Mississippi Musings

This essay was written for the Makers of Sport® newsletter in October 2015. Monday Musings and Weekend Reads were the written editions of the newsletter that accompanied the podcast; the archived email is on Mailchimp. The newsletter's links and announcements are trimmed here.

It's still the weekend, right? Anyhow, I just returned to the Makers of Sport HQ in Kentucky from a 3 day weekend in the Deep South where I witnessed one of the best quarterback performances I've ever seen by Mississippi State QB Dak Prescott. There is no question this guy should be a Heisman Candidate. Even though Mississippi State isn't at the top of the division in the SEC West, Prescott is still doing what he does against solid defenses weekly. And with not interceptions thrown all season until last night, that is quite a feat against super fast SEC secondaries. But enough of that. I want to talk energy, environments and the behind-the-scenes people of college football.

I spent the weekend in Starkville, Mississippi thanks to upcoming podcast guest, Ashley Strauss. Ashley is the Director of Creative Services for Mississippi State University's athletic department. The original plan was to interview Ashley via Skype, which is how I conduct most of the show interviews; but Ashley and her colleagues pitched me on the idea of coming into town to do the podcast in person all while experiencing an SEC West game atmosphere. Conveniently, we chose a weekend when my Kentucky Wildcats were heading into town (although self-admittingly I'm wishing we chose a neutral game after the fact because it was extremely hard not to scream at my team from the press box whilst remaining professional, hah).

It's no secret that with the nature of most of my conversations in the podcast, tweets, and examples I use in newsletters and on Halftime episodes that I absolutely love college sports — specifically football. I grew up a basketball kid (being from Kentucky obviously) and it still barely edges football as my favorite sport but when it comes to providing an all-around experience of college athletics, football takes the cake. The weather of football season plays a big role. With football, there is tailgating and a season that starts in summer humidity and ends in winter cold. From the Midwest, to the South, to the West Coast, college football is king in the U.S.

The energy on college campuses in the American South is a different world altogether during football season. With very little access to professional sports in Southern states, college football takes precedent on Saturdays. Many of the stadiums seat an audience that competes with most NFL stadiums. Even typical conference bottom feeders have large stadiums (ahem, Kentucky seats 70+ thousand).

Loyal fans begin rolling into town on Friday mornings (and sometimes Thursday nights depending on their level of fandom) to set up their tailgates and get their smokers going. Food, family, friends and fun are in excess as tailgating atmospheres are in full effect.

While many are enjoying all of the above however, there are a select few who get to the stadium early...for work. And not just players. The people that work in college athletics (media, in-house creatives, athletic directors, coaches, etc.) are some of the hardest working folks in any industry. Sure one could be digging ditches, shoveling gravel or working in a blue-collar job that is hard work on the body, but the beauty of that work is it ends. You go home, you have a beer, you watch football and forget about it. In the world of the sports business, it never ends. The news cycle is 24-hours, records are constantly being broken, stats are being updated, articles are being written, fans are interacting with the brand. Working in this industry is not for the faint of heart.

I'm very blessed to be independent; working on my own with no bosses, no superiors telling me what to do and where to be. I get to keep my hair long, wear jeans most of the time, stay up late watching Netflix 30 for 30s, yet I get to balance working in sports with enjoying sports. It is a balance that I have worked hard to achieve and do not take for granted. Don't get me wrong, there are still crazy deadlines I must meet and sacrifices that have to be made, but I've always had the pleasure of being agency-side and I'm not sure I'd want it any other way. It's just my personality.

But, for those of you that work in-house, I recognize the sacrifices and hard work it takes and have nothing but respect. In lieu of my recent trip to Starkville, I want to use this time give a shoutout to all of those working in college athletics ON gameday. The people that make sure our experiences and interactions with our teams are quality. Many of your are underpaid, undervalued and overworked. But what you do is great. You may not be throwing TD passes or shooting buzzer beaters, but you are the unsung heroes of college sports brand experiences. Without you, it's an intramural game in front of a few friends. Thanks for all you do.

I also want to extend a special thanks to the kind folks of Mississippi State University that accommodated myself and my wife over the weekend: Ashley Strauss (mentioned above), Rhett Hobart (Assistant Director of Athletic Marketing), Leah Beasley (Athletic Director, Marketing) and Scott Wetherbee (Senior Associate AD of External Affairs). The hard work during games does not go unnoticed.

Love what you do, friends. If you don't and have to work the amount to hours it takes to be successful, you will be miserable.

Be on the look out for Ashley's episode a week from tomorrow. In the meantime, Halftime will be coming up early this week. To see more of my trip to Starkville, check out some photos on Facebook.

Cheers,

Adam