Sept. 19, 2013
Quick Slant is an array of brief insights and occasionally opinionated overviews of collegiate athletics in general and the Vanderbilt Commodores in particular.
Vanderbilt’s director of licensing just gave school public affairs officials some interesting news regarding the increased sales volume of licensed Vanderbilt merchandise. For example:
- Overall royalties were up 11% this past fiscal year over the prior year.
- Vanderbilt has moved up to 58th out of the 160 in royalties among the schools that partner with Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), which is the gold standard in college athletic merchandising.
- Vanderbilt merchandise is doing well in a number of large retail chains, including a dozen Wal-Marts, Costco and Cracker Barrels, where VU sales revenue has nearly quintupled since 2010.
- Barnes & Noble at Vanderbilt, the school’s official bookstore, reports business is booming with its licensed sportswear.
- Coach James Franklin spent 90 minutes prior to the start of fall practice with merchandise experts from two major retail outlets, our CLC representative and Vanderbilt licensing officials exchanging ideas on how to make Vanderbilt merchandise easier to purchase. The CLC rep said in his many years representing a number of major universities he had never seen a sitting head coach take such an active role in such a discussion.
Record setting place-kicker Carey Spear is one of the finalists for “Outstanding Senior,” a homecoming honor voted upon by the student body.
Golfers out there can see some of the best collegiate golfers in the nation this weekend. Our women’s team is hosting our annual Mason Rudolph Invitational at the Vanderbilt Legends Club Friday through Sunday and across town at the Golf Club of Tennessee, the Nashville Sports Council is hosting the Dick’s Sporting Goods Collegiate Challenge Cup featuring top SEC and ACC men’s teams. ESPN cameras will record highlights for a future golf program.
Speaking of golf, our congratulations to former `Dore Jon Curran, who was just named the NGA Tour Golfer of the Year.
How tough is admission at Vanderbilt getting? There were 28,347 applicants for fall, 2012 and about 25% had perfect scores on the SAT.