SBJ College: Mack Rhoades On Path To Remaking Baylor

It was a little soggy at Augusta National today, but even an inch of rain can't spoil a day at the Masters. 

What am I looking at tonight? A comeback for Baylor and one final look at the Phil character from the ubiquitous AT&T-NCAA ads. Here’s what is cooking on campus:

RHOADES LEADING A BAYLOR RESURGENCE

Mack Rhoades celebrates Baylor's basketball title with school president Linda Livingstone

• I had completely written off Baylor in the wake of the school's scandals around the football program. I figured the Bears were destined to be a Big 12 doormat, at least in the major sports. The 2016 investigation into the school’s handling of sexual assault cases had brought national shame, the kind you don’t easily recover from.
  
  
• Watching Baylor win the NCAA women’s basketball championship Sunday night reminded me what a resurgence AD Mack Rhoades has orchestrated. For basketball, that's a title for women’s hoops and a tourney appearance for the men. In football, Rhoades said of going 7-6 after a 1-11 record two seasons ago, "Felt like we’d made the CFP. After everything that’s happened, it felt like we turned a corner.”
  
  
• Talking to Rhoades in Tampa at the Women’s Final Four, it’s clear that he came to Waco in the summer of 2016 to get the Bears back to the basics -- focus on the athletes, hire good people and provide resources. He’s made 130 hires in the athletic department in nearly three years, while managing to keep his football coach, Matt Rhule, from leaping to another position.
  
  
• Through the university’s ups and downs, the women's hoops program under coach Kim Mulkey has been the cornerstone,  winning 30+ games for nine straight years. “When we’ve needed it, they’ve been that ray of sunshine,” Rhoades said. “It’s always a bright spot for us. It’s a special program.”
  
  

TAKEAWAYS FROM TAMPA

• This year was my first trip to the Women’s Final Four. Here are some of my takeaways:
  
  
  • Many NCAA corporate partners are missing out. This is an active, vibrant crowd whose demo skews toward female, families and seniors. Plenty of mother-daughter and father-daughter combos at the fan fest and games, just not the numbers you see at the men’s event. AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola were the corporate champions that owned Tampa’s Riverwalk, while Geico had a nice presence at the fan fest. The rest were noticeably absent.
    
    
  • Talked to several fans on the way into Amalie Arena. They like the "team game" that the women play and prefer the more intimate setting of an arena over a stadium. Interestingly, many aren't interested in having the women's and men’s Final Four in the same city because they think the women’s event would get lost.
    
    
  • There’s a strong energy around the women’s game. Even the best players tend to stay four years and stay out of trouble (mostly). The women's game also has reached a clear point where they’re not trying to be like the men. Instead, they’re celebrating their own unique brand of basketball. All in all, it was a refreshing change from the largesse of the men’s Final Four.
    
    
• I also did a podcast in Tampa with NCAA VP/Women’s Basketball Lynn Holzman, who said women's hoops is in a "great place."
  
  

CAVALIER ATTITUDE FOR WILLIAMS

• Watching Virginia cut down the nets last night made me think about AD Carla Williams, who we profiled in SBJ in the fall. When the Wahoos made unfortunate history last year by being the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16, Williams stood outside the locker room and greeted the slumping UVA players as they walked by. She was just five months into the AD job at the time and gained a lot of new fans internally with her empathetic and soothing reaction.
  
  
• That reaction by Williams was something that didn’t go unnoticed by UVA stakeholders who were still getting to know her. A year later, Williams is establishing herself as a quiet yet thoughtful leader at the helm of an emerging program with elite basketball and a football squad coming off a bowl win.
  
  

A FOND FAREWELL FOR PHIL FROM AT&T ADS

AT&T used actor Tim Baltz from Second City to portray the character of Phil in NCAA ads

• If you’ve seen any of the NCAA Tournament, you either think AT&T’s clueless sportscaster, Phil, is goofy and funny -- or just plain goofy. I talked to several people on both sides of that debate. What’s certain is that you couldn’t miss Phil during March Madness. He was the most integrated commercial character I’ve seen, especially when a CBS or Turner studio host would pitch it over to Phil as if he were actually part of the crew.
  
  
• I reached out to AT&T, and Director of Corporate Communications Jon Greer came back with a few nuggets. Phil is played by Tim Baltz, a “Second City” improv actor. On the creative, it was an Omnicom team of BBDO, Critical Mass and Hearts & Science, which did the work as part of AT&T's larger “OK is not OK” messaging. Finally, don't expect to see more of Phil, as last night's title game marked the end of the NCAA-themed effort.
  
  
• According to data from ad measurement firm iSpot.tv, the AT&T wireless spots easily had the biggest presence among brands. There were 17 separate creative spots for AT&T over 282 airings. That led to an estimated ad spend of $68 million for the brand. No other brand hit double digits on unique creative like that. In terms of estimated ad spend over the duration of the NCAA Tournament, Buick was No. 2 at $42.5 million, and the car brand had only two unique spots over 137 airings. Geico had a $36.4 million spend at No. 3, with five unique spots leading to 183 airings.
  
  

THIS WEEK IN SBJ

• John Ourand and I broke the news on Endeavor closing in on a deal to buy On Location Experiences, the high-end hospitality firm partly owned by the NFL.

• DAZN's John Skipper and Disney's Justin Connolly on whether there is a limit to the number of streaming services to which viewers will subscribe.

SPEED READS 

• It was an open secret Pitt would return to its retro blue-and-gold color scheme, but the Post-Gazette’s Adam Bittner took a good look at why this was a critical move for both AD Heather Lyke and Nike. The school needed to write a “new chapter," and a fresh Panther logo and colors “literally puts a fresh face on something old that’s new again.” The new marks and designs are easily Lyke's biggest move at the school since taking over in 2017.
  
  
• Should Florida State be worried about the state of the football program in Year 2 under Willie Taggart? Saturday's spring game, played under clear skies, saw 27,901 turn out at Doak Campbell Stadium, which is a "huge dip" from last year’s record crowd of 60,934. Fans may be taking a wait-and-see approach with this year's team after the 2018 Seminoles missed a bowl game for the first time in 37 years. But maybe things aren't all that bad -- FSU drew 36,500 for the spring game after winning the national title in 2014.

• $50,000 -- Minimum donation to Hayward Field renovations needed to be considered top priority for Oregon track & field’s new season-ticket system, according the school’s plans once the facility is renovated for the 2020 season. That’s a steep price for the 1,300 seats in the lower bowl near the finish line at the historic track, which will soon seat over 12,000. Overall, OU will have five priority groups for season tickets.
  
  
• 12 -- Number of FBS schools at which Fanatics handles retail for the primary on-campus store. This comes after Michael Rubin's e-commerce giant signed a deal with Oklahoma. In addition to the school partners, Fanatics also handles retail for the CFP National Championship, Army-Navy game and Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville.
  

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ Media with John Ourand on Mondays and Wednesdays for insights into all the latest news around the world of sports media.

Something on the College Beat catch your eye? A unique sponsor activation or fan engagement? A cool photo? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (msmith@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessdaily.com) and we'll share the best ones. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).