CalMack

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Another day, another scoreboard — even though the stadiums and ball parks are empty.

I believe this is the weekend when the finals of the conference baseball tournaments would have been played with Selection Monday for the NCAA Tournament to follow on Memorial Day.

But … you have to search to find scoreboards that are working this weekend.

I found several — with credit to a Twitter account titled SkullSparks. I went to their website and discovered logos from Louisville, Kentucky, Western Kentucky, Indiana and dozens of other college programs.

According to a post on their website, this appears to be their focus:

“SkullSparks partners with college teams to sharpen digital and design strategy. We also promote digital, design and video opportunities to the largest network of college athletics creatives in the nation.

“Founded in Tulsa in 2016, SkullSparks has grown rapidly with the rising importance of digital and design in college athletics. We serve client college programs across the country.”

Translation: Everybody is competing on every platform for your complete attention.

On to the scoreboards. When I scrolled through the SkullSparks Twitter feed, I found a string of interesting threads involving social media accounts.

Which Division I men’s basketball program has the largest number of followers on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook?

How about the Top 25 women’s basketball programs? I also found the Top 25 baseball programs.

Sadly, I was only able to uncover the Top 12 for football. The Top 130 ranked would have been a fun read.

I’ll begin with men’s basketball. Kentucky, Louisville and Indiana all have work to do.

Although Kentucky ranks second with a combined following nearly 1.8 million followers and Indiana sits fourth (behind third-place North Carolina) at 1.55 million, the leader from here to Durham is Duke — with close to 4.4 million followers.

The power of Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett goes on and on and on.

Starting with 2.2 million Twitter followers, Mike Krzyzewski’s program leads on that platform as well as Instagram (1.3 million) and Facebook (770,000).

Louisville sits 22nd with nearly 320,000 combined followers.

The Atlantic Coast Conference has six of the Top 25, the Southeastern Conference has four and the Big Ten has seven.

In women’s basketball, the leaders are not surprising — UConn followed by Tennessee.

Jeff Walz’s Louisville program ranks seventh, while Kentucky is No. 10.

In football, Alabama started creating its brand long before Twitter and the other social media accounts were launched but the Crimson Tide sit where I expected them to rank -- first, with a combined social media following of nearly 3.3 million.

There's a short gap back to Louisiana State. The Tigers are followed by Michigan, Georgia, Clemson and Ohio State in the top half dozen. (The link.)

Kentucky, Louisville and Indiana have work to do to crack the Top 25, where you can find 10 SEC programs, three from the ACC and a half-dozen from the Big Ten.

Finally there is baseball. The top seven accounts are Southeastern Conference schools, led by Louisiana State.

Louisville landed at No. 19, with Kentucky two spots behind.

(The link.)

No games today or the rest of the Memorial Day Weekend. But the competition for your attention never subsides.

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