One of our favorite topics to write about here at FootballScoop is the unique, impossible-to-buy publicity that successful athletics departments bring their universities. I mean, that is the whole point, right? To graduate players and serve as the proverbial front porch of the university is literally the reason colleges and universities offer sports in the first place.
Following successful seasons at Temple, Gonzaga and UCF, studies have been done showing the value brought to the university, and now we have the testimony of a marketing professional.
Marshall's basketball team completed a good regular season in which the Thundering Herd went 21-10 and finished fourth in Conference USA. But the Herd went on a surprise run once March arrived, aided by an upset of top-seeded Middle Tennessee in the C-USA quarterfinals, and upset No. 3 seed Western Kentucky 67-66 in the C-USA title game. Marshall entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 13 seed and then stunned No. 4 seed Wichita State 81-75 in the first round.
Real life wasn't a sports movie as Marshall's run ended in the second round, falling 94-71 to West Virginia, but the Herd didn't need to reach the Final Four to shine a positive light on the university.
"What Tammy Johnson, the director of admissions here, says is that probably no family, no prospective student is going to make their decision to come to Marshall based on watching a basketball game or a football bowl game, but if it gets our name out there in front of people who didn't know us or know much about us and makes them say, 'I want to find out more,' that's priceless," Marshall senior vice president for communications and marketing Ginny Painter told the Huntington Herald-Dispatch. "We probably won't see it this fall, but Tammy's theory is, over the next two or three years, we will see a bump (in admissions) based on that."
According to Painter, Marshall nets $300,000 per week in earned media -- what the school would have to pay in advertising rates to equal the number of mentions it receives in social media posts, newspaper article, TV news reports and the like. Marshall's run to the Conference USA Tournament title and the second round of the Big Dance earned the school more than $90 million.
What would, say, the chemistry department have to do to earn $90 million in earned media over a 1-week span?
"Not to be flippant, but unless we had someone here cure cancer, I couldn't come up with my wildest imagination what could get us the coverage we enjoyed over those eight days," Painter said.