Mizzou billboard blitzing the Southeast

quote:

---

the SEC’s newest member has placed two billboards near the city of Atlanta. Another is just outside Valdosta, Georgia, not far from the Florida state line. They’ve put them up in Birmingham, Dallas, Jacksonville, Memphis, and Tampa, too. In all there are sixteen billboards, including the eight out-of-staters mentioned.

---

quote:

---

Tiger football coach Gary Pinkel tells The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that there’s a reason nearly a quarter of the new signs are in the state of Georgia:



“It’s to market Missouri. We’ll be in Georgia recruiting. We’ve got great respect for the high school football in Georgia, especially in the Atlanta area. We’re just marketing our brand name a little bit. We’re going to get there and actively recruit … and we’re excited about it…

We’ve done a complete analysis of players that sign with BCS schools out of Georgia, and certainly out of the Atlanta area. The size and production of SEC and BCS is parallel to the Metroplex area in Dallas. The numbers out of Atlanta and Dallas are nearly identical. Both have great high school football.

What you do is go down there and figure out how many players from Georgia stay in the SEC and stay in the ACC, and how many leave the state and go elsewhere to play. We’ve got data on these kinds of things. And, if anything, it’s about identifying good players and selling Missouri.

We want to go down there with a good reputation of winning football games and graduating our athletes. It’s about marketing and developing trust … and slowly and slowly working ourselves into Georgia. We’re excited about doing that.”

---