The Significance of Success

The Beavs have had a rough time of recruiting this year, but if OSU continues to play as well as they have through these first several games, then you have to believe that will turn the heads of some recruits. Nothing breeds success like success and if OSU can pull in more talent, it will add depth and hopefully even some top level players will join.

This is an obvious point, but the more important point is continuing to perform this well with the rebrand coming. The Beavs have never really been respected, although there was some name recognition after 2008/2009, but with the downtrend OSU had been forgotten again. This season has brought back some notoriety, but keeping it up will have a bigger impact with the rebrand; take our feathery rivals to the south for example.

Oregon had been good with some better years over the last decade, but once Nike gave them the new uniforms and Chip Kelly arrived their program really took off. Suddenly there were ranked and people were talking how well they were playing, plus they were talking about the uniforms, and then UO had become a name that everyone had heard of. You'll have to excuse me mentioning the success of the Ducks, but their case is the most obvious.

OSU is suddenly primed for a year of success in all the major sports, the football team is on fire, the basketball team has the potential to be very good even without Jared Cunningham, and the baseball team has enough returning players to make a run for Omaha as well. This is a big year for all of OSU athletics, the athletics teams all need to perform, and the department needs to deliver with the rebrand. It can't just be a subtle change that will be unnoticeable. It needs to be one that will last as well. The OS symbol has been okay, but I do believe that Oregon State University should be represented with OSU.

OSU needs to take advantage of the rebrand and turn that momentum into becoming more well-known across the nation. The example of a school that failed to use their redesign is Maryland. They had their ridiculous helmet based on the state flag, but notoriety is notoriety. Their recruiting has not improved by much, although it seemed to be fairly strong before the change. They failed to capitalize on that momentum though, where they went 2-10 that season. They currently sit on the top of the ACC Atlantic division, but they have received no votes for the top 25 and the ACC is rather poorly regarded this year.

Oregon State needs to take advantage of this one moment, because another chance like this will not be coming for some time. And missing the opportunity could push the next chance off even further. The best part is that the football team could be even better next year, so the opportunity is absolutely there. The chance exists, all the Beavs need to do now is take advantage of the situation.

Go Beavs!