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SALT LAKE CITY — Crunch the numbers, do the due diligence, break it down and the empirical evidence tells the tale: BYU head football coach Bronco Mendenhall's decision to change the name on the back of players' jerseys to "Spirit," "Tradition," or "Honor" received overwhelmingly bad reviews on social media.
Within hours of Mendenhall surprising players, fans and administrators with what has now been coined "Jerseygate," the negative responses were overwhelming.
According to Nuvi [pdf], a social media analytics company that reports various trending topics in the social media world — primarily Twitter and Facebook, the people were in agreement in their displeasure. At peak involvement, Nuvi's report classified 90% of responses as negative or neutral. This tweet from the enigmatic @LostTacoVendor and the accompanying great response from the BYU Bookstore were indicative of the low opinion of the jersey decision from BYU fans and observers alike.
Be careful what you wish for, @losttacovendor. — BYU Bookstore (@BYUBookstore) August 9, 2013
Only 10% of responses were determined to be positive, although Nuvi CEO Dave Oldham wouldn't consider any of them to be "ringing" endorsements of the jersey change. The most positive mention came from former BYU linebacker Brandon Ogletree:
If/when BYU goes 13-0, everyone will be rocking Tradition, Spirit, & Honor jerseys. Like Al Davis used to say: "Just win, baby." — Brandon Ogletree (@Ogletree44) August 9, 2013
Major media outlets @MSN and @Deadspin picked up the story for their combined 629,000 followers.
"On social media, one person tweets," said Oldham, "then their 100 followers tweet, then those 100 followers tweet, and it just explodes really quickly."
As negative as the initial reaction was for "Jerseygate," Mendenhall quickly put out the fire. Within hours of making the announcement, Mendenhall tweeted:
Talked to my team tonite. They want to wear tradition spirit honor on jerseys for homecoming only. Last names for rest of the year. PERFECT! — Coach Mendenhall (@BYU_Football) August 9, 2013
Hours after igniting a social media firestorm, Mendenhall's tweet caused a reversal in the online reaction, with just 10% of mentions being negative. Oldham pointed out that most of those remaining negative comments were from profiles that identified themselves as University of Utah fans.
"The best response is, typically, owning it and admitting that something was wrong, or that you made a mistake," said Oldham.
On Saturday, Mendenhall addressed the media after the team's football scrimmage with smiles, laughs, and some tongue-in-cheek Twitter advice:
Bronco was funny, self-deprecating in rehashing jerseygate; "if any of you are interested in more Twitter followers, it's a good strategy." — Greg Wrubell (@gregwrubell) August 10, 2013
> Bronco:"I called quick team meeting, asked if they liked 'TSH'--no hands went up. Asked 'em if they wanted their names, every hand went up." > > — Greg Wrubell (@gregwrubell) [August 10, 2013](https://twitter.com/gregwrubell/statuses/366268522231369728)
> Bronco: "I said whoa, It looks like I've gotta stand in front of some people and say 'I made a poor choice,' so that's what I'm doing." > > — Greg Wrubell (@gregwrubell) [August 10, 2013](https://twitter.com/gregwrubell/statuses/366269043428171776)
Said Oldham, "I think the way that he responded was as good as you can handle it from a social media perspective."
