The School That Holds the Record for First-Day License-Plate Sales in Texas Is...Ole Miss?
Richard Connelly | March 12, 2012 | 6:01am
MyPlates.com, the private company that offers Texans vanity plates of all types, sells a lot of school plates.
Plates for the University of South Carolina just went on sale (and no, you can't get COCKLUVR even if you're a rabid Gamecock fan).
They've been doing it for a while now, and have compiled a list of the ten schools who had the biggest first-day plate sales.
And the winner is...Texas? A&M? No, it's Ole Miss. Followed by, of course, Mississippi State and the University of Kansas.
Kim Miller Drummond of MyPlates says it's not entirely surprising that UT and A&M aren't on the company's list.
"UT and A&M plates were all kind of soft-launchy because they had plates in the previous plate program with TxDMV," she tells Hair Balls. "A lot of their fans who would have been chompin' to get a plate had the old versions, so many have just converted over time and even more fans have bought for the first time through us because our designs are so different and get a lot of attention. 'First-day' was not a big marketing push for those schools, really. "
MyPlates considers how strong a school's marketing push will be before making a plate.
"We look at who's organized (re licensing, marketing, etc.) and who has a passionate following, which isn't always the biggest school or org," she say by e-mail. "Like, look at Kilgore. Not a huge school, but those high-kickers are serious when it comes to supporting their alma mater."
UT and A&M are the company's biggest sellers among schools, with the Longhorns selling more than 3,200 and the Aggies 1,400.
UT's white-colored plates are on the top 10 list, as are the San Antonio Spurs (which isn't really a school, but comes under the category), but that's it for Texas:
1. University of Mississippi: 182 plates sold on first day 2. Mississippi State University: 127 3. University of Kansas: 117 4. Kilgore College Rangerettes: 116 5. Oklahoma State University: 110 6. Brigham Young University: 106 7. Texas Longhorns White: 99 8. San Antonio Spurs: 98 9. Michigan State University: 95 10. University of Notre Dame: 68
The Gamecocks, by the way, sold 28 plates on their first day. None of them with COCKS on it.