The University of South Carolina’s Social Media Insights Lab in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications has created a college football ranking system that tracks fan sentiment on social media using a complex computer model.
The project is known as College Sports Social Pulse™, and the rankings are released to the public each week in a newsletter on the College of Information and Communications website.
The rankings are determined by a formula developed by USC professors and researchers that balances three key measures when looking at social media posts about college football.
The first measure shows the total volume of social media posts for any given player, team or coach. Within the total posts found, the model then determines the number of negative and positive posts. That ratio establishes the second measure, net sentiment. Finally, the model measures engagement or how many people interact with the post in any way. Clicking on the post, liking, sharing or commenting are all forms of engagement.
“Engagement is our key measure,” said USC professor of practice, Clay Owen, who oversees the operation. “I could create a million different posts about something. But if nobody is engaging with it, who cares? It’s like a lone wolf crying in the wilderness.”
The rankings highlight the top-10 teams, coaches and players across all power-four conferences (SEC, ACC, Big 10, and Big 12) and Notre Dame. But rather than just listing the top players, teams or coaches on the field, the rankings show what stories are amassing the most public attention in college football.
Through week 13, Ohio State spent the most time atop the rankings with six weeks at No. 1. SEC powerhouses Alabama and Georgia each were at the top three times. Texas quarterback Arch Manning dominated the player rankings with nine weeks at the top. Colorado head coach Deion Sanders and former Mississippi head coach Lane Kiffin spent the most weeks atop the coaches’ rankings with four each.
Leading the rankings isn’t always a good thing, however. In week seven, Penn State took the top spot as a team along with their quarterback Drew Allar and head coach James Franklin. The social media buzz around Penn State was caused by a three-game losing streak which resulted in the firing of Franklin and the Nittany Lions dropping out of the top 25 after opening the season as the No. 2 team in the nation.
The rankings are backed by a complex computer model that gathers information from all major social media platforms to analyze trends in the college football world. It includes more than 3,000 search terms and identifies posts from Facebook, Reddit, X, Instagram, Tiktok and other platforms. After extracting posts about college football, it then examines the three key measures: volume, net sentiment and engagement.
“This is the most comprehensive model that we are aware of for college football,” said Owen.
The model includes more than the rankings that are shown to the public. It shows the numbers for each of the three key measures instead of a formula that combines them. Additionally, it can analyze trends over time.
“The rankings are something to get people interested. Then, we pull them in and show them the true depth of the tool,” said Owen.
Owen noted that social media reflects fan sentiment, and by tracking net sentiment, the model can anticipate things that will happen in the future such as coaching changes. “Whether it’s Mike Shula, Hugh Freeze or James Franklin, you can see it coming on social media.”
The project was started by Owen and Chris Caldwell, a former Fox Sports executive and a current SJMC professor. The two saw a need for the Social Media Insights Lab — located on the first floor of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications — to be used more.
“We wanted to build a center of excellence here at the University of South Carolina and the Social Media Lab,” said Owen. “We wanted the Social Media Lab to really be known for something.”
After some deliberation this past summer, the duo landed on college football as the sport to focus on. “I said “You know what Chris, South Carolina is all about college football. Let’s do college football.” And that was it,” said Owen.
The next step for College Sports Social Pulse is selling the product to a larger entity, Owen explained. “We always had an eye toward that, but it probably happened a little bit quicker than we expected.”
Fox Sports was the first to receive an introduction to the model. “They liked what they saw. Surprisingly, they didn’t have anything as comprehensive at Fox Sports,” said Owen.
The Social Media Insights lab now provides Fox Sports with a weekly report that allows the network to analyze the sentiment from its pregame show Big Noon Kickoff, which airs on Saturday mornings. Network officials can see what segments are getting social media mentions and what is working within its programming.
The model could prove valuable for Fox Sports and potentially other larger media corporations. By seeing what players, teams or coaches are garnering the most public attention on social media, they know what topics will perform the best on the show.
“We can help them look at who’s performing the best on social media during the pregame show,” said Owen. “What segments are getting a lot of mentions and what’s working in their programming?”
Owen and the Social Media Insights Lab have also applied for a trademark and a patent on the product.
Will Maddux is a freshman at the University of South Carolina from Houston, Texas. He is an honors student and is pursuing a degree in sports media. Maddux is a writer for the sports section of The Daily Gamecock and a proud member of University Ambassadors. Will wrote this story as part of Bertram Rantin’s Honors Writing for Mass Communications class.