For some Bama fans, the 144 long hours between Saturdays in the fall might feel like torture. Game day is a statewide event that people go so far as to plan weddings around, and knowledge of game days past, present and even future is something to be proud of.
The company Smart Folks LLC agreed that football, especially in the SEC, is something many people enjoy and some even thrive on, so why not make things a little more interesting and create a game specifically for those die-hard fans?
In the fall of 2009, Smart Folks launched its first online trivia challenge with Smartest Bulldog, a Georgia football themed game, and the trivia madness began.
The game saw success, and in the summer of 2010 the company decided to expand. The games now include Smartest Bama Fan, Smartest Seminole, Smartest Gamecock, Smartest Auburn Tiger, Smartest Yellow Jacket, Smartest Razorback and Smartest Gator.
“Smartest Bama Fan is a site where Bama fans can come and play trivia about their school every day,” said Marc Epstein, the social media manager for Smart Folks LLC. “They earn stars [points] which they can use to redeem for free prizes.”
Once a fan registers to play the game online at smartestbamafan.com, he or she can start playing immediately, for free. The questions are initially fairly easy and are mostly football-related, with a question about UA baseball or track and field thrown in occasionally.
As the player gets more stars, the questions get harder and the prizes get larger, ranging from hats, mugs and T-shirts to bigger prizes, such as a football autographed by Nick Saban for 25,000 stars.
Epstein said the idea for the game stemmed from a partner at Smart Folks and retired oncologist, Stan Winokur, who began an online trivia game called Smartest Oncologist.
“It was a fun way for other doctors to keep up with current treatments and other important medical information,” Epstein said. “Stan saw great success with the game and approached the other partner in the company, Rick Fine. They began discussing the idea of making [a game] for college football and from there, it evolved.”
Now, the game has more than 14,000 registered players, with as many as 1,000 playing each day, depending on the trivia site. And with the help of growing Facebook and Twitter fan communities and mobile applications (text “bama” to 53000 to download), more people are signing up every day to test their gridiron IQs.
Students, fans and alumni are all encouraged to sign up and play, and the competition continuously gets steeper with different daily, weekly and monthly winners posted on the game’s homepage.
“There are a lot of players that know their school’s history very well,” Epstein said. “Surprisingly, most of the players on our site are older individuals. This is because most of the questions require extensive knowledge of the history.”
So, instead of mourning the lack of college football throughout the week, fans of the Crimson Tide and other SEC teams can log on and play to win some interesting prizes or to chat with other fans about the game, the trivia or the history.
For more information, visit smartestbamafan.com, or visiting Smartest Bama Fan’s fan page on Facebook.
