Mike the Tiger is currently in the midst of an off-the-ground battle with his fellow mascots.
As part of its annual college football bowl, Capital One hosts an online Mascot Challenge to gauge each school’s pride. The current format includes 16 mascots from schools across the country. Each week, two mascots face off against each other to see who collects the most votes.
Mike the Tiger is currently 11th in the rankings with four losses and two wins. Although Mike doesn’t always face up against the same team as the Fighting Tiger football team, he was matched up against South Carolina’s mascot — Cocky — last week. Mike lost by a large margin, only garnering about 20 percent of the vote.
Allison Filbert, marketing graduate assistant for the Athletics Department, said the voting numbers have been disappointing up to this point, but she is hopeful about the rest of the year. This week, Mike is matched up against the University of Missouri’s mascot, Truman the Tiger. Truman held a slight lead with 52 percent of the vote Wednesday evening. He currently has four wins and two losses.
Once the Mascot Challenge’s regular season ends Nov. 26, the top eight mascots will compete in a bracket-style, single-elimination competition to determine the Capital One Mascot Challenge champion. Fans can vote at the bowl’s website, Facebook and on Twitter. Fans are only able to vote once a day using social media, but they can vote an unlimited number of times using Capital One’s website.
But the competition isn’t simply about glory and bragging rights. The winning mascot will be flown to the bowl game and receive $20,000 to help fund its school’s mascot program, according to a news release. James Lowder, Captain of Team Mike, said the money would allow the program to purchase new costumes for the mascot and a changing area for the mascot.
“Mike stays in his costume when he is on the field and then doesn’t really have a place to take a break or get changed,” Lowder said. “It would be nice to get some kind of room that would allow the mascot to change and relax in the stadium. It could be a cat house of sorts.”
Lowder said the extra money could also help provide scholarships for those who don the Mike costume.
This isn’t the first year Mike has participated in the competition, but he has never won the championship. Lowder said universities in smaller towns tend to win the competition.
As part of the competition, Filbert said she came up with a Napoleon-Dynamite-like costume to promote Mike. She also created a campaign with the saying “Like father, like Tiger Son” to promote the competition.
“The whole campaign is based around Mike doing [football coach] Les [Miles] things,” Filbert said.
Trevor Williamson, business management junior, said he is particularly fond of when Mike dresses up like Miles.
“There is a lot of time and effort put into those costumes,” Williamson sad. “They resemble what Les actually wears pretty well.”
Mike the Tiger dances in front of the student section during LSU's game against South Carolina on October 13, 2012. LSU won 23-21.
