Published on November 11, 2025 by Catherine Smith  

Darin W. White, founder of Samford’s Sports Industry Program, is seeking insights on the path professional soccer must take to rival the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball in the United States. White’s upcoming study—“2026 World Cup Study: What will it actually take to make soccer mainstream in America”—will track sports fans’ soccer engagement through multiple data streams over several years. 

“The short answer is yes,the World Cup will be a watershed moment for soccer in America,” White told The Los Angeles Times in November. “However, it’s unlikely to immediately lead to a significant increase in ticket sales for MLS and NWSL. Soccer fandom in America develops differently from that of other sports.” 

The study, conducted through Samford’s Center for Sports Analytics, will follow American fans through the 2026 FIFA World Cup to explore a long-debated question: Why hasn’t soccer become truly mainstream in the United States, and what will it take to get there? 

MORE: Latest news from Samford’s Center for Sports Analytics 

Led by White, who serves as executive director of the center and the Margaret Gage Bush Distinguished Professor, the research introduces the “4P Soccer Passion Model” That’s a framework designed to explain how Americans develop lasting engagement with the sport. The model emerged from years of student-led projects analyzing fan behavior for Fortune 500 sponsors, U.S. soccer organizations and international clubs from leagues including the German? Bundesliga, English Premier League and Scottish Premiership. 

“Each project approached the question from a different angle—consumer behavior, social media engagement, viewing patterns, merchandise purchases, attendance drivers,” White explained. “But over time, common patterns began to emerge. Americans weren't engaging with soccer in the same way they did with the Big Four sports (MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL). There was a distinct progression, a pipeline if you will, that fans moved through. That's when we began synthesizing these findings into a comprehensive framework.” 

The result is the 4P Soccer Passion Model—Pipeline for Producing Permanent Passion—which outlines four stages through which fans typically progress as they develop a deeper connection to the sport. The model challenges industry assumptions and offers new insights for brands, teams and leagues seeking to grow soccer’s footprint in the U.S. 

As the nation counts down to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Samford’s Center for Sports Analytics continues to position students and faculty at the forefront of understanding the evolving landscape of global sport. Ranked by The Wall Street Journal as No. 3 in career preparation and No. 7 in student learning opportunities, Samford demonstrates its ongoing commitment to hands-on, career-ready education. 

 
Located in the Homewood suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford enrolls 6,324 students from 44 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford is widely recognized as having one of the most beautiful campuses in America, featuring rolling hills, meticulously maintained grounds and Georgian-Colonial architecture. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks with the second-highest score in the nation for its 98% Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.