By James Littlejohn
When Bronco Mendenhall stated that this year”s slogan was “Raise the Bar,” I was on board. Raising the bar means elevating the level of play in all things, except limbo-where the opposite is true. If the bar continues to rise, Brigham Young football will be back to where it was in the glory days of the 20th century. If there is one thing that all Cougar fans can agree on, it”s that we won”t get there without slogans. The more, the better. The best organizations of our time have slogans to match, like the Army (Be All That You Can Be) or Taco Bell (Think Outside the Bun).
Even though I was wholly satisfied with the slogan “Raise the Bar,” I couldn”t help but think that if we had more slogans this season, things would inevitably go better. When I found out that Bronco was attaching more slogans to the campaign, I met their addition with unusual enthusiasm. While the smart money for a new slogan was on something like “I pity the fool who scheduled us,” Bronco surprised us all with “Band of Brothers” and “Fully Invested.” Apparently, “Full Investment” requires one to purchase a T-shirt; something University Communications and Cougar Mail have reminded us through spam.
This has presented an important ethical dilemma: Can a fan be fully invested without being fully vested in the T? Another interesting business question that could be discussed later is: Can a fan fully invest while still maintaining a diverse portfolio to offset the volatile economy? With regards to the T-shirt issue, we must ask if full investment is a commitment that goes deeper than someone”s pocketbook. Conventional wisdom would say that you couldn”t just buy the qualities that come along with full investment, such as commitment, loyalty and dedication. However, if there is one thing we know about college sports, it”s that every once in a while you can buy things you technically aren”t supposed to be able to (watch the movie “Blue Chips” or talk to Chris Webber).
Buying a “Fully Invested” T-shirt is the only way to be fully invested because without the shirt one cannot truly believe in/support the slogan and without the slogan-we have nothing. As true fans we want to send a message; the slogan talks and so does money.
While BYU already has fallen short of this season”s expectations in heart-breaking fashion, I for one have hope-a hope in a slogan, a shirt and a certain credit card that can get me “Fully Invested” status. “There are a lot of things money can”t buy, for everything else, there”s MasterCard.”
