Another exciting Mascot Madness tournament is complete that set out to find New York’s favorite college mascot. Through tens of thousands of votes and hundreds of thousands of web visits, the people have spoken, and for the first time ever, we have a repeat champion! Baxter Bearcat of Binghamton University has reclaimed the crown he won last year in a nailbiter of a final against Red the Dragon of SUNY Oneonta.
The 6 day final round saw consistently changing leads in a back and forth contest between the two mascots. Upstart mascot Red the Dragon managed to engage more followers and voters via the Twitter bonus votes, but it wasn’t enough to overtake Baxter. After verifying the incoming votes, the final numbers read as:
Baxter: 6,706 online votes + 790 bonus votes = 7,496 total votes
Red: 5,891 online votes + 919 bonus votes = 6,810 total votes
A 5% difference was all it took to capture the title.
Chancellor Zimpher, when learning of the final vote totals proudly stated, “Congratulations to Baxter Bearcat and Binghamton University. I want to congratulate you, your students, and Bearcats everywhere on the undeniable pride you all exude for the color green. This win represents a truly impressive collective effort. Thank you for your participation in what is becoming a real SUNY tradition.”
Our two mascots fought a spirited campaign across their campuses and New York State via their social media presence.
Baxter made it to the final round of Mascot Madness! Vote now: http://t.co/M2y0Zz2yKj. Tweet button for bonus points. pic.twitter.com/0QJM0qO1rd
— BinghamtonUniversity (@binghamtonu) April 6, 2015
Help Red become the @SUNY #MascotMadness CHAMPION! Vote once every 24 hours at http://t.co/bE2NX1h6XK #TeamRedDragon pic.twitter.com/4tpPrGTUET — SUNY Oneonta (@SUNY_Oneonta) April 4, 2015
A great competition by all mascots brought pride, engagement, and all around fun to all of our participants. We learned some interesting facts about our mascots through their interviews and we saw our campus communities rally behind their representatives in great, creative ways.
Thank you mascots! You prove why SUNY is the State University for New York.
Tournament Recap:
We thank the over 175,000 people who visited blog.suny.edu and cast the 55,000 votes throughout the competition. You can recap the entire tournament via the links below:
- Round 1 – The opening round saw 40 SUNY Mascots open the competition.
- Round 2 – The Sweet 16 saw out finalists begin to claim their territory by cruising to victory.
- Round 3 – The Elite 8 narrowed down the field with four close contests.
- Final Four – The final was decided as Binghamton battled New Paltz and Oneonta took on Farmingdale State
- Finals! – The deciding round, with Twitter bonus votes in play, went down to the wire.
He’s really cute!