July 1st, 2013 – a date that will forever be remembered in the hearts of college sports fans. It was the day that changed the NCAA forever. Never before has a trade taken place at the college level. This blockbuster deal broke barriers in college sports and opened up schools around the country to new opportunities.
It was the day that Stanford University and Syracuse University agreed to a deal unlike any other. According to the Stanford Athletics website, “to complete the trade, Syracuse will send a collection of local goods to be named later but also including one case of oranges, which Stanford intends to use in refilling its 2011 Orange Bowl trophy.” So what will Stanford receive in exchange for these prized oranges and other goods? Perhaps the most important thing to young people nationwide – a new Twitter handle.
Late Sunday night, Stanford and Syracuse reached a deal surrounding Stanford’s old Twitter handle, @SUAthletics. This trade occurred shortly after the creation of Stanford’s new handle, @GoStanford. Monday morning, the Twittersphere was full of tweets from both universities surrounding the deal. However, the new question that arises for Syracuse fans is which handle will serve as the school’s first string and which will warm the bench? Syracuse Athletics already uses the Twitter handle @Cuse.
So which Twitter handle will lead the school into the arena of social media?
Syracuse shows no sign of pulling their starter, who has already put up outstanding numbers in its career. With almost 30,000 followers, the well-season @Cuse handle will remain the prominent handle for the school. However, the school couldn’t let the recent free agent handle go to a competitor, so having a good backup in development is definitely a good move.
Until Syracuse can find a role for the newly acquired handle, the rookie will work on increasing its numbers to maybe one day make it into the lead role. However, until then, Syracuse fans should still look to @Cuse for any important athletic information.
Do you think this was a good social media marketing technique by the universities? Or was this all just fun and games? Share your thoughts. Comment below!
I found this trade to be very interesting, as well as entertaining. At first I thought it was just a silly social stunt, but then I realized it was a genius branding move. Both Stanford and Syracuse are gaining a ton of positive publicity from this trade, what could be better? Here’s my take on the Twitter trade