Rotarians learn how the national championship win has impacted MSU

On Monday, the Starkville Rotary Club heard from their own. Sid Salter, the Director of Public Affairs at Mississippi State University, spoke about the impact the baseball College World Series win has had on the school.

The local Rotarians have heard about the effects the championship had on the athletic department and what it takes from them, but this presentation was different in the sense that Salter laid out what kind of national coverage MSU gained in the time period and how it has impacted MSU.

During the College World Series run, MSU gained what is worth $143.36 million in media exposure from television to social media. Baseball is number five in NCAA sports revenue, falling behind football, men’s basketball, men’s ice hockey, and women’s basketball, according to Business Insider.

Television exposure is calculated by taking the cost of a 30 second national network television ad, which is on average $150 thousand. With 60 minutes in an hour and college baseball games lasting about three hours, that equates to 120 half a minute ads, but each school gets half the exposure and it comes out to an even 60 per school an hour.

“Let’s also assume that a third of that time goes to actual TV merchandising of beer and cars and websites. That leaves 40 minutes per hour or $4.6 million in benefits per hour to each school or $13.8 million per game,” Salter said. “Mississippi State played seven games in the College World Series at $13.8 million a game. The national TV exposure for the live broadcast of the seven games

was an eye popping $96.6 million on ESPN alone. The SEC network also provided nightly postgame and then the championship series pregame coverage. The value of that coverage plus rebroadcast of the championship game on that network gave us about $27 million worth of exposure. Good Morning America is my favorite part of earned media with $1.5 million from 13 minutes of airtime thanks to Robin Roberts and her cowbell.”

However, exposure does not stop and start with television, other combined digital and traditional media that has a digital component brought in $18.26 million. With the total TV value at $125.1 million, the total media exposure can be priced at $143.36 million. This doesn’t even cover what the win did for fundraising for MSU or enrollment.

“We can’t release our enrollment numbers until November because of the College Board edict, but I think you’ll be pleased with the results,” Salter joked.

Contrary to what many believe, the first thing many people associate Mississippi State University with is not Dak Prescott, though alumni and fans are proud of him all the same. When paired with MSU in Google, Dak’s name only has 2.2 million hits. The number one search result when it comes to the university is “College World Series winners 2021” with 568 million hits followed by “MSU and Family” with 159 million hits.

The national championship win not only helped the school, but it boosted morale for MSU alumni, fans, current students, and even general Mississippi residents.

“The most important thing is the next morning, that coffee tasted a little bit better, and when you saw your neighbors at church, particularly ones from other universities, you just felt friendlier,” Salter said. “You wanted to go out and talk to people. Winning that championship and getting that monkey off of our collective backs was an amazing thing, because it made a difference in how our students, faculty, staff, and alumni felt about themselves. We’re just a little bit prouder to be a bulldog, just a little bit prouder to be a part of this institution.”

While MSU is home to the 2021 College World Series champions, it boasts many other achievements that have national recognition. From being the national lead university for the Federal Aviation Administration’s Center for Excellence for unmanned aircraft systems to the NFL relying on MSU alum Allen Sills for medical advice and to many other great accomplishments across the schools at MSU, the university is known for more than just being good at baseball or being a “cow college.”

Starkville Rotary Club will meet again next Monday, October 4 at the Hilton Garden iinn from 11:45 a.m. to 1 o.m. or on Zoom. They will hear from George Brooks, assistant coach for MSU’S men’s basketball team.