OTH Column: PR Crisis Lessons from Another Bona Hoops Fiasco

(Editor’s note: The following op-ed piece appeared in the March 26, 2024 editions of the Olean Times Herald and The Bradford Era. Read the original article here.)

By Kelsey Boudin
Special to the Olean Times Herald

Public relations can sometimes be a cushy job. Not easy, mind you, but generally stable. Write a fluff piece here, hype up an event there and then hop on a podcast interview. 

But when PR crises arise, they test the skills and backbone of any professional communicator. 

The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team’s obscure refusal of a potential NIT bid became an avoidable PR crisis. A series of communications oversights snowballed into an unwelcome ongoing narrative that bleeds beyond campus to cast a shadow yet again on the program. What can PR professionals learn?

OTH readers might recall my coverage of numerous PR crises in our communities as a former reporter and city editor for the Olean Times Herald. Today, I use those insider media insights at my business to inform PR strategies for client organizations. 

Leaving the expert sports commentary to former OTH colleagues, the handling of this communications issue shows us the sheer difficulty of navigating PR crises. The athletic department and university failed to control – or even guide – the narrative from the start. 

Several public relations lessons developed before our eyes:

• Timing is everything. 
• Semi-honest answers draw community scorn. 
• Followers easily see through padding blame and deflection.

This Bona hoops situation shows us that public relations battles sometimes can’t be won. They can be avoided. They can be de-escalated. But we often can’t unring that bell. 

Yet PR is a necessary function of any organization’s communications strategy, whether you’re a small business or a mid-major conference athletics department – which itself is a business that makes its men’s basketball coach one of the area’s wealthiest individuals.   

It’s not just sports. It’s not just a game. It’s news. Let’s examine the community optics. 

FIRST, THE TIMING issue. At several key moments, the SBU athletic department left community minds and, worse, social media accounts to spiral. First, the Bona faithful waited some 16 hours for an explanation why their team – whose postseason hopes hung on generosity and a prayer – would refuse a chance to extend its season. Why turn down such a gift? Turns out, the team may have pre-emptively opted out, but just enough evidence came out (and didn’t come out) for reasonable skepticism.

In public relations, it’s common before releasing a statement to wait for all the facts, or at least enough to present a credible, cohesive story. In this case, the SBU athletic department knew. It just didn’t know it would be an issue – until it was absolutely forced to explain it. If it weren’t for an ESPN graphic, they thought, it would’ve never seen the light of day. 

Valuable lesson: in news media, EVERYTHING leaks … eventually. 

Waiting to provide an answer gave the impression that the team or athletic department had something to hide. It inadvertently swept saying “no, thanks” to the NIT under the rug. Ask a longtime season-ticket holder how that tastes when they’re asked to renew.

Then the athletic director “resigned” Friday night, leaving the narrative to fester once again on social media until the next morning. But the official press release Saturday was no better than a brief series of platitudes for solid staffing choices and such.  

Admittedly, it’s sometimes best to say nothing or very little, to let the story run its course and fade away after a few news cycles. But PR pros must never assume they’re smarter than fans and news consumers, despite short attention spans and average intelligence. 

That’s exactly what Bona did, though. Now this story won’t settle until after the 2024 NIT champ is crowned. Then it’ll poke its head when a new AD is chosen, when the new season begins, and likely every time the Bonnies sniff an NCAA or NIT bid for the next 10 years.

That’s a dramatic lack of foresight given the monumental stage of the college basketball postseason. Millions of eyes watch every play, every move, every administrative decision. 

NEXT, HONESTY IS THE best policy, right? Well, “selective honesty,” that is to PR professionals who must present the facts in the best possible light. As Bonaventure’s delayed NIT release told us, a host of reasons allegedly prevented the team from continuing its season: the prospect of road games, injuries and players entering the transfer portal.

Each of them held elements of truth. 

Yes, the team would have to travel to away games. But Bona fans’ memories aren’t so short as to not remember road games just two years ago en route to a heroic NIT Final Four run. 

Yes, some players were injured. But how many players in the postseason now are pushing sprained ankles and stress fractures to the limit for a shot at glory? 

Yes, a handful of players entered the transfer portal. But what’s preventing them from finishing the season? With a mutual agreement to continue playing, a strong performance only bodes well for their future prospects elsewhere.

From a PR standpoint, these truths were likely the best the athletic department had in its arsenal. They came across as poor excuses. Sometimes there’s no right answer – no silver bullet to make it go away. 

A day after the initial release, the actual reason was even more damning.

WHAT ELSE CAN BE done, short of appropriately assigning blame? Of course, the university, AD and coaching staff would deflect attention from the student-athletes themselves. That’s a common PR move. Sports journalists who regularly cover the team connected the dots anyway. It’s easy to infer some team members didn’t care to go any further. 

The unintended resulting image? A hush-hush athletic department that won’t proactively address the reality of players overly empowered by NIL. SBU men’s basketball – a treasured D1 program in an area that doesn’t often afford nice things – should be prepared to acknowledge the players’ decisions as the adults they are. Fans and donors now bankroll a player-centric world of virtually limitless opportunity. 

The PR lessons here are wide-ranging. In a roundabout way, comms professionals can thank this team for so frequently providing case studies on what not to do. 

(Kelsey Boudin, a former Olean Times Herald city editor, is president and founder of the communications consulting firm Grand River Agency. He can be reached at ke****@**************cy.org.)

Kelsey Boudin

President and Founder, Grand River Agency
With over 19 years of diverse experience in print journalism, digital media marketing, and nonprofit administration, Kelsey Boudin founded Grand River Agency (formerly Southern Tier Communications Strategies) in 2020. The agency specializes in offering contract-based strategic communications, content marketing, grant proposals, website design, and public relations services to small businesses and nonprofits. Kelsey’s career spans roles as an editor, content creator, and grant writer, reflecting his expertise in leading successful digital marketing campaigns, securing funding, and executing various projects.

kelseyboudin.me