Why US College Sport Is Ready for Fan Tokens

What connects the US college system with crypto? Until a few months ago, the answer was “not a whole lot.” Some blockchain research centers perhaps, incubated at the tech-focused campuses, and that was about it. But jump back into the present day and a handful of hallowed US colleges are routinely being mentioned in the same breath as crypto.

LSU, Maryland, Michigan State, Penn State, and Texas A&M are the quintet in question. What’s stranger still is that the connection has little to do with their tech credentials and much to do with their sporting pedigree. Remarkably, the facet of America’s college system that has wound up embracing crypto is football. Thanks to the introduction of Fan Token® digital assets, which are being pioneered by these intrepid colleges, football is going onchain this season.

But why?

The Bull Case for College Fan Tokens

If you wanted to choose a testing ground for a new way of connecting sports teams and their supporters, US college sport would be hard to beat. Stadiums are enormous, television audiences run into the tens of millions, and fan loyalties are inherited across generations.

This may come as a surprise to citizens in the rest of the world, who are relative strangers to US college football, but on home soil, the game is huge – far bigger, in fact, than the universities whose names the teams bear. 

This phenomenal interest isn’t limited to what happens on the turf, either: college athletics has developed into an extraordinary commercial ecosystem that rewards the student-athletes responsible for filling those stadiums.

The global sports stars of tomorrow – the running backs and point guards who’ll one day be gracing Madison Square Garden and the Superbowl – are made in the US college system. And now, that system is having an added ingredient thrown into the mix in the form of Fan Token® digital assets.

College Tokens Arrive on Chiliz Chain

Appearing on FOX Business on Friday, Chiliz Founder and CEO Alex Dreyfus discussed the impending launch of Fan Tokens for LSU, Maryland, Michigan State, Penn State, and Texas A&M. 

“The biggest point of doing blockchain [for Fan Tokens] is the transparency and voting,” explained the Chiliz Founder, touching upon the ability for fans to help determine the jersey number assigned to new players as one of the many use cases these digital assets can support.

The initiative, being rolled out through Socios.com in partnership with Playfly Sports, will give supporters a meaningful say in the game and alma mater they know and love. Crucially, a meaningful proportion of the revenue generated will also support student-athletes, which is likely to have been a major factor in convincing the participating colleges of the merits of Fan Tokens, which will be issued on Chiliz Chain.

For Chiliz, which has spent years building Fan Token® infrastructure around major European soccer clubs, college sport represents its first major opportunity to demonstrate what the model can do in the United States. And the numbers suggest it has chosen an enormous market in which to make its entrance.

College Football Plays to NFL-Sized Crowds – and Bigger

To illustrate the stature of US college sport, it should be noted that eight of these institutions have football stadiums with capacities of at least 100,000. And these aren’t just filled on rare occasions – it’s routine for college teams to play to a packed arena. Michigan Stadium leads the pack at 107,601, followed by Penn State’s Beaver Stadium at 106,572, with Texas A&M, LSU, Tennessee, Texas’ Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, and Alabama completing the 100K club.

Three of those stadiums belong to universities involved in the first Socios.com rollout, and Michigan provides an even more remarkable illustration of the appetite for college football. The university currently records 333 consecutive home games attracting crowds above 100,000, a sequence stretching back to 1975. The biggest US college football sides get more butts on seats than Europe’s largest soccer teams.

This Isn’t Even Their Final Form

LSU, Maryland, Michigan State, Penn State, and Texas A&M are starting the football season with Fan Token® digital assets. But there’s a good chance they’ll have been joined by other colleges in embracing tokenization before the season’s out. Socios.com is targeting additional university athletic departments, and is already hinting that it’s making great headway there. Expect further announcements soon as other colleges enter the fray.

Fan Tokens are arguably a natural fit for college sport because they combine several existing ideas – loyalty programs, membership, rewards and fan voting – within a single digital asset. College sport forms the crucible for determining whether that combination will resonate with American fans. Whatever their verdict, this season promises to be scintillating.