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Texas A&M Football

A&M VP Jason Cook talks hot-button items galore in-studio

April 4, 2012
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Notes from Jason Cook interview

* The new windscreens around the practice fields that are marked with the SEC logo are really nice. It was a huge thing for the SEC to allow A&M to have the SEC patch on their practice jerseys this spring and it serves as a constant reminder of what’s to come. The corner of George Bush and Wellborn is a high traffic area and those windscreens are the first public SEC logo on the A&M campus.

* Coach Sumlin is not turning down interviews because he is always trying to sell the A&M program. He knows how important it is to get the A&M name and logo out nationally and is doing everything he can to show what A&M has to offer.

* Some A&M fans have to get out of the entitlement mentality of being able to buy season tickets even without being a 12th man foundation member. How things are done are going to change with the move to the SEC.

* He will be traveling to the University of Kentucky soon to talk to their marketing team about how to get their name out and how to sell their product. Kentucky sees the energy at A&M and wants to learn how to have that same energy.

* There was a lot of dialogue at the student traditions council meeting last month. A&M values the student’s opinion and thinks it’s important for the students to be able to talk about traditions and possibly get the ball rolling on anything that needs be changed.

* The timeline for changing traditions is getting compressed because Fish Camp will be starting up here in a couple of months. So far there has not be any significant traction when it comes to changing anything major when it comes to traditions.

* You’re going to see a lot of SEC logos start to pop up around campus. The marketing team has to be careful however because some of the sports teams are still competing for Big 12 titles. The big marketing push won’t come until around August when football is starting to gear up.

* The SEC has had a national champion or runner-up in 12 of 20 sports since 2006. With A&M, that number will jump to 14 of 20 which is impressive.

* The SEC is truly a conference of champions. A&M can’t jump into the conference flashing all of their Big 12 trophies and should be humbled to be invited to be part of the greatest conference in the country.

* He always tells people that A&M’s record in football for 2012 was never discussed when the higher powers at A&M began talks about moving to the SEC, because it truly was a 100 year decision. A&M has been at the height of the national media for months now which has never been seen before.

* It’s crazy how fast A&M sold out season tickets. He expects the student ticket demand to be just as high as it was for season tickets.

* A&M is now in a very stable conference, which can’t be said for most others.

* A&M has had a few conference calls with EA Sports to discuss making A&M more accurate in their game, NCAA Football ’13. EA Sports will be at the Arkansas game this year to take in Kyle Field and get a more accurate representation of what goes on during a game day in College Station. There will be a little surprise before the season starts that has to do with EA Sports.

* Mike Slive will be on campus on April 20th and 21st to speak at a Sport Management conference discussing conference realignment. Hopefully he will be able to attend Friday Night Lights and/or the Baylor baseball game that weekend, and hopefully he can attend Aggie Muster that weekend too.

* This month’s 12-for-12 deals with the research A&M students and professors are doing on becoming more environmentally friendly.

* The Aggie band will travel to multiple away games this year. It may not be a full band every time, but people in the SEC will be able to see the band on multiple occasions.

* The hot thing right now is cowboy boots, and A&M is up 400% when it comes to sales of A&M boots.

* The marketing team went and looked at the royalties that surrounded the Lone Star Showdown and found that nearly $170,000 was spent in t-shirts sales alone with the Lone Star Showdown logo on it.

* He received a report from the Collegiate Licensing Company that showed that the market for A&M stuff after the women’s basketball national championship was one of the top five in history of its kind.

* “Aggie Owned and Operated” is a program co-branded with TexAgs, where Aggie owned business will be allowed to have limited use of the licensed marks owned by Texas A&M. He wants people to see maroon all over the state and show that Texas A&M is still here. Being a part of the program also allows that business to be listed in Maroon Book.

* A&M is in a battle for who owns the State of Texas, and he believes that A&M will win because of the move to the SEC.

* Instead of running a 30-second commercial for someone during a game, A&M has tried to incorporate certain sponsors with different traditions in order to make Kyle Field seem less commercialized. A&M doesn’t have the static advertisements that other stadiums have because they want to keep Kyle Field special.

* A&M was on the phone with lawyers yesterday in regards to the Seattle Seahawks using the number twelve on their jerseys this year. He can’t do anything about someone wearing the number twelve on a shirt or flying a flag with the number twelve on it, but what he can do is talk to Seattle about how they are portraying that uniform in their marketing campaigns.

* July 1st is when A&M officially joins the SEC and you should start seeing a full line of co-branded apparel available soon after that date.

* Everyone has an opinion about the Aggie War Hymn, but it is ultimately up to the students to decide. It seems that they have decided they want to keep it the way it is. He doesn’t think A&M should change it because there is no way to get away from referencing the University of Texas without completely changing the War Hymn.

* If he was to tell anyone about uniform plans, Coach Sumlin would kill him. There is a plan in place that should bring a lot of energy to the program, while also staying true to who A&M is.
Discussion from...

A&M VP Jason Cook talks hot-button items galore in-studio

7,338 Views | 4 Replies | Last: 12 yr ago by Cabbage
Gabe Bock
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A&M VP Jason Cook talks hot-button items galore in-studio
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KpoAggie
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Anyone know who the reporter is that Jason Cook referenced to around the 18:30 mark?
Cabbage
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I like the new strategy and the free tortilla give away for the Florida game. It looks like we will be positioning ourselves as the SEC's version of Texas Tech.

[This message has been edited by Cabbage (edited 4/4/2012 4:33p).]
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