(06-14-2022 03:16 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  As a casual follower/fan of Georgetown, this caught my attention from the study. Would be curious to get the impression of the board's Hoya fans:

At-risk fan bases

Georgetown

Major disconnection between ultra-preppy, Catholic white student body and alumni base and inner-city brand and fanbase nurtured by coaches and long supported by marketing and merchandising. Irrelevant FCS football leaves basketball as an all-or-nothing for student engagement and interaction among fans, which has been lacking and missing key media attention with extended losing and irrelevance.

The "at-risk" list was strange with the inclusion of Michigan. All of the factors that they mentioned as supposedly putting the school at risk (e.g. a progressive elite school with a national student base) have been in place for a long time. If anything, that's exactly what gives Michigan a lot of power - outside of Notre Dame, they arguably have the most nationalized fan base out of anyone plus they still have their home state base.

The critique of Georgetown might be fair with respect to specifically the basketball brand, but the FCS portion is irrelevant to whether they're "at risk" or not. My impression is that the athletic engagement there would be always entirely about basketball regardless of how the FCS football team performs. I don't think Villanova (who has actually had a good FCS program) and Gonzaga are at risk being basketball-focused.