College Basketball: Digital Pac-10 Preview, #7 Oregon State

Welcome back to our journey through the Pac-10, from a digital point of view.

The internet has leveled the playing field. All schools have an equal opportunity for their coaches and teams to share what it means to be a part of the program. To get you fired up. And to connect with other fans. There is no window of time that coaches can't connect to prospective players (or their families) online. And it's even better, since the control is fully in the hands of the prospective athlete. They reach out to connect whenever they want (or don't want).

So far our journey through the conference has shown us #10 USC , #9 Arizona State and #8 Arizona. Let's keep moving...

#7 Oregon State

The Digital Scouting Report

Strengths: Great visuals. Having an Inside Basketball section is pretty sweet.

Weaknesses: No ways to keep in touch with the program, from what I could tell.

Full Scouting Report:
Clicking into the OSU athletics site, here, you see a pretty cool visual. The "I am Orange" campaign across the top (which transitions across multiple sports) really grabs you. You'll also notice the AD Report on the right hand column. I like this.



Looking at the main navigation, the Fan zone has a desktop communicator (similar to what we've seen on other sites) - which is really the only way I could find to keep in touch with the Beaver program.



I also wanted to call out Generation Beavs (shown below), as I think it's a nice thing to build a presence among the young fans to connect with your programs. This is one of the better fan clubs I've come across.



I scrolled down to the bottom of the site and.... wow. Definitely a classified wall, with more signage than most minor league baseball stadiums.


I quickly moved back to the top of the page, to dive into basketball. The basketball home page is one of the better ones I've come across. The video window in the right hand side of the screen auto-plays highlights from last season. You can definitely feel the energy of the program. I also really like seeing the Weekly Game Notes elevated to such a high spot on the site -- if you've never seen these, they are pretty cool reports normally pulled together by the Sports Information Offices of programs that highlight the team and their matchup (who's hot, what happened in previous matchups, what to look for). It's pretty simple, but not many programs elevate this. Nice.



But what really grabs me is the Men's Basketball in depth call out. I dive in and get a pretty sweet image with great entry points: Academics, Coaching, Recruits, OSU Life, and Nike Basketball. Plus what seems to be the beginnings of a video channel.



I have to dive into the videos first... and I am hit with a pop up window of a CBS College Sports section, showcasing a mix of live events and playlists across mutliple sports. What? This really wasn't a pleasant experience -- I was all primed, ready for Coach Robinson to give me an inside look at the program, right there in the Insider section, but instead I just got whisked away to a strange place. Please fix this!



OK, I closed that window and went back inside OSU basketball, clicking on "For Recruits." I love the fact that the recruits call out doesn't show up until you hit the Inside OSU Basketball area. But I didn't love the content within this area. As you can see from this image, it really isn't a basketball recruiting page, but a general one - driving you to a questionnaire (or a bunch).



I clicked on the Life at OSU tab and actually dig this. It's definitely not a basketball-specific area, but it does give you an interesting way to learn about the campus and what life is like if you go to school in Corvallis. It's a little different and cool.


Finally, I love the Nike Basketball callout. This is a big deal to kids, what gear they get to wear when they make it to college. And I was hoping we'd see some of this beneath the Nike button... but I was whisked away to the Nike Store home page. Again, not the greatest of experiences.


What really felt missing, as you could guess, is that there was no real inside content on the program, no ways to keep in touch or reach out to the program. No Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or Blogs. I'm hoping this changes, as from what I can tell Coach Robinson is changing the culture of the squad, doing things differently and building a program. The pieces are in place for OSU to really amp this up, we just need to see them.

Tune back in tomorrow and we'll keep this going with team #6.

Andy