The Sports Info Business

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.

The NCAA basketball tournament is one of my favorite times of the year.  It gives each of the 65 teams selected for the big dance a chance to complete an impossible run as the undisputed national champion.

Business also use this time to capitalize on the frenzy.  I did a quick search and came upon these businesses who are linking their products to the madness and hopefully exposure leading up t0 the Final Four and National Championship game in Detroit.

In no particular order, I found this on the internet this week:

Nike introduced the “ultimate apparel system” for select college teams as they march into tournament madness with superior innovation from head to toe.  As the leader in base layer apparel innovation, Nike will outfit Duke University, Gonzaga University, The University of Memphis, Michigan State University andUniversity of Oregon in customized Nike Pro Combat. Nike Pro Combat is ergonomically designed to provide basketball-specific protective padding without restricting mobility on the court for maximum performance.

PickManager.com, an online site that features a variety of interactive sports games, is offering a grand prize of $100 million to anyone who selects a perfect bracket of all the winning teams in the 2009 men’s NCAA tournament. The contest allows participants to submit one free NCAA tournament bracket entry and up to four different brackets (by joining PickManager.com) with a chance to win the $100 million and other weekly prizes. Every March, “basketball bracket fever” sweeps the U.S. This year, the stakes are higher than ever for people who compete in NCAA tournament bracket contests.

Electronic Arts Inc., (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced EA SPORTS™ will for the first time offer a downloadable official NCAA Tournament edition of its college basketball videogame. Fans will be able to replicate the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship bracket and play with all the schools in NCAA March Madness®. Called NCAA® Basketball 09: March Madness® Edition and available exclusively for the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system for 1200 Microsoft points ($15.00), it will be available to download just in time for the start of the NCAA tournament.