The team’s success has electrified the entire city, exciting football fans and non-fans alike.
(George Hale)
A drone flies over Memorial Stadium, showing a packed crowd dressed in red and the fall foliage ablaze with color.
Millions of people watching on television see what a perfect fall day looks like at Indiana University and Bloomington.
For the first time, IU’s football team has a 10-0 record, sparking an unprecedented wave of media attention and excitement. The fifth-ranked Hoosiers play No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday.
Twice this season, the success transformed Memorial Stadium into the epicenter of college football, at least on Saturday morning if not all day. The pregame shows ESPN College GameDay and FOX Big Noon Kickoff originated from campus on consecutive weeks, putting a spotlight on everything from Nick’s to John Mellencamp’s new statue on campus.
Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson said the shows amount to a commercial for what makes the city great.
“It's creating quite an economic impact, at least in the short term,” Thomson said. “Our tourism is up, our hotels are getting booked, the restaurants are packed, and the retail stores are also quite full. So we're really excited for all of those opportunities.”
Thomson said that the team’s success has electrified the entire city, exciting football fans and non-fans alike. She credited first-year IU coach Curt Cignetti and his players for energizing Bloomington and showcasing it nationally.
“I think he has plenty of momentum behind him and his entire team, and I'm really proud of the way they're representing Bloomington,” Thomson said. “I'm thrilled with what this team is doing for the city, and I think the city is all thrilled to be behind the team.”
Mike McAfee, executive director of Visit Bloomington, said October was Bloomington’s biggest month ever for hotel and Airbnb rentals.
“IU football in particular has always been one of the most significant tourism events in Monroe County,” McAfee said. “When you get up to 53,000 people in that stadium… the impact of that is incredible.”
McAfee noted that the football schedule drives event planning in Bloomington. Local events like the Lotus Festival and the Holiday Handmade Market avoid weekends with home football games.
“You can't compete with football,” McAfee said. “It is the king of tourism in our county.”
David Pierce, an IU Indianapolis professor of sports marketing, said IU’s success coincides with several external factors, creating a perfect storm of attention.
IU football players celebrate a 5-0 start with the student section Saturday after defeating Maryland. (Joe Hren, WFIU/WTIU News)
“Eight home games, getting rid of the Big 10 East and West (divisions), the drone technology footage to show the stadium in a different light — that's gained traction on social media. And then, opening it up from four to 12 teams in the playoffs,” Pierce said. “You didn't make any of those decisions, but somehow we've leveraged them with good coaching and playing at the right place in time to be the unique story.”
Pierce said that while media coverage alone doesn’t guarantee an increase in applications to a university, IU football’s unexpected rise could have a meaningful impact during the college decision-making period. He compared it to Butler’s back-to-back runs to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament championship game in 2010 and 2011. That, he said, drove a significant increase in applications for several years.
Pierce said athletic success doesn’t usually correlate with increases in applications, but when a team rises unexpectedly, the university becomes an outlier.
“The general storyline behind those outliers is when things are unanticipated or unexpected is where the significant bumps happen,” Pierce said. “That's where everybody is kind of chasing that outlier.”
Pierce estimates that IU could see a spike in applicants over the next year or two. With admissions already near capacity, a surge could lower acceptance rates, making IU even more prestigious.
“I mean, (college) football is the premier sport that drives everything, and you have to be competitive,” Pierce said. “You can't be as bad as IU has been historically, let alone the last three years.”
