Pac-10 Conference Best Practices: UCLA Lays It Out for Recruits

This blog is all about inspiration. Today we start with 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Pac-10. You can tune in on this blog, or you can follow along on Facebook (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Let's go...

Hit the UCLA basketball page and hover over the Recruiting section, shown below. You'll see the second callout (highlighted below) indicating the Reasons to Choose UCLA. Let's click in.


That takes us here, to a list of 25 Reasons You Should Choose UCLA Athletics.



There's something really simple and really powerful about this concept. A recruit hits your site and what's important to elevate? Naturally, you want to hit them with a list of the reasons why your school is the right choice. This list does just that. Let's take a deeper look.

This list includes athletics reasons:

"UCLA had the longest streak in NCAA history for consecutive winning seasons in the sport of men's basketball, a record that lasted over 50 years dating back to 1948-49 and extending through 2002. No other major program was close to that figure. UCLA basketball still holds many NCAA records that will be difficult to break for years to come."

And academics reasons:

"In the U.S. News & World Report surveys on top academic universities across the nation, UCLA has annually ranked among the Top 4 public universities and in the Top 25 overall. UCLA had over 60 departments ranked in the Top 20 in the annual academic survey. Several UCLA academic departments rank with the Ivy Leagues in overall recognition and prestige. Newsweek has called UCLA "the hottest mega-university in the country."

It's simple, aspirational, and to the point.

How could this be better? While the list is simple and aspirational, it could have more personality. For now, it does a solid job of laying out the facts. But have some fun with it. We're connecting with high school athletes (and their parents). Think about having current student athletes (and/or famous alums) come up with a list of why UCLA, in their words. This model is great, the concept is strong, it just is the start of what's possible.

Tune in tomorrow as we share more inspiration from the Pac-10! And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm @pawlow34.

Andy