Earning a B.A. in B.A. for your Institution: Building Audience and/or Brand Acceleration!
Written by Patrick Auerbach
Typically, for both University of Southern California and UCLA sports fans (and the broader alumni bases that these institutions represent), the weekend before Thanksgiving is all about who's going to win the battle on the gridiron and where the Victory Bell will reside for the next 12 months. It represents bragging rights for alumni and fans and so much more...but this year, something was quite different...there was considerable national attention on both Los Angeles schools this weekend, but it had very little, if anything, to do with the Saturday night contest at the Rose Bowl. But it did represent emerging opportunities for both universities.
For the first time in over 40 years, not only were both schools' women's basketball programs ranked in the nation's top 10 (and actually, this year, both were pre-season top five), but also, both were hosting non-conference home games on campus against national title contenders: #5 UCLA with a Sunday showdown against #1 University of South Carolina (defending NCAA champs) and #3 USC vs. #6 University of Notre Dame in a Saturday matinee, well before Saturday evening's crosstown showdown. (Plus, the two local football teams' combined record heading into rivalry weekend was 9-11 with both teams merely aiming to qualify for a December 20-something bowl bid.)
On Saturday, before a live NBC national television audience and a sold-out Galen Center, the sixth-ranked Fighting Irish upset the third-ranked Women of Troy 74-61 behind the inspired play of sophomore sensation Hannah Hidalgo, sending USC and its national player-of-the-year candidate sophomore JuJu Watkins to their first loss of the season. The next day, just 12 miles to the west, the fifth-ranked Bruins, led by imposing 6'7" junior Lauren Betts and sharpshooting junior Londynn Jones, stifled the top-ranked Gamecocks and senior Te-hina Paopao 77-62 in front of a sold-out Pauley Pavilion and national television audience on FS1. Not only was this victory UCLA's first-ever win over a #1 team, but it also catapulted the Bruins to their first-ever #1 ranking in the AP media poll this week (while University of Connecticut edged UCLA by a single vote in the USA TODAY Coaches’ Poll).
Other than the women's hoops supremacy this past weekend represented for UCLA and its newly minted and expanded Big Ten Conference family (temporary supremacy - of course - until the NCAA champion is crowned in Tampa Bay this coming April), these key events in Tinseltown indicated so much more:
For USC, even though the Women of Troy didn't get the result they hoped for, they did sell out the Galen Center (10,258) for only the third time in program history and for the first time for a non-UCLA matchup, and for a Saturday afternoon game in November when college football and almost everything else seem to take a front-seat in this competitive megalopolis! And the actual crowd of 7,894 not only included pop culture icons Snoop Dogg and Michael B. Jordan and USC all-time great Cheryl Miller, but also throngs of USC Alumni Association members and fans who rarely make the time or effort to attend any women's basketball home game, especially on a Saturday in November!
For UCLA, not only did the program get that elusive signature win to thrust the team to the top of this week's polls, but it also gave the UCLA Alumni Association and the University an opportunity to attract thousands back to campus and sell out its fabled basketball shrine, yet this time for the women's team. And of course, this contest, with 13,569 in attendance, also drew many all-time Bruin greats back to Pauley Pavilion, including 1978 AIAW championship team members Ann Meyers-Drysdale, Denise Curry and Anita Ortega, along with more UCLA All-Americans such as Natalie Williams, Maylana Martin, Nikki Blue, Noelle Quinn, Jordin Canada, etc.
Game results (and national polls) aside, what was so unique about this past weekend was how both schools, whether by intention or coincidence, used an "old-school" practice to bring about "new" and forward-thinking strategy to building their respective brands and drawing attention to their respective institutions, and on the very same weekend in constantly glutted marketplace. They didn't need to go to a destination or neutral site (though both did open their respective seasons in Paris back on November 4 with victories over nationally ranked foes University of Mississippi and University of Louisville). As a matter of fact, USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb, in her post-game press conference remarks, described this past weekend's contest as "one of the easiest scheduling" moves she's ever made. She and Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey agreed with out much back-and-forth that it was important to do a home-and-home series to help each nationally ranked program and their universities build opportunities for their communities and also to grow the game. And UCLA coach Cori Close, a past president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), expanded on this in her post-game presser, acknowledging the "village" effort that it takes from marketing, media and so many ancillary efforts to stage such a high quality athletic experience for their fans.
Both of these events brought anticipation, pride and national attention to their campuses, and also helped to accelerate institutional brands beyond what typically makes that happen in November (i.e., a venerated college football rivalry game!). They also showed a sense of collective accountability by their program leaders (i.e., the head coaches and athletics administrators), and demonstrated that collaboration, alignment and taking calculated risks (after all, someone has to win, and someone ha to lose) are what's going to stoke more interest, excitement, and ultimately in the long run, yield growth and support, for their beloved institutions.
(And by the way, USC edged UCLA in football, 19-13 this past Saturday, and so the Trojans will be going "bowling" sometime in December, right around the same time that the Women of Troy take on their biggest challenge of the season with a December 21 contest at #2-ranked Connecticut (or #1, according to USA TODAY), the gold standard in women's basketball, before a live national television audience on FOX…to build audience and accelerate their brand.)
Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays!
All smiles at Pauley Pavilion as representatives from UCLA’s 1978 AIAW Basketball Championship team (leading scorer Anita Ortega, assistant coach Colleen Matsuhara, athletic director Judie Holland, and All-American Ann Meyers-Drysdale) celebrate UCLA’s first-ever win over a #1-ranked team (the Bruins defeated defending NCAA champion South Carolina 77-62).
