Seven Days...

One Week...

Seven Days...

One Hundred & Sixty Eight Hours...

Ten Thousand & Eighty Minutes...

Six Hundred & Four Thousand Eight Hundred Seconds...

I Think you all know what this post is about, Big Blue is only ONE WEEK away from being the Capital One Mascot of the Year! After the EPIC journey through the SemiFINALs against the Oregon Duck and as I write this post, Big Blue is up against Paydirt Pete in the FINALS. 

It has been one heck of a journey for Big Blue in the past 14 weeks, and this week is the most important. Just seven days separate this fierce lion from being THE best mascot in the country. Last week was the most nerve racking yet; yes we had over 200,000 votes when we went up against Monte and that was WITH the Text-to-Vote option; but last week Big Blue fans put up over 750,000 votes! Each night as I was sending in my last votes for the day, Big Blue would have a reasonable lead of about five thousand votes, but each morning the Duck would have the lead once again. The first morning was 3K, second 13K, and the third, forth, and fifth Monarch fans had to make up over twenty thousand votes. Each morning we were able to make up the deficit within three or four hours, but on the sixth day of the round, Monarch nation was not able to regain the lead, holding at a 13K deficit for most of the day. Some may have given up hope, but later in the afternoon, Big Blue fans took advantage of the Oregon/Oregon State game, coming back from a 13K deficit within just a few hours, Big Blue was up more than 20K by nightfall. This left 24 hours until voting ended. Voters woke up to a 28K lead, and it only went up from there. On the eve of competition end, the votes were crawling because of the traffic on the Capital One site, but Monarch fans kept at it, coming out victorious on Monday morning defeating the Duck by almost sixty thousand votes!

Take a break from reading & VOTE!

Looking at my earlier post, we all know that the Capital One site was super slow, and sometimes we even thought that it was down for just Big Blue voters. According to Capital One it happened to all of the schools due to sheer traffic on the voting site. I am very appreciative of Capital One when handling this situation, with each email, sent in reply to a complaint, they assured that the site was dysfunctional for everyone and not just ODU. Frustrating I know, but the Monarchs were able to "SURVIVE the 404" and pull out a win despite the difficulties in voting. GO MONARCHS!

Big Blue could not have pulled out the win against the Duck without the help from his fans, Old Dominion University, radio stations, and the local media. On more than one occasion this past week, Big Blue fans crowded into the Webb Center of ODU to have a vote mob in order to rally votes for the Monarch Mascot. Each of the three major news stations was there to cover all of the action; two of those have footage posted online of Vote Mobs & Big Blue in the studio pushing for votes.  Big Blue & his fans could not thank them enough for getting him the exposure that helped him to pull off the win. Below are links to each of the videos:

WVEC Channel 13: Big Blue needs YOUR vote!, Vote Big Blue!

Wavy TV 10: Semi-Finals Video , Finals Video

Need another break from reading? VOTE HERE

This is it, the last week, the final time you are able to make a difference in the voting, the ONLY thing between Big Blue and the title. Voting has commenced for the Finals of the Capital One Mascot of the Year Challenge and Big Blue is in the finals against THE only other mascot who was able to remain undefeated, Paydirt Pete of UTEP.  We were never against Pete in the regular season, so this is a battle of the UNDEFEATED mascots (which is how the finals should be). There are similarities in the final mascots, the same undefeated record & both are from schools that not every recognizes, but one clear difference is the number of votes for each mascot during the challenge thus far. Paydirt Pete has just over one million votes (1,070,000) to Big Blue’s almost two million (1,830,000). This is a key difference, but do NOT let that fool you, because there is no ticker on the voting site for the finals. Just because you cannot see the vote totals, does NOT mean that Big Blue is winning, we have no idea of the totals. Our strategy this week is to vote as if Big Blue is losing!

So this week I ask that you vote as if Big Blue is in a deficit (as he was many times last week), so that we can guarantee as many votes for Big Blue as possible. VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! GO BIG BLUE, BEET PEET, BEAT PEAT, BETE PETE, BEAT PETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vote for Big Blue in the Finals

Big Blue Security Footage at Old Dominion University

404 Page Not Found

Alright Monarchs, we all know that the Capital One Site is giving YOU and only you the 404 Page Not Found screen when you try to vote, but what should you do about it? Well, here is a list...

• email capitalone @ mascots@capitalone.com (they know that we are having issues, but we need them to see how much Monarch nation is upset)
• write on the Capital One Mascot of the Year Challenge Facebook Page (perhaps a captcha, and they can count each of our posts as a vote??)
• KEEP TRYING TO VOTE...capitalonebowl.com

That's all we can do for now, and hope that they see how much of a fan base Big Blue has, and that we truly want him to be the CAPITAL ONE MASCOT OF THE YEAR!!!


PS. I am in no way bashing Capital One or the Challenge, I just want the voters who have been trying to vote all day to get their votes counted toward Big Blue. :)

And then there were 4…

VOTE BLUE

It’s on to week 2 of the finals for Big Blue, defeating Western Kentucky’s Big Red by just about 7,000 votes. The voting was closer than ever last week because of the NO text voting. Four more mascots were eliminated this morning as voting came to a close in the QuarterFINALS. Big Red, Brutus, Joe Vandal, and Monte were all benched after an exciting first round of the finals. >>vote<< In the final hours of the first round, Bearcat of Cincinnati came from about three thousand votes behind to defeat Monte and with a tight battle between Paydirt Pete and Joe Vandal, no one knew who was going to come out on top. >>vote<< Luckily Big Blue was able to come out strong and gain a lead within the first hours of the competition, not giving Big Red a chance to catch up.

SemiFINAL matchups:

(1) Big Blue vs. (5) The Duck

(2) Paydirt Pete vs. (6) Bearcat

BEAT THE DUCK!!!

This week in the SemiFINALS, Big Blue is once again up against ESPN’s favorite mascot, “Puddles” the Duck of Oregon. >>vote<< The last time Big Blue went against this bird he came out victorious by over 17,000 votes, but without the text vote option, could Puddles knock Big Blue out of the competition, and ruin his hopes to be the Capital One Mascot of the Year? You better hope not, otherwise you are going to have ONE ANGRY LION. 

GO BIG BLUE!

If you know what’s good for you, get to a computer and VOTE VOTE VOTE. Big Blue needs EVERY vote he can get this week in order to make it to the FINALS and can take on either Paydirt Pete or Bearcat. VOTE VOTE VOTE

Elimination Monday

Its official, Big Blue is #1! Well, in the regular season of the Capital One Mascot of the Year Challenge anyway. Big Blue received the number one seed for the playoffs in the contest with over ONE MILLION votes during the 12 weeks of the regular season! (that is an average of over 80,000 vote per week) Go MONARCHS!

Eight mascots were officially eliminated from the contest today as well. The Capital One Bowl website refers to these mascots as benched. The following mascots were “benched” and are no longer in the running to be the Mascot of the Year, Goldy of Minnesota (5-7), The Bird of USAFA (5-7), Smokey of Tennessee (4-8), Mike of LSU (4-8), Mr. C of Vanderbilt (4-8), Testudo of Maryland (2-10), Joe Bruin of UCLA (2-10), and Sebastian of Miami (1-11).

There are still eight mascots left in the running to be the Mascot of the Year. The quarterfinal matchups are as follows:

#1 Big Blue (12-0) vs. #8 Big Red (6-6)

#2 Paydirt Pete (12-0) vs. #7 Joe Vandal (6-6)

#3 Monte (9-3) vs. #6 Bearcat (7-5)

#4 Brutus (9-3) vs. #5 The Duck (8-4)

The playoffs for the Capital One Mascot of the Year only last three weeks and are single elimination, so anything can happen. There will be NO MORE TEXT VOTES during this time, so the only way to show your support for Big Blue is to VOTE early and VOTE often at capitalonebowl.com!

Week 12:

In the last week of regular season voting Big Blue was the Matchup of the Week against Mr. C of Vanderbilt.  Big Blue was able to sweep by Mr. C by over 45,000 votes. The 56,807 votes took Big Blue’s vote total OVER MILLION! Way to go Monarch fans, this is just what Big Blue needed to boost him into the finals.

QuarterFINALS:

Big Blue ALSO does pushups...
...like another mascot we all know.

Big Blue is up against Big Red of Western Kentucky once again. This past foe posed little threat to Big Blue in week 11 only putting up 21,000 votes to Big Blue’s 59,000. Without text voting in the finals, Big Red could give Big Blue his first loss of the competition and a crush his dreams of being the Mascot of the Year. As a Monarch, I WILL NOT let that happen, and NIETHER SHOULD YOU!

When voting online this week you should take into consideration which mascot Big Blue could be up against in the semifinals if he wins this week. There are several POWERHOUSE mascots still in the running to be Mascot of the Year. When you vote this week, you should also vote for Joe Vandal of Idaho and Bearcat of Cincinnati. This could make an easier trip to the Capital One Bowl for Big Blue if Paydirt Pete (the only other undefeated mascot) and Monte (the second place vote total mascot) are no longer in the running…just a thought.

And as always vote for Big Blue at capitalonebowl.com

Almost there...

Big Blue now has the same record as Auburn, the number 2 football team in the country, 11-0. Just one more week stands between Old Dominion and the playoffs. It looks as though Big Blue could go 12-0 through the regular season of the Capital One Bowl Mascot Challenge. 

As you can see Big Blue will have some FIERCE competition on his hands going into the playoffs, even more so because there will no longer be text voting. EVERYONE needs to set their homepage (kudos if you have already done that) to capitalonebowl.com in order to be a self reminder to vote anytime you log onto the internet.

Remember the goal of a million votes? Well, Big Blue fans surpassed the goal of 56,000 votes last week by getting just under 60,000. This means Big Blue only needs 52,600 votes this week in order to reach ONE MILLION! I know we can do it, so get your phones out and make this last week of regular season voting count!

Week 11:

Big Red lost out to Big Blue last week in the Capital One Mascot of the Year Challenge. This whimsical mascot tried his hardest to defeat the Monarch, but came up short with only 21,196 votes to Big Blue’s 59,797. This left Big Red with a record of 5-6 and still at the number 8 spot. Chances are that Big Blue will see this mascot again next week in the first round of the playoffs.

Week 12:

Big Blue’s second Matchup of the Week!!!! Though Mr. C is sitting at the #11 spot, he still posses a threat to Big Blue’s untarnished resume. With a record of 4-7, Mr. C does not have a winning record on his side, but with a HUGE win over #7 Joe Vandal in week 4 by ONLY 428 votes, Mr. C could sneak in a win over Big Blue. Let’s not let that happen, get to voting!!!

And as always, text 'bigblue' to 69866 or vote @ Capital One Bowl Mascot of the Year Challenge

New Goal: One Million Votes by FINALS!

Only two more weeks of regular season left for our furry friend, and as of now he is STILL undefeated. That is not the only goal that Big Blue has for his fans, he wants to get to one million votes by finals. One would think that a million is a LARGE number, but in all reality Big Blue is just 112,384 votes shy of his goal. With two weeks left he needs just over 56,000 each week, and I think that we can get him there! Keep the votes coming in for the Monarch, text ‘bigblue’ to 69866 or you can vote online at CapitalOneBowl.com.

In other Monarch news, the football team at Old Dominion guaranteed themselves another winning season in its short two year history. With a blowout over Savannah State, 57-9, the Monarchs will finish with at least six in the W column.

Week 10:

Well, as many can see, Big Blue earned his tenth matchup win last week verse Joe Bruin of UCLA. Joe Bruin did not have a chance against Big Blue’s voters even in day one. An hour after voting began Big Blue had over a thousand votes while Joe Bruin barely made it to one hundred. This was the story for the rest of the week, Monarch domination. The week ended with Big Blue on TOP once again with 52,047 votes to Joe Bruin’s 14,898.

Week 11:

This weeks Big Blue goes up against a foe with a similar name, Big Red of Western Kentucky. Though Big Red is not a Lion, Tiger, or Bear, he still has potential to put up a good fight against our proud Monarch. Big Red stands close to the playoffs with a 5-5 record and is the number 8 seed thus far in the Capital One Mascot of the Year Challenge. Big Red will be trying all he can to give Big Blue his first loss in order to make it to the playoffs. HELP Big Blue stay on TOP!

And as always, text 'bigblue' to 69866 or vote @ Capital One Bowl Mascot of the Year Challenge

Why I LOVE the M-O-N-A-R-C-H-S!!!

All I have to say this week is I LOVE MONARCH fans. This is what Big Blue had to say this morning after the polls closed against the Duck. “They can have the #1 football ranking, they can have the constant publicity, they can have the pretty uniforms....but they cannot have my fans. THANK YOU Monarch Nation for a victory over the Oregon Duck!!” That pretty much says it all; Big Blue was able to defeat the Duck in the Capital One Mascot of the Year Challenge. The Lion now stands 9-0 with over 800,000 votes. How many more weeks will it take to get to ONE MILLION?!

Big Blue can hurdle with his eyes closed!
Thanks to Pam Wilder for the photo!

The football Monarchs also won this past weekend bringing their record to 5-3. The battle of the HRBT was started this season, ODU going up against cross-tunnel rival Hampton University. The 15 mile trek to the Peninsula was well worth it for the Monarch special teams who had multiple blocked punts. Big Blue was trying to steal the show from the football Monarchs by doing some hurdles (pictured) as he said “the Duck may do push-ups, but does he do hurdles?” The final score of 28-14 gave something else for the Monarch nation to be proud of.

In other news, as of November 22, you will no longer be able to text in your vote for Big Blue. This will help to even the playing field for all mascots. Monarch fans should start now with the online voting in order to get enough practice in when you are no longer allowed to text. This is easy for me, because on Sunday while furiously texting in my votes for Big Blue, my phone shut off and had yet to turn back on. I will now be voting online in order to get myself prepared for playoffs.

Week 9:

Big Blue had his paws full last week as the Duck of Oregon tried to threaten the untarnished, undefeated record of the Monarch. Little doubt remained in the minds of Big Blue voters when the mascot was up by over 10,000 by Tuesday. This gave comfort to the ODU community. Oregon was only able to get within six thousand of Old Dominion this week and each time the voting was closer than ten thousand, the Monarch nation would have none of it. Voters were able to stop Oregon in its tracks each time they attempted a run. Big blue ended the week with over 170,000 votes defeating the Duck by 13,000.  Go BIG BLUE!

Look who I found at work!

Week 10:

UCLA is Old Dominion’s next opponent in the Capital One Mascot of the Year Challenge. Joe Bruin has not been the brightest star during the challenge this year with a record of 2-7, but as Monarch fans, we cannot count anyone as a win until 9am next Monday, so go and get your VOTE ON!

I’m taking strategy suggestions for the playoffs since they are online vote only!! Comment the blog with any ideas!

And as always, text 'bigblue' to 69866 or vote @ Capital One Bowl Mascot of the Year Challenge

GET BUCK, BEAT THE DUCK!

The only thing I saw this morning on my way into the office!

Homecoming was a great success at Old Dominion this year. Big Blue brought Norfolk yet another win, making him undefeated with 8 in the W column. The football Monarchs were also able to defeat the Panthers of Georgia State, bringing their record back over .500 (4-3).

In other good news, Big Blue took over the number #1 spot overall once again, having the best record (tied with Paydirt Pete) and the most votes overall, now leading Monte by just over 4,000.

Big Blue's preparation
 for this week's match-up!

Week 8:
Big Blue had no issues last week in defeating Smokey of Tennessee, though Smokey was shaping up to be a difficult opponent in the weeks leading up to last week’s match-up. Big Blue started off strong and ended even stronger. The Monarch mascot ended with 54,122 votes to Smokey’s 17,330.

Week 9:

This week’s match-up is looking to prove who the BEST MASCOT really is, or at least who has the BEST FANS (ODU of COARSE!). The Duck of Oregon is coming into this week with a record of 6-2 and a total vote count of over 500,000. This battle is much anticipated and Big Blue has been preparing himself all weekend. Blue released a statement for his fans in order for them to get BUCK about this week’s contest against the DUCK. One line from his address to the Monarch Nation  says “Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened.” Monarch fans should take this statement into consideration each time they vote so that they know what is at stake in this EPIC battle. When asked about the Duck, Big Blue said that he wants to dethrone him as the face of ESPN and become the new ‘hottest’ mascot around.

Now, as a Monarch fan, Big Blue wants you to get BUCK, and BEAT THE DUCK!

Crowd Surfing at the Homecoming Game!

And as always, text 'bigblue' to 69866 or vote @ CapitalOneBowl Mascot of the Year Challenge

Win #7...IN A ROW

A peek inside Big Blue's Campaign Headquarters

Its official, Big Blue is 7-0, and still tied in record with Paydirt Pete, but unfortunately is no longer holding the total vote lead. Don’t worry ODU is still number one, with more votes than UTEP. Monte of Montana was in a heated match-up last week against the Duck of Oregon bringing both of their voting totals to over 150,000. This brought Monte to an overall lead that is just over 7,000 more than Big Blue. Though Monte took our vote lead, he gave the Duck another loss, bringing them both to a record of 5-2. Big Blue goes up against the Duck next week, so with Monte giving the Duck another loss, Big Blue will have more of an advantage.  

Homecoming:

This week Old Dominion is partaking in homecoming festivities including a FOOTBALL game on Saturday. The Monarchs will be up against future CAA competitor Georgia State. The Panthers are a first year start up, joining the CAA in 2012, and I know that the Monarchs are excited play a future foe. Saturday also plays host to the annual Blue/White Scrimmage game between the Men’s Basketball team. Big Blue will be at each of these events and judging for his Monarch pride, I know he cannot wait for this weekend.

Old Dominion is also playing host to a big homecoming concert on Thursday. Ke$ha, 3OH!3, and Hellogoodbye will be performing on the campus of Old Dominion, and tickets are just $15 for students and $25 for the general public. Shall I pose a question? Will they be in support of Big Blue and his quest to being the Capital One Mascot of the Year? You can help make that happen by posting on your twitter and facebook, tagging those artists, letting them know that Big Blue needs their votes.

Big Blue's Sticker Campaign for VOTES

Ke$ha: facebook, twitter

3OH!3: facebook , twitter

Hellogoodbye: facebook, twitter

Week 7:

With just 65,962 votes Big Blue was able to defeat the Bearcat of Cincinnati. The Bearcat only accumulated 26,334 votes making this win just another mark in the W column. Monarch fans have proven that it doesn’t take a tough competitor to get high vote totals, they just like voting! Big Blue’s followers vote in class, while doing homework, during workouts, and even in their sleep…wait a minute, BIG BLUE’S fans DON’T SLEEP, THEY VOTE!!!

Week 8:

Smokey of the University of Tennessee could pose a threat to Big Blue’s undefeated record, being able to put up big numbers late in the match-up with just 3,000 more students than ODU. Smokey started off the competition strong with a win against Miami, but had a win taken away in week two (vs the Duck) because of voting suspicions. Tennessee would have been 3-0 going into week 4, but because of this they were 2-1, and are currently 4-3. So VOTE NOW & VOTE OFTEN!

And as always, text 'bigblue' to 69866 or vote @ CapitalOne Bowl Mascot of the Year Challenge

6-0

Coming out of fall break for Old Dominion, Big Blue brought the campus his 6^th victory in a row in the Capital One Mascot of the Year Challenge, over Minnesota’s Goldy. Bringing him to the prized 6 & 0! There is only one other mascot still undefeated, and that is UTEP’s Paydirt Pete, but in the votes, Big Blue is the clear #1, with over a HALF A MILLION votes, to UTEP’s 275,000.

Big Blue’s spirit took center stage at the home football game this past weekend, sporting a Lady GaGa outfit during the marching band’s tribute to the Pop Star. Big Blue emerged during the halftime show sporting wrestling uniform (that mimics the leotard that GaGa sported in one of her videos) and Lion sized Ray Ban sunglasses made out of a cardboard box. It was CLASSIC & unanticipated, but what else would you expect from the proud Monarch?

Week 6:

Big Blue was able to dig a hole that the gopher of Minnesota could not dig his way out of in week 6. Big Blue had a total of 56,362 compared to Goldy’s 23,901. Taking the Monarchs vote totals to 544,747 and helping him to remain in the number one spot for another week!

Week 7:

This week Big Blue is up against the Bearcat of Cincinnati, who is the reigning Mascot of the Year. Our Lion was able to defeat two time champion Monte with a tight race up until the end, but does Blue have a voters to bring him another Champion defeat? Well, so far this week Big Blue has 32,000 votes to the Bearcat’s 10,000. So the Monarch fans of Old Dominion are already speaking out for Big Blue trying to get votes above and beyond what is needed, just to stay in the total vote lead! Rock-on Big Blue fans.

This week Big Blue needs to get some strategies going in order to take on the Mascots he has ahead of him. We need to make sure that going into the second half of the regular season Big Blue is able to remain on top. In the match-ups in the current week, Monarch fans need to vote against future foes in order to cause lower rankings and higher loss totals for Big Blue’s opponents. This means voting against Tennessee, Oregon, UCLA, WKU, and Vanderbilt, in order to give Big Blue the advantage he needs to be the Capital One Mascot of the Year.

And as always, text 'bigblue' to 69866 or vote @ CapitalOne Bowl Mascot of the Year Challenge

The Road to Half-A-Mill…

Old Dominion once again brought home two Monarch wins. Big Blue was able to defeat Testudo of UMD and bring his undefeated record to 5 and 0! The football Monarchs earned their first home win of the season against Boiling Springs, North Carolina’s Gardner-Webb. In the defensive struggle, Old Dominion came out with a 14-7 win over the Runnin’ Bulldogs. With a stand out performance from punter Jonathan Plisco, he was able to earn the Punter of the Week title from College Football Performance Awards, with a 47.2 punt average for the game.

Just like every week, at 9am the votes were counted from the week before, and the new standings are posted. For the 5th week in a row, our guy, Big Blue stands atop the leader board with 488,385 votes. But wait, what’s this? Big Blue is only 11, 615 votes away from HALF A MILLION total votes?!? Fans of the mascot have rallied to get Big Blue to almost 500,000 votes in just 5 weeks. Looking at Big Blue’s facebook page, his goal for this week is to get those votes to half a million, which means he needs YOUR votes!

Before I could even post this blog, the fans of the Lion went on a voting streak, and have surpassed the half a million mark! That’s right, as of 10:30am this morning, Big Blue has 18,662 votes! That means that Big Blue has over 505,000 votes! GO BIG BLUE & your dedicated fans!

Week 5:

Last week gave way to victory once again for the Monarch. Big Blue was able to pull off an easy win for Old Dominion against UMD’s Testudo. With a vote total of 66,243 to Testudo’s 15,153, this may have seen like an easy win, but Big Blue did not want to take any chances with over confidence. Big Blue is that much closer to bringing Norfolk its first ever Capital One Mascot of the Year title by going 5-0. To make it even sweeter, its Big Blue’s first year in the competition AND his first year of eligibility.

Week 6:

Goldy of Minnesota is up against Big Blue in week 6. With a 3-2 record, does Goldy pose a threat to the Lion? I’m thinking that Big Blue has more than a good chance of defeating this oversized rodent. Minnesota only has a vote total of 83,536 and is in ninth place of the sixteen mascots, so with Big Blue’s giant totals, the gopher may not be able to dig himself out of this hole!

And as always, text 'bigblue' to 69866 or vote @ CapitalOne Bowl Mascot of the Year Challenge

Creative use of a Whiteboard...

After being selected to represent Big Blue & Old Dominion for this contest, I did a little bit of research on how Big Blue was promoting himself for the Capital One Bowl Mascot of the Year Challenge. I found that he has been using videos (which are very creative), flyers around campus, posters & a flag at football games, and the unlikely dorm room whiteboard.

Big Blue and his team have created a few great videos to get the campus of ODU to vote. He was able to use locations such as the Ted Constant Convocation Center to the Student Recreation Center on campus. All of these videos are located on Big Blue’s facebook fan page as well as a couple on his youtube page. I would like to think that the videos have helped him to receive many of his votes for the Capital One Bowl Mascot Challenge.

The one thing that was not first on my mind when it came to getting votes in for Big Blue was entering into the dorms of Old Dominion. But then again, you can expect Big Blue to do ANYTHING to get votes. Turns out Big Blue is soliciting ODU silly bands in exchange for a decorated white board that promotes voting for the MONARCH LION. This is brilliant, because really, who DOESN’T have a white board on the door of their dorm. Overnight pictures were uploaded to Blue’s facebook in response. I’d like to take the credit, but this was all Big Blue’s idea.

So far I’d say that Big Blue’s ideas for promotion have worked well considering his vote totals in the first 4 weeks, and even three days into this week against Testudo. So far Big Blue has accumulated 31,000 votes for the week. He is definitely ahead of the turtle, but not in the lead for total votes this week. Montana, OSU, Oregon, and UTEP are giving Big Blue a run for his money for the lead vote-getter this week, but this should not pose a problem seeing that Blue already has over 420,000 votes in the first four weeks. So open your browser to capitalonebowl.com & VOTE BIG BLUE!!!!

And as always, text 'bigblue' to 69866 or vote @ CapitalOne Bowl Mascot of the Year Challenge

B-I-G B-L-U-E, that’s how ODU spells V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!!!

The Monarchs brought home wins in football as well as the Capital One Bowl Mascot of the Year Challenge.

The football Monarchs were able to bring home a win against Monmouth on Saturday. This game had some significance to it, Monmouth being the ONLY team to defeat them on Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium last season. The 35-21 victory for the Monarchs was record setting for QB Thomas DeMarco, with over 400 passing yards. The Monarchs continue play this Saturday at home vs. Gardner-Webb, if you are a Monarch fan, help to cheer them onto VICTORY!

Week 4:

At 9:00 this morning Big Blue was again victorious bringing his win count to 4! This past week, Big Blue faced many doubters because of the student body size at Ohio State and Brutus’ 3-0 record thus far in the competition. Even with the articles promoting sympathy votes for Brutus, Monarch fans were able to triumph over the Big Ten school, with 131,558 votes to Brutus’ 113,682, bringing Blue’s total votes to over 400,000! I’m sure that these totals are making Big Blue proud to be a Monarch!

Week 5:

Going into week five, Big Blue is up against Testudo of the University of Maryland. The turtle is 0-4 so far in the competition with only 45,000 votes total during matchups. As Big Blue’s fans wake up to a new voting week, we should not take into account UMD’s record, but concentrate on bringing ODU another win. Now come on Big Blue fans, GET YOUR VOTE ON!!!

Only 8 more weeks of regular voting left, and then it’s on to the finals, but in order for Big Blue to make it, he needs YOU<<<<<<

And as always, text 'bigblue' to 69866 or vote @ CapitalOne Bowl Mascot of the Year Challenge

Who Needs Sympathy????

The battle is on between Big Blue and Brutus. Week 4: ODU vs. OSU

Yesterday afternoon, the Capital One Mascot of the Year Competition facebook page posted an article that was written about Ohio State’s Brutus and the ‘beating’ that he received from inter-state rival Ohio University’s ‘Rufus.’ The article seen here <--, is telling fans that Brutus deserves the sympathy votes because of the abuse received during the rival game last weekend. There was instant reaction from all Big Blue fans on facebook, including myself. Though the reaction would not have been immense if Big Blue was not against Brutus this week , his fans did not adapt well to the article.

Comments such as my own, ‘Sympathy? That’s Lame. Just vote for Big Blue,’ or those of Big Blue fan Erin McCants ‘really? brutus needs sympathy to get votes... how lame! BIG BLUE gets votes on his own!!!,’ even Big Blue supporter Jamie Stewart said ‘at least big blue doesn't need sympathy votes... GO BIG BLUE!’  show how involved/devoted Blue’s fans really are.

Many of Big Blue’s fans just want the name of Old Dominion on the map. With only 24,000 enrolled students to Ohio State’s 63,000, fans of the Monarchs are proud to be in the lead over Brutus without any sympathy votes.

As a representative of Big Blue, and Old Dominion, I am not saying that what Rufus did was a condonable offense, but as a fan of Big Blue (and full supporter of him winning the Capital One Mascot of the Year Challenge) I do not think Brutus needs sympathy votes for a public showing of affection from a rivaling neighbor.

This weekend looks to be a challenge to Big Blue and his fans, but with YOUR vote for him, he can and will become victorious!!!

And as always, text 'bigblue' to 69866 or vote @ Capital One Bowl Mascot of the Year 

Here we go...

Alright, its official. I was selected to represent Big Blue for the Female Blogger contest for a chance to travel to Orlando in January for the CapitalOne Bowl, where they will announce the CapitalOne Mascot of the Year. If and when Big Blue is voted as the Mascot of the Year, I will be joining him in Orlando to be announced for his title. As of now, I will be pumping up Big Blue's name in hopes that YOU will vote for him. So I have one question for you, Are YOU into the BLUE?


I will be posting 2-3 times a week with updates on Big Blue's progress!


We are in week four of competition, and I will give a run down of the weeks prior to this. 


Week One:
In the first week of competition Big Blue faced another big cat, Mike the Tiger of LSU. We were not sure how big this contest was going to be, but the Monarchs of ODU showed off how much they supported their mascot.  We came out with a win in the first week, and had the lead in votes. Big Blue was able to beat Mike the Tiger, 34, 282 to 13,771, showing the nation how BLUE we are!


Week Two:  
We were up against the United State Air Force Academy. You would think that they had PT or something, but they shaped up to be much more of a competition than the week previous. The voting got heated, but Blue prevailed taking home his second win with 65, 076 to Air Force's 23,382. Good Job Monarchs! Tennessee's Smokey came close to Big Blue's vote total, by just 550! Giving Big Blue 99,050 to Smokey's 98,500!


Week Three: 
Match-up of the Week! 
Last week Big Blue was up against two time Mascot of the Year, Monte of Montana. Big Blue came out to a 23,000 vote lead in just two days, but Monte would not be stopped getting as close to Big Blue as he could with only 3,000 votes separating them. Big Blue would not accept a loss! When he felt threatened he pulled out all of the stops and went into the football game Saturday sporting his Capital One Mascot jersey asking everyone to text/vote for Big Blue. Old Dominion came together at the game and brought home a win in week 3. With record breaking votes, Big Blue stormed pasted Monte with 234,715 votes to Montana's 205,622! When the results were posted on Monday morning Big Blue was in the lead being undefeated 3-0 with over 300,000 total votes! Go BIG BLUE!


Week Four:
Up Against Brutus...the Buckeye (which by the way is a nut). So far in day three of competition, Big Blue has come out with close to a 20,000 vote lead. Hopefully He can bring the Nut to a stop this week. ODU does not have a home football game, but Brutus does. Will that pose a threat to our voting?! I DON'T THINK SO! Keep those votes coming in for BIG BLUE!


And as always, text 'bigblue' to 69866 or vote @ captialonebowl.com

<disclaimer: this is the first blog that I have written, just let me get used to it before you judge :) >