USC goes old-school by hiring Swann
By hiring 64-year-old novice athletic director Lynn Swann last week, USC told the Pac-12 two things: (1) we are old-school and (2) we are family.
Some thought the Trojans would transition into the 21st century by hiring a younger, more socially-engaged AD, such as Arizona’s 44-year-old Greg Byrne.
But life in Los Angeles is a world apart from life in Tucson. What Byrne does at Arizona isn’t what most other ADs in the Pac-12 do.
For example, last week the UA notified local media that Byrne will be available for interviews Monday at 1:30 p.m. at Arizona Stadium. It’s part of a session with Rich Rodriguez.
Most of the league’s other ADs, with the exception of WSU’s Bill Moos and Utah’s Chris Hill, are not often quoted or even made available for conversation.
On Saturday, for example, Byrne attended a fundraising event in Bisbee, at the old Warren Ballpark.
Not many Pac-12 ADs would spend a spring weekend attempting to generate support in a town of about 5,800 people.
It’s interesting how the Pac-12 has embraced (or not) social media and similar outreach. ASU media relations director Doug Tammaro last week announced that the Sun Devils surpassed 100,000 Twitter followers on the Sun Devils’ main athletic department account. That’s second to Oregon’s 141,000.
By comparison, Stanford’s athletic department, located in the Silicon Valley, America’s hot spot for social media innovations, is 11th in the Pac-12 with just 26,600 followers.
Stanford’s powerful football program has 43,000 Twitter followers. Arizona has 45,000.
The socially-savvy Byrne has more Twitter followers (29,100) than any other Pac-12 AD and it’s not close. Other than Byrne and Swann (27,400), no other Pac-12 AD has even 5,000 Twitter followers. Arizona State’s Ray Anderson has 4,284. UCLA’s Dan Guerrero and Oregon’s Rob Mullens don’t even have a Twitter account.
Some interesting numbers:
Arizona leads the Pac-12 with basketball Twitter followers (62,900). No one else has more than 45,300. ASU has 8,779. In football, Oregon (138,000) has the league’s most followers. ASU is next with 81,600.
If you add followers for each of the league’s main athletic department feeds, plus football, men’s basketball and AD accounts, here’s how it stacks up:
Oregon, 324,300; Arizona, 205,100; ASU, 195,600; USC, 170,700; Utah, 135,100; UCLA, 129,900. The fewest? WSU at 71,500.
What these numbers say is that Arizona and ASU are more aggressive in getting their message to the public than any of the league’s other schools.
Oregon is the exception. The Ducks were trend-setters in marketing, getting a decade-long jump on the rest of the conference. ASU and Arizona are cutting into UO’s lead.
