The two teams that met in the 2026 NCAA men’s basketball championship in early April both have health systems.
And while the Michigan Wolverines defeated the UConn Huskies 69-63, the game was a victory for both of their healthcare arms.
“Winning the men’s NCAA basketball championship this year has given us a meaningful lift in attention, which we measure in increased viewership, website traffic, social media engagement and content consumption,” said Christine Woolsey, chief communications and marketing officer of Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine. “These kinds of moments create a powerful window to connect with broad audiences at scale.”
In the competitive spirit of his Huskies, Chris Hyers, vice president of marketing and clinical strategy advancement at Farmington-based UConn Health, said the association with the “strongest brand in basketball” has a spillover effect for his health system’s brand (UConn has appeared in three of the last four men’s NCAA championships, winning two).
“Being ‘official team physicians’ of the UConn Huskies actually scores in consumer perception studies as a top-of-mind attribute for UConn Health in blinded market studies,” he said.
Other marketing leaders at health systems affiliated with universities famous for their sports prestige similarly told Becker’s the glow from that connection pays dividends.
“VCU athletics has a large and passionate fan base throughout Virginia, and men’s basketball has a national reputation (13 NCAA Tournament bids in the past 16 years),” said Grant Heston, vice president of marketing and communications for Richmond-based VCU Health. “That affinity does have a halo effect on the health system, and we lean into athletics’ visibility and reservoir of goodwill.”
That includes student-athletes wearing Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU warmup shirts and sharing them with patients, who also decorate shoes for basketball coaches to wear (and then auction). Athletes stop by hospitals and attend cancer bell-ringing events.
These types of partnerships “lift engagement, conversion, and patient volume — all while strengthening connection with our staff and communities,” said Michael Burke, chief of marketing and business services at Los Angeles-based UCLA Health. “This comes to life through activations like team visits for patients and staff, community screening events, health content with our sports figures, and so much more.”
But the sheen of sports success doesn’t boost every service line. “It resonates most strongly in areas where the connection to performance and recovery is obvious, with orthopedics, sports medicine, and rehabilitation being the top examples,” said Anthony Condia, chief marketing and communications officer of Morgantown, W.Va.-based WVU Medicine. “In other clinical areas, such as oncology or transplant, athletics can help create awareness but rarely drives patient decision-making on its own.”
Geography also plays a role. “While the ‘Terp Nation’ footprint is vast, as you move toward the borders of neighboring states or Washington, D.C., or into professional sports-dominated corridors, we have to ensure our marketing lead is clinical excellence first, with the athletic partnership serving as a secondary validator of our local commitment,” said Matthew Clark, senior vice president of Baltimore-based University of Maryland Medical System, which is a distinct entity from College Park-based University of Maryland.
Aurora, Colo.-based UCHealth, which is also separate from Denver-based University of Colorado, still leans into collegiate athletics partnerships. As part of its Fight Like a Ram program with Fort Collins-based Colorado State University, for two games a year, men’s and women’s basketball players wear the names of UCHealth cancer patients on the backs of their jerseys.
“This provides a moment of recognition, empathy, and education, aligning the UCHealth brand with courage, resilience, and community support rather than brand messaging,” said Manny Rodriguez, chief marketing, experience and customer officer at UCHealth.
The post Beyond March Madness: Athletics boost academic health system marketing appeared first on Becker's Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.
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