Georgia Bulldog Billboards in Atlanta: Overkill or Necessity?
The Georgia Bulldog Nation is getting boost from Atlanta area billboards. Is it necessary?
Recent: Georgia Football National Champions That Could have Been
Atlanta area Bulldogs and travelers to Athens Town are stopping traffic to point with pride at and snap photos of Georgia football billboards, drawing horn toots and disparaging waves from the uninitiated and non-baptized.
— Richard Gnann (@DawnDawgHoops) August 14, 2015
Do not apologize, Dawg Nation. We run this state and if we want to take a moment – or three – to admire the latest flaunts of the Bulldog Kingdom, we jolly well will.
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But does the Bulldog brand need this boost? Doesn’t everyone know about the Dawgs?
“We’re proud to be one of the most powerful brands in college athletics, and want to effectively tell our story,” said Senior Associate Athletic Director Andy Platt to Georgidogs.com. “As part of our new multi-media campaign, we want to have a strong digital presence in Atlanta and give fans and alumni a great sense of pride as they approach Athens.”
The Dawgs better have a strong presence. Schools including Clemson and Auburn have littered the Atlanta byways with billboards for some time now. And with so much of the college athletic world recruiting elite talent from the Atlanta area, the Bulldogs can leave nothing to chance when promoting the great in-state program in Athens.
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The battling billboard campaigns are not just about athletics. The overall grade point average of entering freshman at the University of Georgia is 3.91 and the average SAT score is 1301. Just five years ago, those figures were 3.83 and 1264, respectively.
With the University of Georgia academic entrance requirements soaring, colleges within driving distance are promoting successful athletic teams to attract to their campuses the sons and daughters of Georgia that may fall just below the ridiculously high SAT and GPA cutoffs .
It’s hard to be a Bulldog, and instead of taking the junior college or transfer route, schools in neighboring states would like nothing more than to pick off the second tier of Georgia’s best and brightest. With Georgia increasingly competing with upper tier academic institutions nationally, the Dawg Nation is fighting back by reminding young people and their families in the Atlanta area, “How sweet it is” to be a Georgia Bulldog not just on a Saturday night, but Monday through Sunday through Friday as well.