geewago said:
I guess everybody has forgotten/didn't know/didn't care that Baylor used to have a billboard advertising BU WBB on 35 in Austin almost within eye shot of the Irwin Center. I'd go down there to watch a game and hit 35 N to come home and there she'd be, bold and beautiful. I didn't think that was really necessary but then again any one can advertise anywhere they want. But I suspect the Longhorn fans thought differently about it. But when a Baton Rouge advertising firm puts one of their signs here, well whoa buddy, we is offended. If you don't like your competition beat them. That's what we used to do. Remember? When you're coming into Waco on N35 right before you get to the John Deere dealer my friend Jason Hahn who owns the CaseIH dealership here has his big sign up advertising his red tractors. Have you ever noticed that?
Austin, one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the nation, with 2.2 million people, and growing by tens of thousands of people every month, is a key recruiting hub for Baylor. From a marketing standpoint, if you have the funds then it would be foolish for Baylor not to purchase a billboard there.
Waco is also growing rapidly and is in a key location. But with only around 200K people, the ROI for a university like LSU, with the funds available to place a billboard anywhere, to place one of those in Waco likely comes at a loss. Even the 2-3 days of mild social media outrage (read: "No press is bad press") from a VERY small slice of the populace (WBB fans) would be a drop in the bucket for the ROI if the second billboard was placed in Austin or Houston.
Look, I am one of those crazy people who believe that multiple things can be true at the same time:
Kim Mulkey is one of the greatest coaches of any sport to ever coach the game.
Kim Mulkey did wonders for Baylor and it could be argued that ALL our athletic success after 2005 can be attributed directly to her.
Kim Mulkey is a loving mom, grandmother, and friend. She has been a positive force for good for many young women over the years.
ALSO, she is everything Fredbear said in the post above, and there are some young women who have NOT been served well, and she could have done better by them.
Kim Mulkey and Baylor had irreconcilable differences, and they are both in better places without each other. (Unless you reduce "better" to perpetual success on the court, which is a mirage.)
AND, the placing of the billboard in Waco, to anyone not wearing blinders, serves only one purpose: To extend a grudge further than it needs to be extended.