Maybe this has been done before, but I thought I'd rank the Sun Belt football teams by Twitter (X) followers. I saw a thread on another conference board and I thought that it would be fun to see how we all stack up. It's no surprise that the East, with much higher population, has more followers than those in the deep south. Heck, we are lucky to have internet!

East:

App. State 89.4K
Coastal 87.8K
Marshall 74.2K
Georgia Southern 70.8K
ODU 70.3K
JMU 61.4K
Georgia State 54.3K

West:

Southern Miss 65.7K
Arkansas State 60.5K
Troy 60.3K
Texas State 49.7K
Louisiana 48K
South Alabama 47.5K
ULM 37.1K

Sun Belt has 2 wins vs Nebraska.

Troy in 2018 & GaSo in 2022.

I'd like to compare the above list with Average attendance #s. Curious how much relation there is between the 2.

(08-27-2023 01:48 PM)CoachWillRob Wrote:  I'd like to compare the above list with Average attendance #s. Curious how much relation there is between the 2.

I don't think brand recognition and attendance necessarily goes hand in hand. Plenty of people follow and never attend games, but they are familiar.

(08-27-2023 01:48 PM)CoachWillRob Wrote:  I'd like to compare the above list with Average attendance #s. Curious how much relation there is between the 2.

Below is the Attendance Ranking (Twitter Ranking in Parenthesis)

1. App. St. 33,566 (1)
2. Troy 26,3346 (9)
3. Southern Miss 25,141 (6)
4. JMU 22,966 (7)
5. Marshall 21,842 (3)
6. Old Dominion 20,232 (5)
7. Texas State 17,541 (11)
8. Georgia Southern 17,379 (4)
9. Coastal 17,114 (2)
10. South Alabama 16,646 (13)
11. Georgia State 16,043 (10)
12. Arkansas State 15,265 (8)
13. Louisiana 14,542 (12)
14. ULM 13,380 (14)

There does seem to be somewhat of a correlation. However, there are other strong variables at play in Twitter (X) followers: brand, success in other major sports, length of time in FBS, population, region, etc.

Additionally, 2022 average may not be the best number to use. Below, I am using 5-year average attendance.

1. App. St. 25,628 (1)
2. Southern Miss 23,988 (6)
3. Troy 23,737 (9)
4. Marshall 23,099 (3)
5. JMU 22,807 (7)
6. Arkansas State 19,665 (8)
7. Louisiana 19,044 (12)
8. Old Dominion 18,814 (5)
9. Georgia Southern 16,721 (4)
10. Texas State 16,702 (11)
11. South Alabama 16,413 (13)
12. Georgia State 15,962 (10)
13. Coastal 12,818 (2)
14. ULM 13,511 (14)

(08-27-2023 08:48 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  Sun Belt has 2 wins vs Nebraska.

Troy in 2018 & GaSo in 2022.

Pretty sure those are Southern Miss' scalps, not the SBC's scalps.

(08-27-2023 05:30 PM)Luckyshot Wrote:  

(08-27-2023 08:48 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  Sun Belt has 2 wins vs Nebraska.

Troy in 2018 & GaSo in 2022.

Pretty sure those are Southern Miss' scalps, not the SBC's scalps.

Correct! I'll edit to make that clear.

(08-27-2023 05:30 PM)Luckyshot Wrote:  

(08-27-2023 08:48 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  Sun Belt has 2 wins vs Nebraska.

Troy in 2018 & GaSo in 2022.

Pretty sure those are Southern Miss' scalps, not the SBC's scalps.

Yes I missed that. Sorry lol.

(08-26-2023 10:39 PM)born in the burg Wrote:  Maybe this has been done before, but I thought I'd rank the Sun Belt football teams by Twitter (X) followers. I saw a thread on another conference board and I thought that it would be fun to see how we all stack up. It's no surprise that the East, with much higher population, has more followers than those in the deep south. Heck, we are lucky to have internet!

East:

App. State 89.4K
Coastal 87.8K
Marshall 74.2K
Georgia Southern 70.8K
ODU 70.3K
JMU 61.4K
Georgia State 54.3K

West:

Southern Miss 65.7K
Arkansas State 60.5K
Troy 60.3K
Texas State 49.7K
Louisiana 48K
South Alabama 47.5K
ULM 37.1K

ODU athletics had their Twitter accounts banned and had to start from scratch a few years ago I believe. Maybe it was just our basketball teams?

Probably didn't set them back too much by now.

Considering how football accounts are used in recruiting, this number doesn't mean a whole heckuva lot IMO.

I run an ODU website and podcast and our twitter account gets messages and followers from high school and middle school athletes every day in the hope that just anyone will notice them. And then there are the parents, who are trying the same thing. So you end up with a bunch of followers that really only have an interest in landing an offer and likely wont interact with your account much.

(08-28-2023 06:54 AM)Monarchist13 Wrote:  Considering how football accounts are used in recruiting, this number doesn't mean a whole heckuva lot IMO.

I run an ODU website and podcast and our twitter account gets messages and followers from high school and middle school athletes every day in the hope that just anyone will notice them. And then there are the parents, who are trying the same thing. So you end up with a bunch of followers that really only have an interest in landing an offer and likely wont interact with your account much.

That's a good point. I would imagine social media teams at the universities are tracking reach, engagement rate, and other more telling KPIs.

(08-26-2023 10:39 PM)born in the burg Wrote:  Maybe this has been done before, but I thought I'd rank the Sun Belt football teams by Twitter (X) followers. I saw a thread on another conference board and I thought that it would be fun to see how we all stack up. It's no surprise that the East, with much higher population, has more followers than those in the deep south. Heck, we are lucky to have internet!

East:

App. State 89.4K
Coastal 87.8K
Marshall 74.2K
Georgia Southern 70.8K
ODU 70.3K
JMU 61.4K
Georgia State 54.3K

West:

Southern Miss 65.7K
Arkansas State 60.5K
Troy 60.3K
Texas State 49.7K
Louisiana 48K
South Alabama 47.5K
ULM 37.1K

GS was a beast on social media when we first joined the Belt not surprisingly App and Coastal passed us with both having multiple great top 25 type seasons and us hiring goofballs since 2016. I have no doubt if Helton can get us to that level will add a ton.

(08-27-2023 07:39 PM)bit_9 Wrote:  ODU athletics had their Twitter accounts banned and had to start from scratch a few years ago I believe. Maybe it was just our basketball teams?

Probably didn't set them back too much by now.

Are you confusing it with when the ODU football players were banned from using Twitter themselves?

https://footballscoop.com/news/after-a-f...ide%20ban.

(08-28-2023 11:30 AM)GoBigRed26 Wrote:  

(08-27-2023 07:39 PM)bit_9 Wrote:  ODU athletics had their Twitter accounts banned and had to start from scratch a few years ago I believe. Maybe it was just our basketball teams?

Probably didn't set them back too much by now.

Are you confusing it with when the ODU football players were banned from using Twitter themselves?

https://footballscoop.com/news/after-a-f...ide%20ban.

No. our basketball teams twitter was banned, I'm pretty sure it had to do with copyrighted music in highlight clips and other videos.

Edit - Here's the article talking about it.

(08-28-2023 11:49 AM)benny_t Wrote:  

(08-28-2023 11:30 AM)GoBigRed26 Wrote:  

(08-27-2023 07:39 PM)bit_9 Wrote:  ODU athletics had their Twitter accounts banned and had to start from scratch a few years ago I believe. Maybe it was just our basketball teams?

Probably didn't set them back too much by now.

Are you confusing it with when the ODU football players were banned from using Twitter themselves?

https://footballscoop.com/news/after-a-f...ide%20ban.

No. our basketball teams twitter was banned, I'm pretty sure it had to do with copyrighted music in highlight clips and other videos.

Edit - Here's the article talking about it.

Ya, went and looked - https://odusports.com/news/2021/7/1/mini...ounts.aspx it was just basketball because of a copyright issue in a video.

edit: hah, you must have done your edit and then I hit quote without even noticing. =]

(08-28-2023 11:55 AM)bit_9 Wrote:  

(08-28-2023 11:49 AM)benny_t Wrote:  

(08-28-2023 11:30 AM)GoBigRed26 Wrote:  

(08-27-2023 07:39 PM)bit_9 Wrote:  ODU athletics had their Twitter accounts banned and had to start from scratch a few years ago I believe. Maybe it was just our basketball teams?

Probably didn't set them back too much by now.

Are you confusing it with when the ODU football players were banned from using Twitter themselves?

https://footballscoop.com/news/after-a-f...ide%20ban.

No. our basketball teams twitter was banned, I'm pretty sure it had to do with copyrighted music in highlight clips and other videos.

Edit - Here's the article talking about it.

Ya, went and looked - https://odusports.com/news/2021/7/1/mini...ounts.aspx it was just basketball because of a copyright issue in a video.

edit: hah, you must have done your edit and then I hit quote without even noticing. =]

Sneaky fast edit lol

(08-28-2023 11:49 AM)benny_t Wrote:  

(08-28-2023 11:30 AM)GoBigRed26 Wrote:  

(08-27-2023 07:39 PM)bit_9 Wrote:  ODU athletics had their Twitter accounts banned and had to start from scratch a few years ago I believe. Maybe it was just our basketball teams?

Probably didn't set them back too much by now.

Are you confusing it with when the ODU football players were banned from using Twitter themselves?

https://footballscoop.com/news/after-a-f...ide%20ban.

No. our basketball teams twitter was banned, I'm pretty sure it had to do with copyrighted music in highlight clips and other videos.

Edit - Here's the article talking about it.

So stupid that you can't use part of a song for a hype video or whatever it was.