Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Marketing: 3 Inspiring Things About #10 U Mass

There's something (or things) that every program does a fantastic job of that we can learn from. In anything you do, if you can find the good in what someone does and do more of that and then avoid what you find to be less effective, you'll end up in a better place.

Thus far our journey through the Atlantic 10 has shown us #14 St Joseph's, #13 La Salle, and #12 Saint Louis., and #11 Fordham. Let's keep moving.

#10 U Mass

What the program is known for? I can't think of U Mass and not think of how Coach John Calipari led them to a ridiculous run of 7 NCAA appearances in the 1990s, including a Final 4 appearance in 1996. That's not that long ago. If you look at alums, you zoom right into Marcus Camby and ..... Dr J. Wow.

The Minutemen haven't been back to the dance since 1998, but if you hit their site it should literally ooze of the run they had. If you (prospective recruit) come to U Mass, we can get back there!

Why are they 10th? Coach Kellogg does a solid job on Twitter, giving you a little insight into ways to connect with this year's program. It's even pumped into the site well. But there's a critical piece of the history and what it means to play for this U Mass brand that is missing from this experience.

What inspired me about U Mass? (link here)

1. Local sports report pump into the basketball section.

I love this. There's really no one that covers teams (in terms of real time highlights) than the local news team. And U Mass takes the coverage from local CBS 3 and pumps it right into their basketball site. Nice. Really nice.

Now there's not just TV highlights in the box above - it's packed with press conferences and interviews. But imagine if we were able to expand this. Put all the local coverage here, not just CBS. And what about the midweek coverage and special features on the program that inevitably make the local news... Wow.

2. Coach Kellogg's Twitter feed and pics pump into the basketball section.

As you can see above, U Mass pumps Coach Derek Kellogg's Twitter page into their basketball site. You can check his Twitter page out for yourself, here. With around 850 followers, he does a nice job - likely leading the A-10 in pictures posted from Twitter like the example below.

There's something powerful about having a coach who's active on Twitter and then pumping that Twitter feed into your site. All we need now is more interaction between coach and the fans of the Minutemen.

3. Coach Kellogg's Weekly Recap

This one is tricky. Just about every coach has a weekly show, but not many coaches post the transcript onto their website. The result, as you see above, is essentially a weekly blog by the head coach.

It's very easy to read and digest. And you get a guided look into how Coach Kellogg responds to the ups & downs of the season. I love this.

But now, I ask you this question. If you know you're going to put your transcript of the radio show onto your website, how should that change the radio show? Could this become an internet Q&A that also plays on the radio?

It's an interesting thought. There's many ways to address this. Should you have a predictable theme or featured questions to address? Could you include personal things like favorite websites, videos, or music of the coach... things that show you his personality. Could you promote the show and get fans to ask questions? And could you include photos that accompany you through the coaches show?

Lots of opportunity if we think a little differently.

Click back in tomorrow as we keep moving.

Andy

Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Marketing: 3 Inspiring Things About #11 Fordham

There's something (or things) that every program does a fantastic job of that we can learn from. In anything you do, if you can find the good in what someone does and do more of that and then avoid what you find to be less effective, you'll end up in a better place.

Thus far our journey through the Atlantic 10 has shown us #14 St Joseph's, #13 La Salle, and #12 Saint Louis.

Let's keep moving.

#11 Fordham

What the program is known for? Fordham doesn't have the same level of prestige as the last 4 squads we've checked out, from a historical basketball point of view. But, that said, they also have seen success -- with 4 trips to the NCAA tourneys (most recently in 1992). They also advanced to the sweet 16 in 1971. That may be a bit ago, but it is success and I see it as the job of the Fordham athletics site to paint the picture that we have new success on the horizon!

Why are they 11th? Fordham needs to be creative as they look for ways to connect. They don't have the history that many other programs have, and as you'll see below some of the pieces are in place.... they just need to be un-buried.

What inspired me about Fordham? (link here)

1. Read up on the Rams with Media Links in the Basketball Section

We saw yesterday that Massachusetts created some impact by bringing in their local sports channel's coverage into the U Mass site. Fordham Athletics scans across the media and finds posts on the Rams from all local sites. They then link those right in here, into the Rams site.

I love the concept. It seems like, as a fan or potential recruit, the more info on the team you can find, the better. And if someone else does the heavy lifting, even better.

My challenge is how do we make this truly amazing? There's lots of ways to increase the impact. Let people sign up for a daily email that gives them everything. Or pump in more than the headline here. Give me more of the story. This has the makings of something special.

2. Fordham Fan Polls of the Week

Who doesn't love a fan poll? I mean it's simple, quick, and you can have a say in the outcome. You participate. I've come across these a few times and think the power is pretty amazing.

That said, this is just the starting point. Can we go a step deeper (or a few steps)? First, give us the immediate results. Let us see who agrees and who disagrees. I am a monster fan of voting mixed with maps, like ESPN does in the image below. I know it's a much more involved way of voting but the visual power is addicting. It makes me want to vote on more things.

3. The Independent Fordham Sports Blog

Blogs are labors of love. Not every school is blessed to have a blog that is detailed, passionate, and active... But Fordham does. The Fordham SportsNet blog (link here) gives you a very detailed look into the Rams.

As you can tell from this image, there's a LOT of information. I am pumped to see Fordham link to an independent blog. To some, that's risky (what if he wrote about something negatively?) But is it really risky? I think aligning yourself to someone who is passionate for what you do is smart and (as you can tell) is the beginnings of something powerful.

What if this wasn't just a link buried in the depths of the hoops site? What if Fordham athletics did something big and partnered with this blog to chronicle the season. To keep the Fordham site fresh. And to bring more fans in? What if they allowed people to visit the Fordham site and sign up for updates on this blog. Would that be crazy? Or would they connect the program in a more meaningful way to more fans?

That's it. Come back tomorrow as we keep moving through the A-10!

Andy

Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Marketing: 3 Inspiring Things About #12 St Louis

There's something (or things) that every program does a fantastic job of that we can learn from. In anything you do, if you can find the good in what someone does and do more of that and then avoid what you find to be less effective, you'll end up in a better place.

Thus far our journey through the Atlantic 10 has shown us #14 St Joseph's and #13 La Salle. Let's keep moving.

#12 Saint Louis

What the program is known for? The Billikens have been to the NCAA Tourney 4 times since 1994. They won a game twice - most recently in 1998 with Larry Hughes at the helm. Saint Louis has also had a series of great coaches running the show: Charlie Spoonhour, Lorenzo Romar, and now Rick Majerus. Whatever we see around the Billikens, I expect to see this tradition and leadership highlighted.

Why are they 12th? St Louis gives you a nice look into their facilities and into student life in general. But like others we've seen in the A-10, there's a tangible gap in learning and connecting with this team.

What inspired me about Saint Louis? (link here)

1. The Interactive Tour of Chaifetz Arena.

I think this tour is here because the arena is new and they are offering you, the fan, the ability to see the view from wherever you are sitting. But what if we think of these arena 360 degree tours a little differently?

To be specific, what's the view of the arena from the perspective of a player? What if you had views from anywhere on the court (or maybe from the tunnel, coming out) and the stands were packed? You would hear the sound, you'd see the color, and completely feel what it's like to play in the arena.

Something tells me we'll see this one day.

2. Ask the Docs

I hadn't seen anything like this before. St Louis actually gives you a chance to ask questions to their team physicians. It's part of a sponsorship with the group, but I think it touches on something exciting.

Injuries are a part of the game. But as a prospective student athlete (or the parent of one), you want to be certain you will be under good care if something were to happen. And what better way to show the expertise of that care than by elevating the individuals who offer it?

I'd like to see this grow. Go beyond taking questions on dealing with your own injuries and share with us the treatment, the stretching, and the rehab routines you develop for the current Billikens squads. That's powerful.

3. Being Billikens gives us a look into the personal side of student athletes.

As you can see here (or in the image above), St Louis wanted to give us an inside look into how student athletes spend their time away from the athletics facilities. This has a feel of a newsletter (maybe because it is?), and I mean that in a good way. There's something very personal. I think there's something powerful for a prospective student athlete to see what student athletes in all sports (not just their own) spend their time. The challenge, as we see here with St Louis, is to take this idea and make it consistently authentic and updated.

That's it. Come back tomorrow as we keep moving.

Andy

Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Marketing: 3 Inspiring Things About #13 La Salle

There's something (or things) that every program does a fantastic job of that we can learn from. In anything you do, if you can find the good in what someone does and do more of that and then avoid what you find to be less effective, you'll end up in a better place.

Thus far our journey through the Atlantic 10 has shown us #14 St Joseph's. Let's keep moving.

#13 La Salle

What the program is known for? Before we dive in, the history at La Salle is mind blowing. Do you realize that in the 3 year window between 1988-1990, the program won 80 games and went 43-1 in the conference? That's just nuts. They were voted the 53rd best program of all time by Street & Smith's.

Now that's success. And that should permeate everything (attitude and storytelling) we see on the site. Not to say we need to dwell in the 20 years ago past. But to say we need to show recruits that this is possible. That there's history here. And that you could make it happen again.

Why are they 13th? Like St Joseph's, La Salle doesn't bring you along with their storied history. Also like St Joe's, there's really not any way of following along with this year's squad - you have abilities to connect with the athletics department, but the tight connection to hoops was missing.

What inspired me about La Salle? (linked here)

1. In Their Words. If you click here, you'll be taken to this section, packed full of alumni who describe their experiences at La Salle.


You'll find Bill Raftery, the famous CBS Sports announcer. Who puts the La Salle experience into his own words in this section. The section is not that deep (only 5 people). It also was done recently (Bill is definitely not a recent grad in his visual). But it is very powerful to hear from alumni about the experience of being on campus.

Now what could this become? That's where inspiration hits you. What if La Salle took every Senior after the season and did a filmed exit interview? Those interviews could then become part of a big collection that could rotate in and out. Our they could pull these out via simple text and allow for people to fall in love with the program like we all do with our college. It is very tough to bring alumni back and to film them after they "make it big". But it's very powerful to hear from them while they are still in the college zone. Big opportunity here.

2. The Men's Basketball News Feed, Blog style.

I don't know - but there's something about this that inspired me. I guess it's the fact that this is so simple. It's a collection of images and short text files written about the team. But it's done every day, and it is focused around the team. Take a look at the past 3 days in this image:

Feb 19 Preview of Matchup vs St Bonaventure

Feb 18 Loss to Dayton

Feb 17 Travel Date

Every day, each team has a story. And this is what you get from the La Salle basketball section. So many of us stick to just providing links to news releases. That's easy, and it gets posted quickly. But the power of a simple image with a paragraph and a link is impressive.

Now imagine if we could take that image and text and change it so the image is taken in real-time, with a cell phone. So the travel day is a picture from the team bus. And the matchup preview is taken from the shootaround? That gives you the same story but in a much more intimate way.

3. Coach John Giannini's Radio Show.

You can listen to this online, witnessed in the image below. And it links from here. I am a believer that the coaches shows are one of the most hidden and powerful things in marketing. You get quite a sense for what a coach is like from listening to it. Is he energetic or passive? Does he love his team? How does he react to adversity? Do you sync to his sense of humor (assuming he's got one!)? So I love this idea. Now, how do we adapt to what's possible now?

There should be a big schedule of when these are coming. Make it obvious. Even consider a countdown clock or ticker, much like you'd see for the Super Bowl (or the Premiere of American Idol if that's more your style). That way people know when to come and listen. Now that people know, here's a series of "what ifs" as it relates to coaches shows.

What if people who were online at the time could ask questions?

What if this could be connected to your Facebook page?

What if the interview was done via UStream, so that people could also see the coach as he's being interviewed?

What if the highlights of this radio show were posted in the blog immediately afterwards?

We can't get there immediately. But before we toss the radio out as an afterthought, let's look at that inspiration and build on it!

That's it. Come back tomorrow as I keep rolling through the A-10!

Andy

Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Marketing: 3 things we can learn from #14 St Joseph's

It all started with a breakdown of the A-10 Conference's Basketball Footprint (here), and we followed up by creating the Ultimate Mashup of Atlantic 10 Basketball Marketing efforts (here).

But I wanted to take that mashup a step further. To adapt.

You see the reason I love writing this blog is because I'm a believer that we can find inspiration everywhere. There's something (or things) that every program does a fantastic job of that we can learn from. In anything you do, if you can find the good in what someone does and do more of that and then avoid what you find to be less effective, you'll end up in a better place.

So while I'll give you my overall conference marketing ranking, I'm going to steer the focus of each post more into the zone of what's inspiring about each team. I hope you dig it.

#14 St Joseph's

What the program is known for? If you're selling St Joseph's, what specifically are you hyping? Success. The program has been to the dance 19 times, including 4 times in the past 10 years. One of those years, 2003-4, they went undefeated in the regular season - en route to a 1-seed and an eventual 30-2 record after a tough loss in the Elite 8. Jameer Nelson led that squad. Wow. Coach Phil Martelli is selling that season as an example of the powerhouse the Hawks are.

Why are they 14th? You wouldn't know that history if you hit the St Joe's website. And you really won't find it easy to follow this year's program either. With tradition and a great coach, there's a lot of marketing opportunities that many programs would die for!

What inspired me about St Joseph's? (linked here)

1. The ability to customize results by sport.

If you look at the top of the St Joseph's home page (or at the image above), you'll notice that you have the ability to select the sports you would like to see on the ticker in the St Joseph's site. Interesting. For now, all this does is customize the schedule and the results that appear at the top of the page. But I think the idea of customization is just beginning.

Let's ponder that. What if we could take that starting point and add to it. So that now all of your St Joseph's home page preferences would revolve around basketball. Feeds of St Joseph's from the media. Fan comments. Pictures. Twitter comments about those sports only. And of course scores and schedules. Powerful sounding. And if you wanted both Men's and Women's Basketball, fine. You get it all.

2. Listen to Hawks Games Live. Just one Click Away.

The St Joseph's Men's Basketball section has a right hand navigation (shown above) that gives you a listing of the upcoming matchups. I like having this at my disposal on a site, as it saves you a click. Note I wish that I could immediately sign up from this image to get updates from St Joseph's. Reminders to my cell phone that is, so that I know when the game is starting. (Seems like I'm always forgetting game times when I live a couple time zones away from my alma matter). Now that we have that, let's look at this in a little more depth.

I like the instant access to listen live and get a game tracker. That's cool. I don't have to do a search to find out where I can listen to the team online. Nice.

What if the game was automatically streaming from this site if you logged in during a game? So you never had to click "listen live"? Same thing with Coach Martelli's shows. Wouldn't that create an amazing experience for a fan? And you start to create that behavior -- go online during our games. And listen live with other fans from the St Joe's athletics site!

3. The Phil Martelli Story.

Several coaches put their insights into book form. The image above is a tout from the St Joseph's Men's Basketball page. Clicking on the tout takes you here, to the Coach Martelli book description (shown below - though I'm sure it's too small to read!). So I'll paste a small excerpt here:

"This unpretentious tone pervades Don't Call Me Coach--as distinctively different from most life-lessons books as Martelli's spontaneous HawkTalk is from other coaches' tightly scripted TV shows. Martelli's experiences within his own extended family--often funny, sometimes poignant, and always instructive--form a warmly personal background to everything he spells out in his book. Having turned down far more lucrative offers to coach at mega-universities, Martelli enters another new season at the helm of the storied men's basketball program at Philadelphia's Saint Joseph's University. As he puts it, "You have to know where your heart is."

Why did this inspire me? Well first of all it is a chance for me to learn more about Coach Martelli as a person. It's a full on look into how he views life. Nice. (I've met Coach Martelli and now may want to buy this book, but that's for another day!)

Now what would I do to maximize this? First, what if Coach didn't charge for his book on this site? (what?) I know that may sound crazy. But what if he said simply pay what you think it is worth and offered you the ability to download it, much like Radiohead did with their Rainbows CD. (Story here).

Is that too bold? Well, what if there were his favorite chapters for free here?

Why am I suggesting this? Because I don't think it would do anything but help the Hawks program. If more and more recruits (and their families) could read this (and I see the price as a barrier), more and more people would feel connected to this man and his love for the program. That's what it is all about.

Tune in tomorrow as we continue our Atlantic 10 journey.

Andy

The Atlantic 10 Conference's Ultimate Basketball Marketing Mashup

It's time.

I was inspired by this ESPN article from a while ago, where ESPN constructs the perfect NFL backup quarterback. (What do you get when you mix Doug Flutie's likeability with Kyle Orton's Resignation?) And that led me to the challenge. How can we go through the next wave of conferences and construct the best online experience?

Here's the ground rules:

1. Can't use more than one thing from any school.
2. Every school has to have a presence in this (similar to the MLB All Star Game which keeps the Royals with at least one member each year)
3. This combined Franken-online experience has to mesh together as a recruiting and connecting weapon, as best it can.

Let's go.

I will start my experience with La Salle. I love their alumni talking about experiences on campus. Every college is blessed with alumni who loved their time on campus. When you play at a school, it just becomes a part of your DNA, in a good way. (I will forever bleed Drake University blue) But for some reason, very few schools leverage their alumni. La Salle is beginning to touch on this in a section titled "In their words." (Side note: this is an example of a great section with a title that doesn't clearly let you feel what it's all about. I'm not sure anyone would get that In their words is an alumni endorsement area...) As you'll see below, they elevate the emotions that Bill Raftery feels about La Salle. Link here.





St Joseph's gives us the ability to customize our home page experience by sport. As you can see here, there is a small menu at the very top of the page that let's you choose which sports show up. Now, unfortunately, that only controls the ticker of scores and schedules at the top of the site. But to me, that is the start of something powerful -- the ability to create my own basketball-centric experience on an athletics site.



Saint Louis gives us a close up look at their basketball facilities. As you can see below (or by clicking here), Saint Louis does a pretty solid job of letting us see what the arena experience is like. Facilities plays a big role in the student athlete's decision. But I'd go a step further. I'd say it is an environment, not facilities, that make that ultimate decision. So, while I LOVE the panoramic tours below, I would love to see what these are like in a packed environment - visually, and in audio of course!





George Washington does a nice job of stating what their basketball program is all about. To be specific, I'm taking Coach Hobbs talking about his philosophy (shown below, linked here). This is from the heart, a look at the kind of player and person he wants in his program. It is powerful copy, and I know it's tough to read so I'll paste a sample here:

"When I go out and recruit a player to be an integral part of my program he must have a burning desire to accomplish four things. Number one, he must have a burning desire to graduate with a degree because education is important to be successful in life. Number two, he must have a burning desire to win, and I am talking about conference championships and dreaming of winning a national championship. Number three, he must have a burning desire to improve as a player and a person. I take great pride in working to develop my players on and off the court. Number four, he must have a burning desire to want to play in the NBA. I want players who are willing to work hard and commit to chasing their dreams. If he doesn't have those four things, then I am not the right coach for that individual. "

Now that we've established who we are as a program (thanks to GW, SLU, La Salle, and St Joseph's), we need to track how this philosophy evolves through a season. Enter the world of social media.

The key infrastructure to all of this is a nice, crisp way of following your program. So I'm adding Rhode Island's Social Media Icons and Callouts to make it clear and easy to follow our program.

Rhode Island, as you can see in the images below, creates bold callouts for blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and makes them very easy to find on the site.


Then, once you click in, they add a layer of motivational copy or calls to action. (Read our Blogs! Become a Fan! Follow Us! Watch our Videos!) Solid foundation here.


Now that I have a foundation, we need to fill it with the best content. From Charlotte I'm taking their blog, a Touch of Green, which I believe is one of the best blogs in college basketball, the Touch of Green. This is one of the most original, smart, and interesting blogs I've come across. It feels like a reporter (in a good way) mixed with a true insider. Here's a sample:

"When Junior Byron Dinkins hit his first of two three-pointers in the first half against UNC Wilmington, Feb 1 1988, he unknowingly set in motion one of the 49ers most remarkable streaks. (The MOST remarkable is the 61-gmae home winning winning streak from 1973-1977, but that's another blog.) The previous game, Jan 30 at South Florida, Charlotte went 0-for-3 from three-point land. Nearly 22 years passed before the 49ers would again go without at least one three-pointer.

With Dinkins three with 8:02 left in the first half, the streak was begun. The 49ers would hit at least one three-pointer in the remaining 52 games of the 80's, in all 302 games of the upcoming decade of the 90's, all 311 games of the still distant 00's, and four games into the 10's. The streak would span four decades. In game five of 2010, Charlotte would go 0-for-7 from three-point range against St Louis and the streak - the 669 game, 21 plus year streak - was broken"

Just fantastic stuff, and you can't help but want more.



From Richmond, I'm taking their YouTube channel. You can step into a deep YouTube video barrage here. Essentially this is a basketball channel inside the Richmond Spiders Athletics YouTube page. And they fill it with everything from weight room video to highlights to press conferences to ESPN coverage. And you can subscribe for basketball-only content! Huzzah!


We're building our Facebook presence with St Bonaventure. The Bonnies have a Facebook fan page that is, well... fun. (link here) They have just over 1,500 fans, and they pepper these fans with trivia questions on the program, contests, and video highlights of the latest games. Fun stuff.





We're taking our Twitter presence from Xavier. Simply put, Xavier kills it on Twitter. The Musketeers hit you with one of the deepest Twitter lineups I've seen. Head Coach Chris Mack, Assistants Pat Kelsey, Orlando Ranson, Travis Steele, Jeremy Growe, and Sports Info Director Tom Eiser are all out there. (Wow) Coaches Mack, Steele, and Growe are very active. As you can see below, there's a powerful image of Coach Mack (which should probably be a group shot of everyone, really) to hype their presence. Now if they can take that combined energy and unite it together, look out.




I love how Temple taps into the Atlantic 10 conference's social media presence. Temple comes at you with a Social Media directory that merges both the Owls platforms and the Atlantic 10's platforms. Nice. Why not elevate yourself by tagging onto the footprint the conference is building?



Fordham expands their news coverage of programs to include the mainstream media. I really liked this touch. Why not add to the coverage you have of the teams by dropping in stories by columnists from local papers? (And why not think about adding stories from your opponent's papers too?)


UMass builds on this philosophy, by integrating Local Media TV highlights. So now, basically, fans of the Minutemen can watch the local CBS Sports Highlights right from the comforts of the UMass basketball page. Really nice.



Duquesne puts together a basketball highlight package and inserts it into the hoops home page. This is smart, as it sets the tone quickly when you land on the Duquesne hoops page. Granted, it's a set of highlights from last season but it is still powerful imagery that is extremely well placed.


And, finally, Dayton builds their basketball brand via Go Dayton.com. This is an amazing experience that will no doubt get discussed later in this blog. But for now, I'll call out my one thing.


What I'm taking from Dayton is their ability to group photos and videos in packages that are easy to digest and share. From a photos standpoint, they created a Flickr page, linked here, that makes it really easy to find an image and take it with you.


And the topics of those videos: The Bond, Academics, Players on Coach Gregory, Work Ethic, and Team Depth. In words and visuals, it's very clear what Dayton stands for.



And that's it. Hope you dug this journey. The A-10 has allowed us to create a deep basketball experience, share it, and keep it fresh and updated through the season. We'll revisit the conference team-by-team at a later date, but for now, we're going to keep rolling.

Come back next week as we turn our attention to the next conference.... In the meantime, want to stay in touch? You can follow me on Twitter here.

Andy

College Basketball: The Atlantic 10 Conference's Digital Presence

I'm pumped to move on to the Atlantic 10. As you might guess, every conference is an opportunity for me to find inspiration out there that we can all learn from. And our journey thus far, going through the ACC (link here), Pac-10 (link here), Big Ten (link here), Big 12 (link here), Big East (link here), and SEC (link here) gave me context. Now we'll have a sense for not just what the Mid Majors do well, but also how they stack up against the rest of the conferences.

We covered the MVC here and the WCC here. Now it's time to turn our attention to the A-10 Conference.

You ready?

What's Good about the A-10 Experience? Really smart use of a blog to hype what's new across all programs

What Could Be Better? The A-10 site itself needs an infusion of energy and a statement of what the brand stands for

Let's dive in...

Plowing into the Atlantic 10 Conference site, here, you see an interesting thing at the top of the screen: "Customize Sports." Now that had me very intrigued. I just had to click in.


Here's that callout, in case your eyesight is slipping from reading too many blogs. :)

Sadly, though, this customization is limited to customizing the scores or upcoming games you want to see. (Wouldn't that be sweet if we could customize the whole front page?) Wow...

OK, I moved on in my home page journey and saw the following on the right hand side of the page. Nice! Let's check out the ways the A-10 has for us to follow the league...


First, Twitter. The A-10 on Twitter takes you here, to their world of 625 followers. These followers get updates across all sports. It's ok, but makes me wish I could select the sports I want! They do denote the sports first in every post (ex: MBB), but it left me wishing a deeper connection.



The A-10 on Facebook takes us here, to their page with 386 Fans. Getting here reminded me of how much I like maps. And also of how much of a reach it is for St Louis to be in the Atlantic 10. (I guess no stranger than the A-10 having 14 squads but I digress)... It's early February and there's not been anything posted since late November. A big miss as we're in the heat of conference play now.



Then I came here, to the star of our show, the A-10 Blog (link here). Really, click in here (I'll wait). I'm a big fan of what they are doing here. It's clean and easy to digest, and this blog is fantastic in sharing insight into what games are being played and what coverage the conference is getting in the media. Easily one of the better blogs I've come across in the college space. But the key here is it's a foundation to grow from.



I'll zoom in here so you can get a better feel for the coverage they are highlighting. Really solid.

Moving on, I was intrigued to see the History callout on the site. I clicked in and, as you can see below, it's a lot of info. Good info, but missing the energy and emotion that this league has. Think of all the Pros, all the tourney teams, and all the great coaches who've been in this league. How can we bring this to the forefront?


And, finally, I came across the following box. It showed a nice way to keep in touch with the latest goings on in each member institution. I like the idea of elevating the top stories, I only wish it had the feel we just saw in the blog. I also would love consistency here (Some teams have articles, some teams have links only)...


Checking out the Hoops section, here, I love the feeling of the area. Lots of things at your fingertips.



You are given access to the A-10 Media Guide, which as you can see below is available as a series of PDFs that you can download. Good info, but needs to have energy infused!



You are pointed in the direction of other sites (College Chalktalk) to chat about the conference, which I'm ok with but I'd still want to offer a way to bring the life of a site like that into the A-10 site -- rather than send fans on to the other site for the action.



OK. For the rest of our A-10 action, come back tomorrow as I unveil a new approach to what we can learn from the A-10!

Andy