VCU news

By Leila Ugincius

Virginia Commonwealth University lost its first Facebook Face-off challenge to George Mason University in a contest rivaling the most thrilling on-court action of both universities’ CAA basketball teams.

Fans were on the edge of their seats as Mason rallied from an early 2,000-fan deficit to come within 15 fans of VCU in the final moments of the challenge. In the end, however, VCU couldn’t hold onto its lead, and Mason won by an agonizingly small margin of 87 new fans.

Both schools came out winners on Facebook, though, where they each more than doubled their original fan bases. VCU gained 14,409 new fans, bringing its total to 25,126 fans. Mason’s 14,496 new fans brought its total to 22,870.

The contest tipped off at noon on Jan. 19 and ended at noon today, Feb. 9. The results were announced tonight during halftime at the VCU-GMU men’s basketball game at the Patriot Center.

The idea sprung from a similar challenge between LSU and Texas A&M, who, at the time, had the two largest Facebook pages.

“The way the VCU fans came together for this contest was amazing,” said Tammy Berwanger, a project manager in the VCU Department of Marketing. “Their school spirit brought our total Facebook page fan number to 25,126, making VCU the second largest university fan page in Virginia. We were so happy that George Mason agreed to participate in this contest. The friendly competition between our fan pages complemented our basketball rivalry nicely.”

As a thank-you to all the new fans who participated in the contest, VCU Marketing plans to hold a random drawing for five fans to win prize packs. And even though the contest is over, it’s not too late to get connected with VCU on Facebook. Go to http://www.facebook.com/VCUnews#!/virginiacommonwealthuniversity?v=wall.