This isn't much in the way of a "trade", but the press release is certainly brilliant and something we should expect from the athletic department that brings us Stanford's wonderfully deranged marching band.
STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford’s social media lineup saw a shakeup over the weekend as the nation’s most successful athletic department traded its Twitter handle, @SUAthletics, to the Syracuse University Athletics. The trade is believed to be the first blockbuster trade in college athletics. To complete the trade, Syracuse will send a collection of local goods to be named later but also including one case of oranges, which Stanford intends to use in refilling its 2011 Orange Bowl trophy.
The roster move was necessitated after its new handle, @GoStanford, emerged as a two-sport star both as a hash tag (#gostanford) and Twitter handle. The emergence follows a long-line of two-sport stars on The Farm from John Elway (football, baseball), John Lynch (football, baseball), Kristin Folkl (basketball, volleyball), Lindsey Yamasaki (basketball, volleyball), Toby Gerhart (football, baseball), Dena Dey (soccer, track), Tracye Lawyer (soccer, track), Wopamo Osaisai (football, track) and Toi Cook (football, baseball).
“Obviously we’re thrilled to activate @GoStanford as our official Twitter handle and pull off this dynamic trade,” said Bernard Muir, The Jaquish & Kenninger Director of Athletics at Stanford. “From a branding standpoint, this trade makes sense for both schools. We held both accounts – the social media equivalent to having two starting quarterbacks, and we wanted to derive as much value fun as possible. We expect great things from our new starter, @GoStanford, and wish @SUAthletics good luck in a new home.”
