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Fan-driven weekly index will once again measure social media activity of fans in support of their favorite teams

USA TODAY Sports today launched the 2015 College Football Fan Index presented by Goodyear®, the only digital index that combines social media activity and online fan voting to determine the ultimate college football fan base.

The College Football Fan Index presented by Goodyear® is an in-depth ranking of the top college football fan bases as determined through social chatter aggregation and online fan voting across weekly editorial fan-driven themes such as best tailgates and best traditions. The index is measured based on the social activity of each school’s fan base, including sharing photos and videos, as well as the voting results of weekly themed polls that ask fans to determine which schools offer the best fan experience.

Ohio State captured the first College Football Fan Index last season.

“The College Football Fan Index has confirmed for us what we already suspected: that college football fan bases are the most passionate and rabid in sports,” said Dave Morgan, President, USA TODAY Sports Media Group. “The Fan Index is able to quantify the passion that each school’s fan base generates beyond the games themselves, as well as to determine which traditions and fan experiences resonate the most with fans around the country.”

Beyond voting on a weekly basis, fans will be encouraged to once again support their favorite schools and be as creative with their social media posts to achieve a high social ranking as part of the Fan Index chart by using the hashtag #fanindex on social media. The Fan Index has created direct alignment with more than 100 NCAA FBS schools and their social media networks (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, etc.).

The social activity will be tracked weekly, with weekly themes unveiled each Saturday. Voting will continue through each Wednesday before rankings are released online each Wednesday afternoon and in print on Thursday mornings.

The results will be tracked throughout the season, and then be added up into a final cumulative Fan Index at the end of the season.

Weekly Fan Index voting themes for the upcoming season are as follows:

              Date     Week     Theme 10/3/15     1     Best Tailgates 10/10/15     2     Best NFL Players Produced 10/17/15     3     Best Stadium/Atmosphere 10/24/15     4     Best Fight Song 10/31/15     5     Best Road Trip 11/7/15     6     Best Uniforms/Helmets 11/14/15     7     Best Entrances 11/21/15     8     Best Mascots 11/28/15     9     Best Bands 12/5/15     10     Best Social Media        

About the USA TODAY Sports Media Group

The USA TODAY Sports Media Group encompasses all sports initiatives across USA TODAY Sports and Gannett's more than 120 well-known local media brands. It also includes the sports photography wire service USA TODAY Sports Images; leading high school sports destination USA TODAY High School Sports; the social news hub For The Win, and the hundreds of sites within USA TODAY Sports Digital Properties such as TheBigLead.com and mixed martial arts site MMAJunkie.com, among others. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI).

About Goodyear

Goodyear is one of the world’s largest tire companies. It employs approximately 67,000 people and manufactures its products in 50 facilities in 22 countries around the world. Its two Innovation Centers in Akron, Ohio and Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg strive to develop state-of-the-art products and services that set the technology and performance standard for the industry. For more information about Goodyear or its products, go to www.goodyear.com.

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USA TODAY Sports Media GroupAmber AllmanVice President, Corporate Communications703-854-5358aallman@gannett.com