FB: Southern Athletic Association

[Patrick Coleman]

I'm not saying I'm excited to pay for the privilege of watching my Scots, but $30k is $30k. That amount would at least cover the men's teams' recruiting expenses ($28,883) per the 2024 EADA Survey on mcscots.com.

Or:
-football team bus travel,
-basketball teams (M&W) hotels,
-soccer teams (M&W) travel meals,
-T&F/CC, tennis, golf...good chunk of these expenses on an individual basis

You get my point.

A good amount needs to be invested in improving the broadcasts to meet the FloSports standards.

[MCScots2013]

I'm not saying I'm excited to pay for the privilege of watching my Scots, but $30k is $30k. That amount would at least cover the men's teams' recruiting expenses ($28,883) per the 2024 EADA Survey on mcscots.com.

Or:
-football team bus travel,
-basketball teams (M&W) hotels,
-soccer teams (M&W) travel meals,
-T&F/CC, tennis, golf...good chunk of these expenses on an individual basis

You get my point.

A good amount needs to be invested in improving the broadcasts to meet the FloSports standards.

Are those standards posted anywhere?

[MCScots2013]

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.

They could get one of the juniors in the work study program to call on businesses like they call me 4 times a year for The Maryville Fund! In all seriousness, it would be a great way to hone useful skills (cold calling, fundraising, etc.) that would be great for a résumé. I hated cold calling early in my career. It's a necessary evil and those who learn how to do to early, efficiently and effectively have a hard start on peers.

[Patrick Coleman]

I'm not saying I'm excited to pay for the privilege of watching my Scots, but $30k is $30k. That amount would at least cover the men's teams' recruiting expenses ($28,883) per the 2024 EADA Survey on mcscots.com.

Or:
-football team bus travel,
-basketball teams (M&W) hotels,
-soccer teams (M&W) travel meals,
-T&F/CC, tennis, golf...good chunk of these expenses on an individual basis

You get my point.

A good amount needs to be invested in improving the broadcasts to meet the FloSports standards.

Are those standards posted anywhere?

There's a little about this in a column that Ryan Scott wrote on D3hoops.com a couple years ago, and there is a whole board in the general topics area devoted to FloSports.

d3hoops.com/columns/around-the-nation/2023-24/d3-go-with-the-flo

[awadelewis]

A 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...

[awadelewis]

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...

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.

[scottiedoug]

The MC AD is currently filling in as Advancement head...the previous person was let go...and I suspect he is quite aware of these challenges. I think Raul Placeres, former BB coach, also had some role in fundraising for athletics and there is a relatively new effort to raise and designate funds for athletic programs. MC is looking to revamp the entire Advancement work using some consultants. It is not like it is a secret that this is challenging!

[Patrick Coleman]

The MC AD is currently filling in as Advancement head...the previous person was let go...and I suspect he is quite aware of these challenges. I think Raul Placeres, former BB coach, also had some role in fundraising for athletics and there is a relatively new effort to raise and designate funds for athletic programs. MC is looking to revamp the entire Advancement work using some consultants. It is not like it is a secret that this is challenging!

It is challenging indeed! And MCScots2013, sorry to say, this is not something you put in the hands of students.

[MCScots2013]

In the hands of the students?  No, of course not. If they can get some students to call on alumni in a $1.5M campaign this past Spring, surely, they have talented enough students to call on local business owners to help get the word out.  Tartan Tuesday and The Maryville Fund are not in the hands of students, but they do play a big role because, much like Wu, the Advancement Staff doesn't have the time or resources to call people like me.   

Call every business in the Chamber of Commerce, tell them you are a rising Junior Finance major on the baseball team and you'd like to help set a meeting between the business, the AD and the Advancement office to discuss a new athletics sponsorship opportunity.  It's not rocket science and we're not talking about a $170 million fundraising campaign (UT's 2025 amount)--0.1% of that would be noteworthy.  And who knows, maybe that Junior baseball player might parlay that into an internship or a job after graduation.  Part of the Maryville curriculum is Maryville College Works which includes "Planning and engaging in a significant practical experience".  Get the kids men and women in front of business owners!

[Patrick Coleman]

In the hands of the students?  No, of course not. If they can get some students to call on alumni in a $1.5M campaign this past Spring, surely, they have talented enough students to call on local business owners to help get the word out.

Calling alumni, an invested group of backers whom the institution already has regular contact with through multiple platforms, such as email and direct mail, is way different than what you are proposing. Despite your protests to the contrary, what you describe is indeed putting sales calls in the hands of students.

[MCScots2013]

Sure.  Call it whatever you want.  Sales calls into the hands of adults (under the direction of College staff) that would presumably have a full-time job if not in school.  These are not high school students. If they can be trusted with signing a promissory note for upwards of $50k+ a year, we should think they have the ability not screw up calling someone and help set up a meeting, not closing a deal.

Plus, many of these business owners are "invested."  Either they went to MC or a parent, grandparent, spouse, cousin, sibling, etc.  This is still a small community with 207 years of College and County history.

[Patrick Coleman]

Either they went to MC or a parent, grandparent, spouse, cousin, sibling, etc.  This is still a small community with 207 years of College and County history.

Then they should already be giving and shouldn't even need a phone call. If those people aren't giving then there are bigger problems than finding some junior business major to make cold calls.

[MCScots2013]

There's no structure for them to donate for a corporate sponsorship for athletics. That's the issue at hand,  not personal gifts. The MC alumni engagement is 3x the national average (37% vs 12%), so I'd guess there's money coming in from personal gifts.

I get it. You think the idea is dumb. Unless you can impress me and say so in Latin or Greek without ChatGPT, I think you've gotten your point across.