The NCAA and Turner Sports launched a newly designed NCAA.com this week. The site features an adaptive design, which provides users an optimal viewing experience across all devices -- desktop, tablet and mobile. In addition to a new look-and-feel and simplified navigation, the site has an expanded content offering with the new NCAA Championships Central – a hub for live video, highlights, brackets, scores and related content for all 89 NCAA championships.
This is the first redesign for NCAA.com since the formation of NCAA Digital in 2010, the 14-year agreement between NCAA and Turner Sports for the NCAA’s Digital portfolio and 89 NCAA Championships. The redesign continues a period of strong growth for the digital property as the site has seen a significant audience increase as its coverage of regular season college football and basketball and NCAA championships has expanded. For the 2012-13 academic year, NCAA.com averaged 5.1 million unique visitors per month, an increase of 36% from the previous year. Mobile traffic saw even bigger gains with a 77% increase in monthly unique visitors.*
Additional features of the new NCAA.com design include:
Championship Mode – During the fall, winter and spring NCAA championship seasons, the site will take on an enhanced look-and-feel. Live video streaming of 65+ championships will be featured prominently on the homepage and sport section fronts.
Personalization - Users have the ability to personalize their NCAA.com experience by selecting up to three favorite schools and sports. Login can be done via social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google+) or by completing a simple registration.
Enhanced School Pages - The schools drop-down menu highlights the top 20 “trending” schools. Users can search the database of 1,300+ NCAA member institutions to access their school page, which features news and social feeds from the school’s official accounts as well as rosters and schedules for several sports.
Expanded Scoreboards – NCAA.com continues to be the destination for college sports scores. This fall, the site expanded its scoreboards to include all divisions of football, women’s volleyball, men’s soccer and women’s soccer. Another 10+ sports will be rolled out in subsequent months.
Curated Twitter Content – In addition to pulling in Twitter feeds from member institutions and official NCAA accounts, NCAA.com editors will have the ability to feature noteworthy or topical tweets on the homepage and sport section fronts.
- Experience It Live – The one-stop shop for NCAA championship tickets, hospitality and game-day experiences.
“Our goal with the NCAA.com redesign was to give our users a more simplified, personalized and consistent experience across all devices,” said Mark Johnson, vice president of business operations, Turner Sports/NCAA Digital. “This new design allows us to better feature our unparalleled coverage of NCAA championships and the many compelling student-athlete stories surrounding those events. It also better positions us in an ever-changing digital landscape to provide our content to users via their preferred device.”
“Our partners at Turner Sports continue to keep the NCAA’s digital presence on the cutting edge,” said Keith Martin, NCAA managing director of championships and alliances. “This redesign will enhance the user experience and allow our fans to receive content in a more efficient manner.”
