NCAA Basketball Selection Sunday is Here
Ladies and gentleman, sharpen your pencils because Selection Sunday is about to begin and college basketball will now take over TV sets from Seattle to Miami until the championship game is played on Monday April 4th.
The top 65 teams across the nation will know today if they are competing with an eye on the Final Four, if they will look instead to an NIT invite or if their team should hit the weight room now for next year.
On Friday, the research folks at Experian Simmons published research in relation to March Madness. No, they did not announce an algorithm that will allow you to do better in the office basketball pool. The company made some of its marketing research public for marketers.
Here is some of their findings.
- College basketball fans tend to be slightly older. In fact, those 18-24 are 4% less likely to be very or somewhat interested in college basketball and those 45+ more so. If you are 45+, you are more likely to either listen on the radio or watch the games on TV than attend.
- College basketball fans are likely to be financially comfortable. Close to 40% of the fan base earns at least $100,00 and they tend to work in white collar occupations.
- Thirty eight percent of college basketball fans reside in the South; however, the fans in the Midwest are 23% more likely to be very or somewhat interested in college basketball.
As a marketer, if you knew this informaiton going into the tournament, then you are a lot smarter when trying to target your goods at these specific consumers.
Here is just a sample of 31 teams that have qualified for an automatic bid
Akron
American - Captures second consecutive Patriot Tournament title
Binghamton wins America East and will make first ever appearance
Chattanooga
Cleveland State
Cornell
East Tennessee State
Gonzaga
Louisville – 2009 Big East Champs
Memphis – 4th Straight Conference Title; 22nd NCAA Appearance
Missouri Tigers capture first ever Big 12 Championship
Morehead State
Morgan State – Beat Norfolk St. in Championship
North Dakota State
Northern Iowa
Portland State
Radford
Robert Morris
Siena
USC The Trojans came back and defeated for their first conference Pac 10 title
Utah Beats San Diego State
Virginia Commonwealth
Western Kentucky
A couple of important links
NCAA March Madness Central
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-mmc/ncaa-m-mmc-body.html
NCAA Men’s basketballLink for Printable Bracket (available after announcement)
http://www.ncaa.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/ncaa/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/MBK-D2-2009Bracket
Full disclosure. I am employed by a company that is Simmons is a part of. I do not interact with the folks at Simmons on a day to day level and had nothing to do with the research that I quoted above.
