Brian Grey Blog

No sports business category seems to be in a state of change (some might say turmoil) than college sports — specifically at the Division I-A level.  Just this weekend Pittsburgh and Syracuse formally bolted from the Big East to join the ACC, and the rumors persist that the recently expanded Pac-12 may bulge further — this time by adding the powerful quartet of Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.

And while big time schools continue the game of conference musical chairs, the activity swirling around periphery of college athletics continues to amaze.  On one hand mighty programs like the University of Miami and the University of Oregon are under investigation for dealings with a now imprisoned booster and a questionable recruiting service respectively.

Yikes!  Why would any sane marketer associate their brand with college sports right now?  Well, here are a few reasons to consider:

Capturing the Next Wave of Consumers

Brand marketers know that the next wave of consumers that they want to reach — that digital savvy, social media influencer type, is on campus right now — shuttling from an Econ 101 study group to the tailgate before the big game.  The tailgate party and in stadium experience delivers thousands of targeted impressions to 17-22 year olds in an environment that is more engaging than just about any other window of a student’s day.  Talk about being able to create some real brand affinity.

College Sports Spans a Broad Demographic

No matter what conference the University of Texas plays in next year, a good chunk of the state of Texas — plus thousands of displaced UT alums — will tune in to all their football and basket ball games, plus consume thousands of hours of media dedicated to the Longhorns, whether it be via national coverage on ESPN, local coverage from the Longhorn Network, or the hundreds of stories that will be written about the crew in burnt orange day in and day out.  Unlike the targeted student demo on campus, however, the beauty of college athletics is that it appeals to men and women, young and old.  Heck, even my wife (a Cal alum) pays attention to the Bears now and again, something that doesn’t happen with her with respect to local pro sports teams.

Brands Love Going Hyper Local

Sports in general is a hyper local phenomenon, but college sports holds an edge to pro sports when it comes to really connecting with fans at the local level.  When was the last time a college sports football program packed up in the middle of the night and moved to another town?  How frequently does a player get traded to another school?  (Ok, sometimes they do leave school early to go to the Pros, but there again it’s the Pro sport fans chide, not the poor old college team that lost their All-American).  In fact, one of the reasons MillerCoors invested in a 23-school “integrated marketing program” as reported by the Sports Business Journal earlier this month, is the opportunity for the beer company to enable their local distributors and retailers to create a deeper connection with local fans.

Media Rights Going Across All Platforms

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the dynamic state of college athletics is the fact that media rights are being revalued and in turn enabling more and more college sports product to make it’s way to fans.  The Longhorn Network is an extreme, but good example.  Now those UT fans can get more than college football and baseball, they will get access to UT’s stellar swimming, baseball and track teams.  Likewise, the Pac-12 will eventually rollout several regional cable networks as well as their own digital platform which will collectively put hundreds of hours of live and on demand sports content on TVs, computer screens, iPads, and smartphones.

And who benefits big time from the broader reach of college sports media besides the fans and schools?  Brand marketers of course.  MillerCoors, State Farm, UPS, and the ever growing list of college sports sponsors all get more touch points to connect with the fan bases they value — whether they be students on campus, alums living out of state or local residents following the team’s every move.

So embrace the wild ride that is college sports right now and trust me, on the other side of today’s hectic pace will be a landscape that is good for fans and brands.  Now about that BCS set up?

A rather depressing story in today’s NY Times about cuts spreading rapidly across the college sports landscape.  Seems that the recession’s squeeze is finally making its way to the athletic departments.  As expected the sports getting the knife at schools are what you’d consider “tier 2″ sports – fencing, pistol, swimming…but also fairly popular sports like soccer and volleyball are getting nuked.

Some may look at this as an inevitable outcome given the economic pressures facing universities.  Yet given soundbites like the fact that the University of California system is apparently considering a 10 percent tuition increase and the fact that the BCS got a huge rights increase in their new deal with ESPN, this seems like the wrong time to be ending the careers of student athletes once their high school careers end.

The Times piece states that in the 2007-08 academic year there were 412,768 NCAA student athletes.  I would suggest that there should actually be many, many more than that.  As someone who played a sport in college, I feel lucky to have had access to a physically demanding outlet almost daily, and to have had the opportunity to compete in a team setting.

Given what we are learning today about the connection between physical exercise and brain development, not to mention what we’ve known for years about how competition and teamwork in sports maps to “the real world”, colleges should be doing whatever they can to not only keep their current teams in tact, but they should be coming up with ways to open up competitive sports programs to as many students as possible.

Seems like there’s an opportunity here for corporate sponsors who gladly sponsor the elite levels of college sports to invest in their future workforces today on the soccer fields, volleyball courts and swimming pools across campuses nationwide.