts are excellent. Never seen our alumni base so unanimous on an issue before.

I can see why y'all's alumni base is upset. I find it rather blasé.  And very much disconnected from the athletic branding.  But... solely opinions of the author, your mileage may vary, standard disclaimers apply.

Quote from: MCScots2013 on July 12, 2026, 06:32:41 PMSame with no kegs. That's also a student rule I failed to note earlier.

As William Faulkner once wrote in The Sound and the Fury: "I says no I never had university advantages because at Harvard they teach you how to go for a swim at night without knowing how to swim and at Sewanee they don't even teach you what water is'.   

The tailgating area immediately behind the home stands at McGee Field is for player families and high dollar donors.  That's inside the gates but security is told not to say anything unless they see things getting out of hand. Lots of the high octane stuff but very little beer.  No open containers permitted in the stands with heavy patrols by the University Police.

Not really a big tailgating scene otherwise on our campus as students tend to party at the Greek houses (we're still about 65% Greek on our campus) before coming to a game (for the few that do).   For the older folks, hasn't been a tradition and visiting fans tend to do it more than our people.   One of the reasons why I miss our series with W&L as those folks always came to The Mountain to try show they party harder than us.  I don't think I can drink them under the table like I used to 30 years ago... age is catching up with me.

Kegs were banned at Sewanee about 20 years ago when we got a Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students who thought they should reign in things a bit on campus.  Made the hard liquor issues on campus worse.

All of the discussion about alcohol sales at events prompts a good off-season topic: How do the schools in the conference deal with concessions in their athletic venues?   

Sewanee has a very much of a high-school feel with football concessions run by one of the charitable organizations from the town (with safety and food-handling training from our Dining Services staff).  It's a big contrast to the mid-major D1 where I went to graduate school bidding concessions at athletic events out to the big food service outfits (Sodexo, most recently).

The legal liability and logistic issues with alcohol sales makes it very unattractive. I don't see the hassle of alcohol sales matching the return for a small program.

Quote from: MCScots2013 on July 07, 2026, 07:26:51 PM

Quote from: Bmo on July 07, 2026, 05:26:34 PMSounds like Centre and Oglethrope are shopping.  If so, the SAA might be DOA.

Oglethorpe is in the middle of non-football sponsoring CCS with several D3 GA schools. Centre calling the HCAC? They have 10 schools, 7 of which have football. 2 other KY D3's are there, too.

I can see Oglethorpe looking towards the CCS as they are much closer fit to the CCS profile these days.  But I get the feeling that Oglethorpe has much more serious problems on their radar at the moment.

It's hard to suss out what the people at Centre are thinking.  But Trinity saying in public that they're committed to the SAA might go a long ways towards making that happen given how Trinity and Berry have dominated in the SAA the past few years. 

Quote from: jekelish on July 07, 2026, 06:39:28 PM

Quote from: Ron Boerger on July 07, 2026, 06:24:29 PM

Quote from: awadelewis on July 07, 2026, 06:05:59 PMReally off the wall thought: Trinity to UAA with FB as affiliate in either ASC or SCAC?

Trinity does not meet the UAA's standards in basically any dimension.  And why the UAA would want to fly to Texas is beyond comprehension.

Also heard that the UAA has already given Trinity a definitive and uncompromising "No" previously.

Admit that it was an "out there" thought.  But the fact it's been broached in the past gives it some credence.  And would the travel costs in the UAA be made any worse given how geographically spread out the member schools are in that conference?    But... not to be.

The options left for Trinity aren't very good given how they've burned the bridges with the SCAC.  And I figure similar bad blood exists within the ASC schools towards Trinity as well.

Really off the wall thought: Trinity to UAA with FB as affiliate in either ASC or SCAC?

Quote from: MCScots2013 on July 07, 2026, 02:49:36 PMScheduling is going to be fun...

6 schools in the SAA:
Maryville, Centre, Sewanee, Rhodes, Trinity, Berry

6 schools in the ASC:
HSU, UMHB, Howard Payne, ETBU, McMurry, Schreiner

8 schools in the SCAC, pending whatever they do with Gallaudet:
TLU, Hendrix, Millsaps, Lyon, Austin, Centenary, Southwestern, Gallaudet

Southwestern leaving adds to my belief that the league will look to the east for expansion candidates.  Still think the leading candidates would be football playing members of the CCS + Brevard from the USA South..

Quote from: awadelewis on July 05, 2026, 09:09:56 PMAnd here's a link from sportvideo.org that details what Flo Sports expects from a school: From SportsVideo.org: FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production Suite for Livestreaming Production

And my days in broadcast are starting to haunt me again...

And a lot of stadiums are going to need infastructure upgrades given Flo's platform is built around vMIx and Videon LiveEdge encoders.  There is going to be some gnashing of CIO teeth over the bandwidth requirements.

Quote from: MCScots2013 on July 05, 2026, 08:44:12 PM

Quote from: Patrick Coleman on July 05, 2026, 08:24:55 PMA good amount needs to be invested in improving the broadcasts to meet the FloSports standards.

Are those standards posted anywhere?

Here's their ad standards: Flo Sports Advertising Standards

And here's a link from sportvideo.org that details what Flo Sports expects from a school: From SportsVideo.org: FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production Suite for Livestreaming Production

And my days in broadcast are starting to haunt me again...

Quote from: MCScots2013 on July 05, 2026, 05:16:53 PMI agree on both points. I name drop Sewanee as a conference-mate now when folks ask about Maryville. (Thanks for that, awadelewis.) Gets a good response from people since Sewanee is a known name in many circles.

Well... how about that?  But you might get better recognition among a national audience by mentioning Rhodes or Trinity as they've done well in building up their academic brands as opposed to what we've managed.

Quote from: MCScots2013 on July 05, 2026, 05:16:53 PMWhat I find frustrating is the lack of community outreach and sponsorships. We both know Blount County businesses would be more than happy to give some money for a sign hung up on the fence and on the website. I think we had Prisma Health, Rocky Top Tours and RT Lodge (3 more than what we had). They could 10x that number in a month if they put someone on that task. The entire athletics budget at Maryville is just shy of $2M. They could put a big dent in that number with sponsorships. Wu could ask the Maryville & Alcoa city schools and Blount & Knox county schools for their contacts and an introduction. Tons of businesses in both cities and counties hire a ton of MC grads. Talk about a warm lead...

I wonder how much everyone else in the league are like we are on The Mountain with no dedicated staff in the Athletic Department for marketing and fundraising. It's our Director of Major Gifts who handles the fundraising for Athletics amongst all of his other duties.  In comparison, D2 programs on average dedicate around 1.5% to 3% of their budgets to these roles while Mid-Major D1 programs do 3% to 5%.  I would think a carve out for at least one person on staff handling marketing and fundraising might have a good return for a program.

And how much of the program marketing is tied up in this deal with Flo Sports? Does Flo Sports provide any services in this area?  And I suspect that any ad revenue that gets generated goes to Flo Sports.

Quote from: MCScots2013 on July 04, 2026, 09:30:27 AMWhat about Wash U? They left the CCIW for NCAC affiliation this year giving the NCAC 10 football schools. Fairly top heavy with John Carroll, DePauw and Wash U.

Wash U and Chicago left the league in 2016 after only a year as affiliate members in football claiming travel cost.

And Wash U really likes being talked about in the same breath as the other members of the UAA.