San Diego State and the Social-ification of Announcements

It's no secret that conference alignment is a bit confusing, a bit overwhelming, a bit exciting and also a bit frustrating. One of the things that stands out the most to me in what feels like a multi-year process of shifting dynamics is this: When conferences realign, fans talk. A lot. In Social Media. But when conferences realign, they announce it via a press release. And (with all due respect to the fans of press releases), no one reads these.

Now, enter one of the more confusing announcements: San Diego State is entering both the Big East Conference and the Big West Conference (for football and basketball, respectively). As you'll see below, they delivered this news in an incredibly social way that we can all learn from.

First, I saw the news break through the SDSU Athletics Facebook page (here)

As you can see in the video below, SDSU did exactly what ESPN would do in a spot like this -- they went to their experts and had them break down what the move means to the university. This was done quickly, and simply and delivered through social.

But as you can also gather, that's a lot of video content that gets dispersed all over the internet without a home, a hub, to bring everything together. The school needed a way to bring the power of all programs together in one place.

Thus, they transformed the Athletics site into a hub. As you'll note in the images below (and by clicking here), they bring all coaches together and integrate the two new leagues seamlessly together.

All videos aggregate in one spot and in case you aren't in the video clicking mood, key quotes appear below.

The power of the moves, dimensionalized by the school's experts in one spot does two amazing things. One, it gives the fan instant access to what it means - thus getting the base excited. And, Two, this gives the appearance that the programs are united. Every team comes across as happy for this and what it means for the future -- and that is what keeps the boosters, fans, and recruits energized.

A press release tells you the facts. But we don't want the facts, we want the stories. Props to SDSU for giving us the story!

Tune in Friday for more NCAA Digital Best Practices. Or just follow me up on social -- I'm on Twitter, as @andypawlowski (here), and on Facebook as Digital Hoops Blast, here.

Thanks for reading,

Andy