Uncharted Territory: College Sports

Samsung is the official sponsor of the NFL. You can see either Samsung or Sony ads on virtually all televised NFL games. Sharp is the official sponsor of the MLB. There are signs everywhere at MLB stadiums. You can see Sony on the right field wall at Yankee Stadium and Sharp is a part of every large metropolitan team. NBA teams have courtside signage full of major sponsors. HDTV has redefined sports viewing. All manufacturers of flat panel TVs are associated with professional sports—and with good reasons. With all the advertising clutter around professional sports, it makes you wonder: Are there any sports that aren’t cluttered? Hockey is one sport that’s not inundated with ads, but its popularity lacks that of other major professional sports. However, there is one area that is still untouched—college sports. Are college sports popular? If so, why isn’t it cluttered like other professional sports?


According to MRI, there are 41.8 million people who consider themselves “super” fans of college sports. NFL has the strongest followers, with 59.6 million, followed by MLB, 31.6 million. So in terms of avid fans, college sports fans rank second behind only NFL fans. What about the media coverage? Is fan popularity reflected by media coverage? According to Sports Illustrated, a total of 535 articles on college teams appeared in Sports Illustrated during 2007. This is only second to NFL, which had 593 articles in Sports Illustrated (NBA: 308 MLB: 523). Currently, 128 schools participate in Division I football and basketball. These schools enroll about 3.2 million students. However, college sports fans are not all students. Alumni make up the bulk of the 41.8 million super college sports fans. These are college graduates with disposable income. These fans are the consumer base that every consumer electronics manufacturer covets. So we can conclude the popularity of college sports makes it a prime target. Major sponsors for college sports include McDonald’s and Coke. Cell phone carriers Verizon and AT&T were the first ones to sign sponsorship deals and are major advertisers who buy TV spots during college basketball and football games. However, they tend to stay away from sponsorship deals which would include stadium signage as well as rights to associate the brand name with a school. Corporate advertising at college football stadiums is a fraction of what you’ll see at NFL stadiums, even though some college stadiums can hold over 100,000 people, and are usually packed. Keep in mind that college basketball games are televised by ESPN and CBS nationally.


Advertisers tend to go with professional sports, but fail to realize the open opportunities of college sports. The timing couldn’t be better. College football and basketball games are played during the peak sales season. So the logical question is to ask: How come only few advertisers are willing to try college sports sponsorship? I am not really sure. Maybe it’s because there are too many schools. Covering 128 schools which are divided into regionally focused conferences is much more difficult than covering 32 NFL teams. Maybe marketers don’t value college sports as much as professional sports. Whatever the reason, college sports is an opportunity worth exploring. However, it won’t take your competitors long to realize the value of sponsoring relatively inexpensive and uncluttered sports teams with strong fan bases.
Ted Kim Measurement Analytics Strategist Cheil USA