Hello! Welcome to this week’s FOIAball. I’m so truly thankful to all of you who recently became paid subscribers. It’s because of your support that we can continue to publish these kinds of stories.
Do those kind words not apply to YOU?
Hmmmm. Interesting.
All your cell phone data are belong to school
Last year, over 600,000 people attended football games at the University of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium. Of those fans, nearly 80,000 were “Singles and Starters,” city-based Gen Z professionals just getting going in life.
They live in the trendy parts of town, and when the work week is over, they tweet #FriYay. After a particularly rough day, perhaps an Insomnia Cookie is needed to soothe the soul. And they love rock climbing.
Another 80,000 of those visitors were on the opposite end of the spectrum, part of the “Power Elite.” They are some of the wealthiest households in the U.S. Active and fit, they enjoy all that life has to offer.
How do I know all this? Well, thanks to your cell phone. And your credit score.
And a presentation Nebraska made that shows what data brokers are being utilized to help market the Cornhuskers.
College sports is big business. And in 2026, big business relies on big data. But big data is, intentionally, a misnomer. It’s your data, hoovered up by tech firms that then sell it back to businesses who can, in turn, use it to market and advertise products to you.
It’s a truly bleak feedback loop that none of us have any real say in. It’s probably not going away, but at least we can shine a light on it.
Big-time college sports programs these days have grown too large to be managed by just their athletics departments. That’s led to the rise of third-party firms that handle an almost inordinate amount of the business. You’ve probably heard of the two biggest conglomerates: Learfield and PlayFly.
Schools sign media and marketing agreements that let these firms handle ticket sales and concessions for games. They sign sponsorship deals with local businesses. They take care of licensing deals for apparel. They build websites and produce content.
The arrangements typically guarantee the university a certain level of income, and along the way, the companies get a cut.
A 2021 piece by Sportico found that Learfield took in about $6 million a year from the University of Nebraska in 2017 and 2018.
The school since switched over to PlayFly, signing a $300 million, $15-year agreement.
That’s all money these big firms need to make for the school. To do so, they need to market. Which is where all your data comes in.
Purchase a ticket from a school, and Learfield rolls you into a profile of the fan base. A ticket buyer overview for JMU’s game last year against Marshall shows how Learfield breaks down attendees by demographics like age, income, and distance from the school.
That insight is powered by Learfield Fanbase, which boasts the “largest and most comprehensive database of college sports fans,” collected through “first-party fan data.” Data like that would be you buying a ticket and giving them your address. But you probably don’t offer up your income bracket.
On the website, it notes its data is “enriched with additional attributes for more precise targeting.”
That’s a nebulous way of saying, well, we can’t say exactly what Learfield means by that. But we can look at its competitor, PlayFly. At least as it relates to the University of Nebraska.
The presentation obtained by FOIAball, titled “The Power of Nebraska,” was for an event the school was hoping to host at Memorial Stadium.
We’ll let you know at the end what all your aggregated information was used for. You can tell us if it was worth it.
The deck starts with fairly benign information. Husker Athletics reach millions annually. They have an estimated 2.6 million fans (meaning people who identify Nebraska as one of their three favorite teams). There were 19.4 million viewers who watched games last season, 1.4 million attendees at games across all sports, and 3.3 million people who follow the school on social media.
(If you want to read how schools are watching social media, here’s our story from December.)
The school knows exactly where those fans live. Almost 50% of Husker fans, 1.4 million total, reside in the Midwest, but there are strong contingents in Texas and California.
The two states with the fewest Cornhusker fans? Mississippi and Vermont.
The data comes from a firm called Vision Insight, which conducts surveys on sports fans and then sells those insights to teams.
One of the more notable things is that it collects data on kids aged 13-18. As part of one of its packages, the firm promises "in-depth insight into fans during their formative years."
Cool. The Nebraska presentation included data on that age bracket, noting that 6% of its fan base is teenagers.
Its biggest slice of fans, though, is over the age of 65.
Apparently, the past three decades of Frank Solich, Bill Callahan, Bo Pelini, Barney Cotton, Mike Riley, Scott Frost, Mickey Joseph, and Matt Rhule have not inspired the youth.
The slide also includes income breakdowns of the fan base: 31% make under $50,000, 40% make $50,000-100,000.
That’s money that the Cornhuskers use to try and get money from sponsors, pointing out that 16% of fans will purchase from a brand that sponsors the school’s athletics department.
But this particular presentation wasn’t geared toward selling sponsorships; it was regarding a potential event. So Nebraska provided information on attendees to Memorial Stadium.
The data comes from Placer AI, which uses cell phone data from third-party apps to show traffic flow to and from locations. The firm says it aggregates data from millions of mobile devices. It also teams up with Experian, you know, the credit score company that lords over your life, to help build income portraits.
It’s really… we don’t like it one bit.
According to the presentation, “75% of Husker Football Attendees reside in Nebraska, with 20% living within 10 miles of the stadium (Lincoln area) and half (53%) living within 50 miles.”
Fans last season went to an average of 1.63 games, spending around three-and-a-half hours at the stadium. And 41% of those attendees made over $100,000.
Together, “The Husker football crowd is a diverse audience, with students, young families, and well-off couples coming together.”
That’s all the data from Placer AI included in the presentation. But, shouldn’t we be allowed to snoop just a little bit on the company that snoops on you?
(We should note that while we say “snoop,” Placer AI states it abides by “all laws, regulations, and industry standards.” Let’s take a moment to be thankful for America’s stringent data privacy protections and for an industry that has shown a firm, steady hand at self-regulation.)
Unfortunately, Placer AI is a paid service. Unlike big schools, we didn’t want to give them our money. That’s okay, though, because the Spokane Public Library purchased a subscription as a way to help small businesses. And they put a walkthrough of how to use it on YouTube.
It’s honestly fascinating to watch, and shows …. well, let’s just say this firm is valued at $1.5 billion.
Here’s how it profiles the group with the biggest spending power in the country.
Good Life Citizens are “upper-income families living their best life just outside cities. These professionals have free time for leisure, enjoying dogs, craft beer, sports, and the outdoors. They read Psychology Today and Ad Age, and flip between the Golf Channel and Seinfeld. Health-conscious consumers, you’ll find them working out at Life Time Fitness, visiting Elements Massage, drinking local coffee, and eating at Panera Bread. They drive Volvos and Subarus. They follow personalities like Dave Portnoy and U2, and hashtag things like #nationalcoffeeday, #wellness, and #familyfun.”
Are you seething? I am.
What about the description for young professionals I alluded to earlier?
They are “well-educated college graduate renting in the trendiest part of town. Huge podcast listeners, this segment loves NPR and a host of podcasts, particularly related to true crime. For them, local is cool. Independent coffee shops are the place to hang out, LGBTQ bars are nearby, and co-op grocers are commonplace. Insomnia Cookies is a unique place for a treat. Rock climbing is a popular recreation activity … They follow Queer Eye on social and talk about #friyay, #local, #single, #coffee, and #firstworldproblems.
And they shop at West Elm and eat at Cava.
Does Placer AI have, let’s just say, interesting ways to describe different racial groups?
Tell me, do you identify more with City Sabor, Mixed Mecca, or Eastern Heritage?
And for our rural friends, you are segmented into buckets like Kids & Country, Cornfield Cabernet, and Heritage Haven.
Has Placer AI gotten in a bit of hot water for its data practices? It says no, vehemently rebuking a report from the team behind 404 Media that said the service could provide information on who visited abortion clinics, a story which led to an inquiry from Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Don’t worry. It’s doing just fine. Like we said, it’s a billion-dollar business, letting customers build targeted profiles of people near their business that they can then blast out ads to on social media. All thanks to you carrying a phone around.
Because how else are you supposed to convince the Savannah Bananas to come play a game at Memorial Stadium?
Thanks to all that data provided by you, the school succeeded. Now you get a chance to buy a ticket to the game. Do you get a discount for helping aid in this process?
No. No, you do not.
You can view the full presentation here.
And you can become a paid subscriber to FOIAball by clicking the “Upgrade” button here.
Nebraska foam finger via University of Nebraska; Cybersecurity background via GarryKillian on Freepik