STARKVILLE — It started out with a joke, a hope of continued success on the field and the diamond for Mississippi State, and continued as a story-telling event.

Bulldogs athletic director Zac Selmon, three-quarters through his first year in Starkville, addressed members of Starkville’s Rotary Club at Georgia Blue on Monday afternoon, talking about the past, present and future of MSU athletics.

“We all, at some point in our lives, think about purpose. What’s our mission, what’s our just cause?,” Selmon said. “For me, it’s college athletics simply because of the intersection of higher education and sport, what it can do for people, not just individuals, but communities. … It doesn’t matter where you’re at, you can continue to make an impact on young people in college sports.”

Selmon, formerly at Oklahoma before taking the AD position in January, has witnessed plenty of success from Bulldogs athletics during his time on campus.

That has been highlighted by the success of women’s and men’s basketball, who both made the NCAA tournament in March.

He’s also overseen numerous coaching changes, most notably the hire of MSU’s new pitching coach for baseball, Justin Parker and new women’s tennis head coach Chris Hooshyar.

Just as he’s in his first year, there are a number of first-year head coaches, including football head coach Zach Arnett, and Selmon’s plan of attack in Starkville has been multi-tiered and multi-faceted.

“We want to make sure that we’re constantly having fun,” Selmon said. “… We want to win. We definitely want to win, but when you talk about winning, you talk about a winning input. Every day, how can you get better. We want to make sure that we’re winning in everything that we do.”

Selmon outlined the pillars of success through ‘STATE’, not just part of the name of the university, but an acronym designed to address the needs of the student-athlete, coaches and all those working within the athletics department.

NIL at Mississippi State

Among other things discussed included the new age of college sports, with a new meaning to the transfer portal and name, image and likeness (NIL) that has transformed how collegiate athletic programs now operate.

“[NIL] is the number one equalizer for what we’re going to have to do to compete, to make sure that we have a robust NIL program,” Selmon said. “We’ve made a lot of progress in the last nine months, but we still have a long ways to go.”

Selmon touched upon “The Bulldog Initiative,” the Mississippi State NIL collective the athletics department recently partnered with in late August to better promote players, the university and the greater Starkville area.

The importance of local businesses and people supporting the movement, knowing how much NIL has grown in recent years, has been a big thing for him and the department as a whole.

“These are the rules of the game for right now,” Selmon said. “We’re going to have to be really aggressive, so all of the businesses that have “The Bulldog Initiative” stickers, that’s huge for us. … Hopefully, everyone is bringing a friend to our games and showcasing that to recruits. We’re not just recruiting kids against community colleges. We’re recruiting against other SEC teams.”

Selmon stressed continued fan support, something he’s seen first-hand at other events around campus.

“We can’t thank people enough for how kind they were to our family and the beauty of Starkville, the beauty of Mississippi State,” Selmon said. “The perception of Starkville, Mississippi doesn’t always meet reality. It’s been unbelievable for us.”