FanSided 250: Miami Hurricanes fanbase top 20 among college programs

In the annual FanSided 250 honoring the top fanbases in sports and pop culture, the Miami Hurricanes were chosen as the 224th fanbase overall and the 16th best among collegiate programs.

The Miami Hurricanes have been one of the most polarizing fanbases, particularly in collegiate sports. In the 1980s the Hurricanes were embedded in the fanbases of college football and pop culture, particularly rap.

Groups like 2LiveCrew fronted by self-proclaimed number one Miami Hurricanes fan Luther Campbell wore Miami starter jackets. The Pell Grant scandal in the 1990s and Nevin Shapiro Ponzi scheme in the 2010s added to the Miami mystique but also set the Hurricanes football program back years.

The limit in scholarships resulting from the probation that Miami occurred in the 1990s and 2010s hindered their success on the field and cost them an untold amount of fans. Manny Diaz who was hired to be Miami’s head coach in December 2018 created a lot of buzz in the 2019 offseason via social media and appearances.

The excitement Diaz created by issuing cryptic social media posts and stunts like entering an appearance on a yacht ultimately faded away when Miami finished 6-6 in what began as a promising season. Although unranked to begin the 2018 season, Miami was picked second in the ACC Coastal Division.

The Hurricanes ultimately finished 4-4 and in a three-way tie for third place in the division with Pittsburgh and North Carolina two games behind division champion Virginia. The Hurricanes defeated the Cavaliers earlier this season. That marked the second straight year Miami defeated the Coastal titlist

The FanSided 250 originally know as Fandom 250 was initially created by FanSided co-founded Adam Best to measure the top 250 fanbases across sports and pop culture. A brief synopsis is below.

"“METHODOLOGYHow do you evaluate fandom? You can try to quantify it. On each fandom’s FanSided 250 card, you’ll see three key statistics: the Fan Vote, Search Score, and Social Follows. But numbers alone can’t measure fandom, and so our editorial team dove deep into the presence and identity of each of the nominated fandoms.Each year, we continue to make tweaks to the methodology to make our system more accurate. This year, we’ve adjusted our values as well, placing a greater emphasis on buzz — how hot a fandom was in 2019 — than ever before.Our team took into account our longstanding values of magnitude (a fanbase’s size and scope), legacy (longevity and loyalty of the fanbase) and passion, but buzz was most important.If the fans of a player, team or entertainer have buzz, we see them all over social media, they are inescapable, they dominate every physical and virtual water cooler conversation."

The remainder of the explanation about how the fanbases were measured is available at the link posted above. Miami’s fan bases have endured as long as anyone. After five national titles in 19 years and multiple other neat championships, the Miami Hurricanes fanbase is still awaiting National Championship number six.

In spite of nearly 20 years of frustration, the Miami fans are as active and loyal on social media as anyone. No matter what happens on the field Hurricanes fans are passionate, loyal and engaged. The Miami fanbase received a FAN VOTE score of 45.3, a SEARCH SCORE of 57.4 and has 821,000 SOCIAL (MEDIA) FOLLOWS.

The Miami Hurricanes fanbase finished 16th among Collegiate Fanbases. That is a very respectable score compared to their peers. Miami is expected to land a top 20 recruiting class in football and Jim Larranaga is on his way to rebuilding the basketball program after a lull. The Hurricanes should rise on this list in 2020.