Why I'm Transferring To Syracuse: Not The Weather

Whether it be for the newspaper, my blog, script, class, or even a 140 character tweet, I write a lot.  Often I write quick witted, humorous works, while at other times I write on more serious topics and think out what I'm going to write.

What I'm about to write is something I've quite literally been writing in my head for months. Since September to be exact. Needless to say it's going to be quite lengthy and if you don't want to read it all I don't blame you.  If you're tagged you're probably mentioned by name somewhere so if you just want to find your part and read that's fine with me. However I'd be sure to read the following paragraph or so first before you go name hunting.

The decision I finalized Saturday afternoon was absolutely one of the hardest decisions I've made in my young life, and it is one that will shape me for the rest of it. There were a million factors ranging from things as concrete as finances to as intangible as relationships and emotions.  There were people pulling me in two directions while at the same time, I knew that either way I decided to go that I would be OK, and would eventually get where I want to be.

I'll elaborate on all this in a moment but first let me get straight to the decision itself:

I have decided to transfer and will be attending Syracuse University starting in the Fall of 2010.

This hasn't been a complete secret and a lot of people around me know, although I know to some of you this might be a surprise.  However for those who did know and those who didn't, the logical first question is why?

Anybody that knows me knows that I am ambitious and that I am competitive. I enjoy a challenge and want to be surrounded by and be put up against the best.  With that in mind I came to MTSU from South Carolina because it was, and still is, the best in the nation, if not the world, when it comes to the Recording Industry. 

Thanks to Steven Mizell (who I will talk much more about later in the "thank you" section of this small book) I got into sports talk radio by hanging out on "The Lowedown" with Richard Lowe (also to be thanked profusely later).

I fell in love with it and 6 weeks into my Freshman year, the ever living battle in my life of sports and music was finally over: sports won.  I changed my major officially in December and continued on with my life.

The thought of transferring obviously put forth immediately when I decided to change my major.  I came here for a specific reason and that reason was no longer valid, however I decided that I had a lot going for me and the experience I was getting was too good to pass up.

Fast-forward to September 5th, 2009.  MTSU's first football game of the season at Clemson.  I was on the field for the opening kick-off which CJ Spiller returned for a touchdown for the Tigers and I couldn't believe the atmosphere as 75,000 people were screaming and I quite literally couldn't here what Curtis was saying to me as he stood 3 feet away.

As we walked back up to the press box we talked about how much we wanted an atmosphere like this. This wasn't even a sellout for Clemson and the atmosphere was unbelievable.  I wanted that. And I wanted it badly.

I talked to my parents (who were at the game) at halftime and told them how I felt and they said that if I wanted to explore transferring that it was up to me.  I started looking at schools as soon as I got back to Murfreesboro.

From the start there was one place I had in mind for obvious reasons. 

Syracuse is widely considered to be the best broadcast journalism school in the country.  It's also back on the east coast and only 4 hours from a lot of my family.

I've said all along I want to wind up as a final destination in one of three places with my career: Bristol, CT (ESPN Headquarters, New York City, or Los Angeles.  While LA is obviously about as far from Syracuse as you can get in the US, the other two locations are within a few hours and the networking is built in when you become a Syracuse student.

Not only does Syracuse have an unmatched pedigree when it comes to producing elite sports broadcasters but their alumni network is also tops in the field. 

Having a pedigree means nothing if you can't live up to the expectations and don't have the talent of your predecessors, however if half of upper management at most of the places you want to work for came from a particular school, having a degree from said school is certainly a positive.

Also, getting back to my initial itch of wanting to go to a bigger athletic school, Syracuse packs 30,000+ into the Carrier Dome for basketball games. That is something I absolutely cannot wait for.

After telling people this, the next logical question I get was, "yeah, but you've got so much going for you hear, don't you not wanna lose that?"

Well ideally yes, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices.  I have been able to do a lot here, and there are often days I wake up going "did yesterday really happen?"  Whether it be meeting one of my childhood heros in Jay Williams, talking to a guy who I think is one of the best in our field in Ryen Russillo, or even the high I was on for nearly a week after the Lady Raiders won their Sun Belt title, the memories I've had at MT aren't going anywhere.

The problem is that the road hasn't exactly been an easy one when it comes to actually dealing with Middle Tennessee State University.  I've had to fight to get into classes I've been kept out of because of administrative errors.  I'm now fighting to keep my scholarship because the dean of my department is a Grade A prick, and decided midway through the semester that my volunteer hours spent doing student media weren't good enough anymore.

There has also been the struggle with student media itself.  Whether it be a fight over a time slot where I felt completely disregarded and disrespected or having to cancel TV shows after putting in hours upon hours of work simply because people wouldn't show up to work crew, things haven't been as rosy as they may seem from the outside.

I know that at Syracuse everything will not be perfect because that is life, but it will be better.  I've seen too many of my friends get screwed over by the EMC department, some of whom had to stay past their scheduled graduation date because of incompetent advising to even think of letting that happen to me.  Also a lack of participation in student media will never happen in a place where everyone is trying to do as much as possible to be their best.

Also the lack of games that student media is involved with really really bothered me.  Although I am the "go-to" sports guy in student media, until last week I had never called a game in my life.  Why?

Because management at MTTV didn't make sports a priority.  We could have done upwards of 10 basketball games this year and instead we did 0.  The people who needed to pursue it didn't and the people that would have gotten that experience suffered.  I'm not necessarily faulting anyone at MTTV, I'm simply saying that it's not a priority and I need to be somewhere where it is. 

Also Nelligan sports has exclusive rights to the radio broadcasts of all games, meaning that if I had stayed at MT I would never have gotten to call a basketball game (or any other game) on radio.  At Syracuse, every game has a student media call.  No fault of any person at MT, just a different world up there.

With all of these things in mind, yet still knowing all the positive I had going for me at MT, I took a trip in October to Syracuse and while the trip didn't start off with the things I wanted to hear, it certainly ended well.  I instantly fell in love with the campus at Syracuse.

One of my biggest gripes about MT is that it's not a college town.  Everything is commercialized, there are no good, cheap spots that are locally owned that everyone goes to.  Sure there is Around the Way Dog and Sir Pizza on Main St but they have nothing on Cosmo's and The Varsity and all of Marshall St. at Syracuse.

By the end of that weekend, as I literally nearly fell asleep in a financial aid meeting, I had a strong gut feeling about what I was going to do, and that was to be wearing Syracuse Orange in the Fall of 2010.

This became more complicated as I came back and became immersed in Middle Tennessee basketball.  In part 2 (the thank you's) I'll go more into this, but getting to know the players and coaches and feeling like a part of that family made me want to stay.  I also got to spend more time with the people that meant a lot to me here and the decision all of a sudden became difficult again. 

I talked about it to various people, including the incompetent Grade A prick that heads the EMC department, Dr. Oneal.  (This was before he and I had our disagreement about the scholarship hours). 

I walked into his office and said: "Convince me to stay."  In essence his answer was "go."  A lot of other people pulled me to stay for various reasons and my thanks goes to them far more than it does to anyone who didn't question me and just said "go."  If they honestly felt that they, and wanted to challenge me, whatever they're reasoning, I have the utmost respect for them and thank them for giving me their opinion.

However after all the lobbying, there was only one person who's decision it was, and that was mine.  I had a lot of input and a lot of things to consider but at the end of the day, the positive of Syracuse outweighed the positive of MTSU.

While none of my friends here are replaceable, I'll keep in touch with those that I want to, and those that want to keep in touch with me will.  At the same time I'll meet a whole new group of people and experience life in a whole new part of the country and try not to freeze my ass off.

It is a classic case of being content and staying put vs going for it and wanting more.  I know that at MTSU I'm doing really well, but I fear that I have peaked.  That nothing that I do is going to top what I'm doing now.  Yes I'd continue to learn and get better but because of the monetary limitations of being at a state school in a state with no money, there are just certain things that I would never get to do.

Instead I'm going to take the leap with the hope of not just being good but being great.  There is a great risk that I will just become another really good Syracuse kid, however the chance to be great and standout even amongst the best is something I couldn't turn down.  If you stay put your whole life because you have a fear of failure you'll never get anywhere.

Instead I use my fear of failure as a driving force to succeed.

This explanation has turned out to be even longer than I imagined so instead of continuing here with the immense amount of thank you's I'd like to give, I'll instead start a new note and do them there.  If you've read this far, thanks and if anyone has any questions you are more than welcome to ask.  I will answer them honestly and as best I can.

Thanks to all who have supported me through this whole process and I hope you'll continue to support me as I move forward and move north.