There was a time in the middle of the last century where St. John’s University and St. Francis College were located just blocks apart. In fact my dad, Vinnie Favorito, attended SJU just after it went east to Queens, while his brother, my Uncle Mario, matriculated at St. Francis on Remsen Street, before they both went on to careers in the legal field, so having an understanding of the closeness of the two schools at one point was pretty clear.
However this past Monday the gap between the two could not be any wider, as St. John’s welcomed Rick Pitino into the fold to take the school back to new athletic heights and financial rewards through basketball, while St, Francis on the same day announced that they were stopping all athletic programs because of a combination of financial shortfalls, changing enrollment and well, a new campus home that did not have a gym.
I kept thinking about the chasm between the two schools as I heard officials at schools who have gone through the process talking about the millions in “free publicity” FDU was getting off of their unlikely run to the Northeast Conference men’s basketball title, their solid win in the First Four against Texas Southern and then magical upset of Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Basketball gods smiled on coach Tobin Anderson and his team and as a result FDU was going to get a rebound effect unlike any seen in Bergen County, New Jersey since the New Jersey Americans (now the Brooklyn Nets) played their first ABA game at the Teaneck Armory in the 1960’s. Open the doors and let the money, the students and the notoriety flow in unabated right?
Well no. Publicity is never free and as we have said many times communications is the appetizer, not the entrée in getting exposure and generating ROI. Now the Knights had a wildcard in the communications mix in young Jordan Sarnoff, who we wrote about the other day. With a vacant fulltime position Sarnoff, savvy beyond his age as an undergraduate, had someone on site and leading into the tournaments that understood the value of storytelling, and was able to help extract lots of extras from the FDU run (to the point where he became a fun story himself). So they were lucky in that respect, and since he is only a junior (…remember “publicity is NOT free, not if it was worth “millions” )…they have a proactive, positive asset that most small schools do not have, or worse, do not realize they have.
To get to the entrée, having this moment in time…and yes, it’s a moment in a time challenged world that people have moved on from being top of mind…there has to be marketing investment for a longer period. In the digital space to enter conversations like UMBC did so well last Friday as the FDU upset played out, in the SEO space to have FDU’s key programs pivot off of the messages of March Madness, and in the staffing space so that you are not relying on staff that may not be ready to act when the sun shines. Now that’s not to say that these things are not being considered as ROI is being measured, but ROI…the I is INVESTMENT…takes planning and time and sadly there are too many institutions, brands, even teams, that think these things just “happen.” Nothing “just happens,” success in a crowded marketplace happens because of the planning and the investment that takes place.
One more thing about talent investment that came to light after all the Jordan Sarnoff attention came to light last week. College communications in athletics has always been undervalued at most institutions for reasons too vast to list here. However the hope, at least our belief, is that there are many other young “Jordans” out there who need motivation, cultivation and the tools to succeed and stay in the industry. The work at FDU seems to have lit a flame for people interested in the sports storytelling space much like the light went on for people who may have found out about FDU for the first time. The question in cultivating these young people is also similar. Are there institutions that saw what happened and said “hey we have three or four young people like him we think, how do we help exploit (in a good way) their interests and talent as well.” Or did those in a position of authority over such offices think it was just a cute moment in time and go back to the same old. Maybe this starts a movement for the industry, to unite and mentor the next generation and find out ways to effectively develop best practices that can lead to ROI, and compensate these young people fairly and correctly. We can hope, and we can hope that there are senior people willing to help nurture these young seeds for the future, just like we were mentored back in the day.
So there you have it, FDU won the day, won a bit of the week and entered a conversation for growth beyond anything anticipated. Will the seeds of investment take root and grow, or will they lie fallow as just a “thing that happened to another school in Jersey.”
For all those on the cusp of greatness, or hoping to be…St. Francis or St. John’s, or somewhere in the middle (a dangerous place to be), which could it be? Investment and its return, are not cheap.
