How Football Impacts the Starkville Community | Zac Selmon Mississippi State Athletic Director

TV viewership can you talk a little bit about the findings and the recent report as it relates to TV viewership and um the way in which Mississippi State football has an opportunity to represent the larger Campus Community um on a national stage yeah so so much of uh and I guess I'll start with you know I felt that but I didn't have the empirical data at the time when I was a student an athlete uh I went to in small school Wake Forest in winon Salem North Carolina and to go from a team that went to a couple minor bowls and then able to go to a championship and go to the Orange Bowl I remember going back to uh campus a couple years later and said wow there was a lot of growth and because of that it's television viewership when you look at the Last 5 Years of of Television viewership over 80% have has been on all the major linear networks the ESPN the ABCs has been consumed by college football and so for the largest economic driver for our business is television the next largest would be just over 10% men's basketball and um you know it's it's no secret that women's basketball baseball softball as the worlds they're growing yes but they're still all under 2% of total viewership so when we look at where we're at now and where we're going to the Future uh we look at college football has the ability to lift the entire profile of our institution and and uh then locally within our athletics department it gives us the opportunity for us to lift everything else and that's one of the cool things about broad-based programming in college sports is U college football has ability to us when you talk about let's go win another National Championship in baseball absolutely our success of our football program helps lift that um we talk about you want to see Morgan hit another shot again in the final four absolutely our success of our college football helps with that we want to get back to the years of being number one in the cfp uh we we want more players like Dak and and his teammates that's the kind of thing that helps all of us so when we look at um the we you it's funny because people say you never have a favorite child and that's exactly true for us we want all of our Sports to be successful uh but we know the economic driver behind our Enterprise is college football specifically television viewership thanks for sharing more about Dog Program that and one last thing here as it pertains to the transition in the new um staff you and Coach lebby uh collaborated on a unique program and it's called the dog program can you elaborate a little bit more on on kind of what that is and some of the key elements of that yeah you know I mentioned my uncle lra earlier who helped get me involved in this business and uh by all accounts he was a first pick in the 75 NFL draft first ballot College Football Hall of Famer first ballot NFL Hall of Famer the thing about Leroy was he never talked about football he never talked about anything like it was always about life how can you be successful in life and that always stood out of it's not about yes football as a medium or Sports as a medium but it's so much more than that and so I was so excited when coach lebby and even during the interview process yes coach Levy wants to win on the field and he wants to pursue championships and wants our our guys to get bigger stronger faster beat the opposition uh but the most important thing for him in our program is how how can we develop young men how can we develop them to be better fathers how can we develop them to be better in their community and hopefully wherever they're coming from we can send them whether it's in Starfield Mississippi or life beyond that they're going to make an impact so when we talked about our dog program which is an acronym for developing a winning game plan it's just that it's everything that's off the field because we know at some point the ball will deflate and they've got to make a positive impact on wherever they're at in life so really Pleasant or really excited about where we're going with that program and want to thanks Gary green and Greg Knox and Jason Washington uh for leading that program for us everything from uh uh service to service trips to community service what we're doing around the state of Mississippi financial planning financial literacy um and then some of the the the life skills how to change a tire how to uh cook all those things that are are things that will be you know really help you set up for life and also with Career Development career placement um yes we hope every player goes plays professional goes to the Olympics but we know that's not the reality so if you don't do that how can we use your time here to cater a plan where you can go get the career or the job that you want and so that's one of the things I'm really excited about I know we've got a career fair growing up with our or coming up with our football team and I think we've got over 40 companies now signed up and one of the really cool things about half of those companies are either led by letter former players for us or have an employee of a former player so bridging that Gap and the connection is really special it shows how strong the bond is of Bulldog football players let's dive into that a little Welcome Home bit more you've made a concerted effort since your arrival to invite all former student athletes back regardless of what sport regardless what you know era they were a part of you want them to know that they're welcome home could you maybe share the importance and and why you've made such a consistent concerted effort in that yeah they're thanks for ask they're always welcome home this is home starold Mississippi is home and we're here because they were here we're you and I are here because of the great players the great coaches the great staff uh that that came before us you know you sit in Humphrey col and we're here because we've got we had players like Victoria uh that's pretty special you've got you know final four teams so we want to make sure that um each of our letterers know they're always welcome home home and how can we continue when we say we recruit a player uh how can you be a bulldog for life and one of the things that we'll always be passionate about is how can we stay connected with our players you know looking at Super Bulldog weekend last year it was so fun having over 150 letter winners come back and whether we go uh around the state of Mississippi or throughout the country to talk to so many letter winners and hear their stories and the passion that they have for Mississippi state is special um you know we had just over 50 total graduates this past semester and it was really cool that three of them were former players that had already exhausted their eligibility that came back so when we make decisions it's always about clearly we've got to do what's best interest of our student athletes and how we can how we can um continue to set them up for Success today but we'll never forget the great players and the reason why we're here and that's because of the players and coaches and staff that were here before Recruiting us the um excitement I can is evident right around Mississippi State we know how wonderful of a place it is but can you share more what you and coaches are sharing with prospective student athletes and their families um in that recruiting process what are we really showcasing of course we know all the wonderful things so what are some of those things that we're highlighting and showcasing in these conversations yeah I think it starts with the alignment that we have on campus and we've got the best college president in America and we've got somebody that continues to serve and and really put an emphasis and importance on College athletics so um perspective students and recruits love to hear that that we've got true alignment uh we always talk about if you send your your son or daughter here we're going to love them first we want what's best for them and we're also going to push them hard we're you know so many times it's it sounds cliche but it takes somebody that believes more in you than you sometimes believe in yourself and that's kind of the the perspective of each of our coaches have that we're going to utilize the tools and the resources we have have to push our student athletes beyond what they think they can do and um you also come here because you want to compete in the best conference in America you want to have the the cool uniforms you want to have the gear and the swag and you talk about all those things but the most important thing we talk about is you come to a campus that's beautiful a community that's safe a community where you can get a great education and you're going to have connection for the rest of your life and I think that really resonates with people um and we're we're just so EXC excited about the recruits that we have the momentum we have and excited about where we're going with it as well