It's no secret that Maryland athletics has lagged behind in fan support and revenue-generation. Its revenue for the last fiscal year was $22 million less than any other public Big Ten school, also the result of a sales and fundraising system that some say has been disjointed for years.
But first-year athletic director Jim Smith has been more ambitious than his predecessors, working to streamline the program at a time in college sports when revenue is more important than ever. His latest modernization efforts? A new internal tracking system powered by Amazon Web Services aimed at increasing revenue and rebuild fan engagement in an increasingly competitive Big Ten landscape.
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Maryland's new AI-powered analytics platform is designed to help the athletic department better understand its fans, respond to market trends faster and make smarter decisions on everything from ticket pricing to gameday experience improvements. Previously, much of the department's information existed in disconnected systems. Ticket purchase records, donor data, surveys and pricing information all had to be reviewed separately, often requiring extra time to extract useful insights.
Now, according to AWS those systems have been unified into one centralized platform capable of creating "360-degree customer profiles" that track fan behavior and engagement in real time. It should more efficiently address issues fans have often complained about, like traffic on gameday and lack of communication about fundraising.
"We're going to focus on revenue, because make no mistake about it, to compete with the caliber of schools, not just in the Big Ten but across the country, we must increase our revenues," Smith said in the fall
The new platform analyzes:
ticket-buying trends
attendance habits
donor engagement
survey responses
secondary market pricing
marketing effectiveness
fan sentiment
Instead of waiting until the offseason to study what worked and what didn't, Maryland can now react while seasons are still happening.
Survey analysis that previously took hours can now reportedly be completed in minutes using AI-powered sentiment analysis. Pricing reviews that once required weekly manual checks are now automated daily. Maryland projects the platform's dynamic pricing tools alone could generate an additional $200,000 to $300,000 in revenue in 2026.
With NIL costs, revenue sharing and operating expenses continuing to rise across college athletics, departments nationwide are searching for ways to grow revenue without dramatically expanding staff or increasing costs. Maryland believes data and automation can help close that gap.
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The larger goal isn't simply generating more money. It's improving the overall fan relationship so improvements are sustained by their affinity for the school and its teams.
"There will be a focus on fan engagement, filling SECU Stadium and Xfinity Center and providing Terrapins fans with an excellent in-arena experience," Smith said earlier this year.
After Maryland joined the Big Ten in 2014, the athletic department invested heavily in gameday modernization efforts that included upgraded ribbon boards, enhanced stadium displays and more immersive in-game entertainment designed to elevate the atmosphere at football and basketball games. Several years later, Maryland continued expanding that vision with arena-wide Wi-Fi upgrades, connected fan experiences and new digital infrastructure inside Xfinity Center aimed at making the venue feel more modern and interactive.
Its football ticket sale numbers have remained in the Big Ten's cellar, weighed down by a combined 2-16 record in Big Ten pay the past two years. There is no cure that can compete with winning. But off the field, rather than simply improving what fans see inside the stadium, Maryland is now attempting to understand how fans behave before, during and after games — and use that information to create a better overall experience.
If fans consistently complain about concessions, parking, wait times or atmosphere through surveys and feedback channels, Maryland can now identify those patterns almost immediately rather than discovering them months later. If attendance trends shift or ticket demand changes rapidly, pricing and marketing strategies can be adjusted in real time.
Smith has repeatedly emphasized that Maryland cannot rely on one major change to solve its financial and engagement challenges.
"There's no silver bullet from going toward the bottom of the Big Ten to the top of the Big Ten from a revenue perspective," Smith said. "But there's a lot of opportunity here."
That "opportunity" includes:
The AWS platform is designed to support all of those areas simultaneously. Maryland says the system has already produced $75,000 to $80,000 in annual operating savings while eliminating hundreds of hours previously spent on manual reporting and analysis. The department also doubled its annual survey capacity without adding additional employees.
Smith's professional sports background also helps explain why Maryland is leaning so heavily into analytics and customer data. Before arriving in College Park, Smith focused on optimizing the fan experience and sales with the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United, organizations that use sophisticated fan analytics and dynamic pricing models routinely.
"We're going to be trying a few new things … taking new approaches, applying what I've learned from professional leagues," Smith said.
With schools spending 10s of millions of dollars annually to pay athletes, Maryland needs the two big-revenue teams -- football and men's basketball -- to thrive. The new innovation, though, will help regardless, catching fans and revenue opportunities that have fallen through the cracks.
"In order to be successful in the Big Ten, revenues need to grow pretty dramatically," Smith said.
But Maryland's leadership believes the answer is not simply charging fans more. It's understanding them better.
In a recent message to supporters, Smith emphasized that the department has prioritized listening to fan feedback gathered through surveys, conversations, social media and direct outreach.
"We have made it a priority," he said, "to listen."
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