Final Four appearances last year by the Auburn and Texas Tech men’s basketball teams and a strong 2019-20 season by the Arkansas women’s squad led to huge increases in social media followers for each of those programs, according to data tracked by MVPindex from Feb. 25, 2019 - Feb. 24, 2020. The MVPindex ranking takes into account the reach (number of followers and impressions) engagement (likes, comments, shares, retweets, favorites) and conversation (positive/negative mentions) of more than 90,000 athletes, entertainers, teams, leagues and brands across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. All comparisons are to Feb. 25, 2018 - Feb. 24, 2019.
There was no change at the top of MVP’s overall social media rankings compared to a year ago, as Duke and Kentucky sat atop the men’s ranking and UConn and Baylor maintained the same positions among women’s programs. Arkansas’ women’s team, which is likely to make the NCAA Tournament this year for the first time since 2015, jumped six spots to No. 3 with a 75% growth in followers and 185% growth in the amount of media value that it delivered to its partners.
The Wendy’s-Kentucky “Player of the game” men’s team activation is the top-ranked non-endemic partnership in college hoops.
