You can attack or defend. Either way it has to be offensive. Conventional methods are one way, but the serious, student government response is stuffy and gets lost like sifting through 250 pages of documents.
If you want an apology it will be turned against you because you come off as too sensitive. They cannot be stopped or beaten, only ridiculed and teased. If the "Auburn Response" is hard and edgy in a comedic sense, it will be more effective and have a more lasting effect on readers, listeners and callers because of the negative nature of the overall news cycle we see every day. It simply numbs the public.
So on a much smaller scale, athletics and particularly in our case largely football, just in this state alone the outlets are dominated by the rival forces. And if you only have a stick and a rock to fight with, you have to get creative.
Think of the current and past conflits in the world. Almost always, one side has a decisive advantage. It's no different here.