By Gabe Bock

Notes from Jason Cook interview

* People seem to have a ‘What have you done for me lately?’ mentality when looking at SEC expansion without knowing all of the facts. Most people would be surprised that Missouri only has 10 Big 12 championships all-time while A&M has 58. Missouri has been strong in football and basketball over the past few years, but has not had the across the board success that A&M has had over the years.

* One neat thing about the SEC is that they have an all-sports trophy that is given to the top athletic program in the conference. For so many years, Florida has routinely won that title, but A&M should give them a run for their money in the coming years. There has been a large gap between Florida and the other schools in the SEC, but now that A&M is in the league, they will have some competition on a regular basis.

* Looking back at when the women’s basketball team won the 2007-2008 regular season Big 12 title, no one thought that would ever be able to be parlayed into a national championship a few years later. The program was so far away from a national championship at that time and it’s amazing to have seen it be built from the ground up.

* There are so many things that go into making a successful athletic program, including coaching, facilities and geography, and A&M is at the point of putting them all together and taking that next step towards greatness.

* The College GameDay Vote is a huge opportunity for A&M to showcase their campus. The winner of the vote will have a commercial shot on their campus that will run throughout the football season which gives significant visibility to the winning school. So far, Aggies have stepped up to the plate and the link to vote is being spread rapidly through different mediums.

* He felt a little guilty after ESPN suspended the original vote because he told people at the mothership that Aggies tend to do well in online polls. He didn’t know that A&M was going to break the bank, but they were not the only ones responsible. ESPN did not realize how strong of a brand college football is and how big having GameDay on campus can be. A&M wants GameDay on campus this fall and is going to do their best to make it happen.

* There are still discussions going on between A&M and ESPN to participate in a commercial similar to Alabama’s ‘Roll Tide’ commercial last year. It hasn’t been finalized yet, but there are good indications that A&M will be taking part in something along those lines.  A&M is also looking into some sort of feature about the new members of the SEC to be aired on ESPNU.

* People always ask him what is the university doing to get their name out there, but the GameDay vote is a great chance for A&M fans to help out on their own.

* A lot of the conspiracy theorists are trying to pick out a specific moment or an event that happened that lead to Bill Byrne not coming back to A&M after his contract is expired, and that just isn’t the case. These are discussions that have been going on for quite a while, and the Board of Regents are hearing an item on Thursday and Friday that will give President Loftin authority to enter into a transition agreement with Byrne. He believes that A&M will be in a situation where talks are had between Byrne and Loftin, and Byrne will be allowed to leave on his terms. The situation should be a very positive environment because of the overall athletic program built up during his time at A&M.

* The SEC, with all of the benefits A&M will bring to the table, was not necessarily looking for another football school. The SEC is not in need of another school, but wanted another school with a complete and competitive athletic department in order to start changing the perception that they are a football and baseball only conference.

* When comparing A&M and Missouri, one could venture a guess that A&M is about five to seven years ahead of where Missouri is as an athletic department. The Tigers are making a commitment as part of the SEC move, to build up that complete athletic program and have some significant milestones and objectives that they aiming towards. For A&M, they need to continue to build and grow with a concentration on football. The changes Coach Sumlin has brought in and the hiring of Populous put a stake in the ground that says A&M is serious about all of their sports.

* He talked to someone in SEC country late last week about A&M’s national perception, and he was told that A&M has some incredible coaches that win championships. The hires of Sumlin and Coach Kennedy were national hires because there were multiple programs across the country that were in pursuit of them, and thankfully A&M was able to land both of them. The final thing people across the country are looking at is how A&M handled conference realignment and how aggressive they were in getting the SEC’s attention. It was a journey that A&M was committed to, and people respect that A&M is trying to better themselves.  

* He has been to multiple A&M clubs over the past few weeks to talk about the SEC move and one thing that surprised him was how geography affects the knowledge of the fans. In different parts of the state, Aggies seem to perceive things differently depending on where they are in the state and it’s a neat thing to look outside of the A&M bubble that is College Station. Down on the battle lines in this battle for the state of Texas, a lot of Aggies still have questions about the SEC and what it means for the school. The main thing he wants people to realize is that this move is not about football or athletics, but rather about A&M being matured enough to rise to a national level of perception. The new Big 12 will have eight of the top 65 television markets, while the SEC will have 21 of the top 65 markets.

* One thing he likes to talk about is doing a pilot program on the message board sites of the SEC. The department chose some of the nicer SEC fan bases like Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi State and introduced them to A&M on their own turf. One of the funniest comments he got was from a Tennessee fan who after stating his pride in Davy Crockett said, “If it wasn’t for the state of Tennessee, you guys would be Mexico A&M!” That shows Aggies the camaraderie between the schools and what the 2012 football season will be like.

* There are two fronts he is working on right now. The first is educating Aggies about the SEC, and the second is educating the SEC about Texas A&M. If you look from a marketing standpoint, there are two tracks A&M is running on right now, with different objectives for each. The marketing department has come out with a quick facts guide for Texas A&M that will be disbursed throughout the SEC schools and national media. The goal of the guide is to explain the top traditions and explain the correct usage of logos as A&M enters the SEC. This transition time is a perfect opportunity to clean up A&M’s marks that have been misused for quite some time.

* One thing he’s learned about Aggies is that they love t-shirts and billboards. Missouri has been very specific in their use of billboards in SEC markets, while A&M has a different objective. A&M wants to claim the state of Texas because there are more than enough good players in the state for A&M to recruit. He’s told his team that they are in a battle for the state that has never been seen before, so most marketing resources will stay in state to show that A&M is still here and has no plans to leave it.

* A&M did their initial media play last fall, while Missouri did theirs in the spring. A&M will come back right before the season starts with another push in order to get their name out there when the most eyeballs are on them.

* During A&M’s initial push last fall, the Missouri fans were upset that A&M was running commercials on all of the ESPN channels plus CBS while they weren’t seeing anything of their own. He believes that you need to look at the overall mix of marketing and not just specific tactics, such as billboards.

* Social media is huge for A&M and the school has been ranked as the most social media school in the country. The fan base is very social media savvy and that is being used in the GameDay vote.

* He’s come to the realization that he won’t have a summer because of everything going on with the SEC move. The last week of May will have the SEC spring meetings and there should be a tremendous amount of media coverage surrounding that event. There will be a big ‘Welcome to the SEC’ event on June 6th in Atlanta that will include representation from all the schools including Texas A&M and Missouri. The last week of June and the first week of July will have the 150th anniversary of the land grant college act.  On July 2nd, there will be an official raising of the SEC flag event on campus to signify the official change of conferences. A&M will be first up at SEC media days in Birmingham on July 17th and then it’s almost time for football season. Sprinkled in there, you will also see a uniform unveiling, coaches nights and some traditional marketing executions.

* The 12 for 12 focuses this month on health. One great thing about A&M is the intersection of animal health with the vet school, human health and agricultural health. When those are put together, it really sets A&M apart as far as research ability goes and is a unique selling point for the institution as well.

* The women’s licensing environment has been underserved for many years, and women want more than what they have been getting in the past. The NFL’s women’s licensing revenues were up 90% in the past year, while A&M’s were up about 200%. A&M is not satisfied with the women’s apparel available and is looking into being a pilot of growing the women’s apparel market. A&M will also be launching their personal Pinterest page that will allow women a place to post different types of apparel and ways to get it.

* The new uniforms will be unveiled sometime this summer. There are a lot of questions and a lot of excitement about the new uniforms, and while Texas A&M is known as being a traditional brand, they are also not a school like Alabama or Penn State that have never changed their uniforms. A&M’s uniforms have continued to evolve over the years and will continue to do so. Hopefully the uniforms will represent the high energy that Coach Sumlin has brought to the program, but A&M is not Oregon or Oklahoma State.

* Coach Sumlin is a big-picture guy, but at the same time pays so much attention to detail and finding someone like that doesn’t happen all of the time. A&M decided to dress-up the practice fields with the new windscreens and are now looking at the branding elements within Kyle Field.

* Professors in the animal sciences departments are taking the SEC move to heart and are determined to show the people in the southeast what real barbeque is all about. There is even a new summer barbeque class being taught at A&M that has a waitlist of over 100 people. Texas A&M is aiming to be Barbeque University in the SEC and has dedicated the time to do so.