Nielsen Impact Score was originally created for men’s college basketball, and will now include more than 100 college American football programmes.

The tool is designed to help coaches and teams market their programme in line with new National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) name, image and likeness rules to potential student-athletes via recruiting and proprietary marketing data.

Data from Nielsen’s television measurement tools and local market research is incorporated into Nielsen Impact Score to help a university team’s staff demonstrate the impact its programme can have on prospective players.

The Nielsen Impact Score is a marketing value index that compares programmes across national exposure, local market impact and social media engagement.

College American football is considered the second tier of American football after the National Football League (NFL) and provides players to the professional league through a draft system.

Jon Stainer, managing director at Nielsen Sports, said: “It is exciting to see the continued momentum and demand for Nielsen Sports and the types of data-driven solutions we’re able to bring to the market to help sports leagues, teams, governing bodies, brands, rights-holders – and in this case, university athletic programmes.”