Making LSU a National Brand

Not saying LSU is not a national brand, but I honestly think are things we can and should do to help put LSU on par with USC, Texas, and Notre Dame. Obviously wouldn't be easy as every school out there is trying to optimize there brand, but these are things that I think would help immediately and are realistic, (not say 'win championship in every sport, every year' or 'hire Saban back')

#1: Drop JJ and hire a grand slam head MBB coach. I think we will have to severally over pay(4 mil), but its easier and better to overpay a basketball coach than a football coach IMO, the returns come in faster and the average MBB coaches pay is less that football so there is some room for us to exploit that.

#2: Slightly expand our regional scope to include the eastern seaboard. We currently try to market in Texas, and the Southeast. I think we should expand our targets into Virginia and DC area to give ourselves exposure to the #8, 27, and 44 largest markets in the US. Do a blitz on this by playing in a neutral site football, trying to get into a start of the year basketball invitational in this area within the same year. Additionally, get Olympic and non big three sports to play in these areas as well.

#3 Create a single brand between the University and Athletics. Currently the two kind of do their own thing and they do them poorly (i.e. Toonces, every single university commercial ever, terrible licensed merchandise sold on campus, outsourcing the athletics Sports Shop apparel to a third party.) Hire a consulting firm if they don't have confidence in themselves, but they must get all of their different public touch points to be cohesive and consistent.

What ideas does the Rant have that they think would help the overall LSU Brand quality and recognition?