Leveraging the nation’s largest data and analytics platform for the college sports fan,
first-of-its-kind report highlights this large, affluent, and engaged consumer audience.

Plano, Texas – Today, LEARFIELD, a leading provider of media, data, and technology in college sports, announces the availability of the first-ever Intercollegiate Fan Report™.  This report explores more than 180 million college sports fans worldwide. It includes the specific demographic and sociographic data from over 20 million Known Fans™, serving as a representative sample for more than 70 million estimated fans.

“This report allows marketers and business leaders, at the national and local level, to see how their customer audiences can be addressed in college sports,” said Jennifer Davis, chief marketing and communications officer at LEARFIELD.  “With this publication, brands can see the power of college sports not just on game day, but as an everyday part of the overall marketing mix.”

College sports fans represent the largest fan base in the United States: boasting more fans than the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), or any other professional league or franchise.

The LEARFIELD Intercollegiate Fan Report offers additional insights into understanding college sports fans according to:

  • Affluence: The affluence index of college sports fans who are 81% more likely to make over $100k than the general US population
  • Gender: The surprisingly balanced gender demographics, indicating opportunities for growth in the sponsorship of women’s college sports
  • Mobility: The relative mobility of college sports fans across the country where nearly half of fans live beyond 50 miles from their favorite campus
  • Geography: The higher concentration of Known Fans in top DMA markets enabling better targeting

“LEARFIELD’s Fanbase data platform has enabled, for the first time, the most robust picture of the college sports fan making these unprecedented insights possible,” said Matt Deimund, senior vice president and managing director at LEARFIELD. “The insights and trends in this report will be helpful to brand marketers and intercollegiate administrators alike, as the size and passion of college sports fans are unmatched.”

As the nation’s most comprehensive data and analytics platform in college sports, LEARFIELD’s Fanbase™ houses data in partnership with over 110 colleges and universities.  The Intercollegiate Fan Report™ supplements data from Fanbase with leading syndicated, digital and social analysis, providing a holistic picture of the college sports fan. The insights provided to LEARFIELD’s multi-media rights institutions in their personalized dashboards have been instrumental to the design of brand client campaigns and successful sponsorships, ticketing and development fundraising efforts, and more.  First-party data segments are paired with a school’s unique intellectual property (IP) and licensed marks and fan-centric creative to power LEARFIELD’s Fan365™ product, the leading programmatic digital sponsorship offering, delivering brand clients up to three times the engagement of traditional digital campaigns.

LEARFIELD will continue contributing to thought leadership in the space through additional Intercollegiate Fan Pulse reports throughout the year to supplement this annual publication.

The complimentary public report is available today for download at www.LEARFIELD.com/fanreport.

LEARFIELD partner universities can request a private presentation of the aggregate data and a review of their own school-specific dashboards by contacting fanbase@learfield.com.  Brands can contact LEARFIELD at sponsorships@learfield.com for a complimentary analysis of how to target their audiences in the college sports fan universe.  To subscribe to the Pulse reports or to be first to hear about the 2022 report, with planned publication in August of 2022, complete the form at www.LEARFIELD.com/fanreport.

About LEARFIELD

LEARFIELD is a leading media and technology services company in intercollegiate athletics. The company unlocks the value of sports for brands and fans through an omnichannel platform with innovative content and commerce solutions for fan engagement. LEARFIELD services includes licensing and multimedia sponsorship management; publishing, audio, digital and social media; data analytics; ticketing, ticket sales and professional concessions expertise; branding; campus-wide business and sponsorship development; and venue technology systems. Since 2008, it has served as title sponsor for the acclaimed LEARFIELD Directors’ Cup, supporting athletic departments across all divisions.