A graphic from The Upshot and the New York Times reveals where college football is the most popular in the United States.
Previously on The Upshot, a graphic was revealed that showed which parts of the country root for which college football teams. The New York Times takes it a step further with a new graphic that shows where college football is the most popular. It’s no surprise that the highest concentration of college football fans is in the southeast, and specifically Alabama, as Phil Hecken points out.
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The University of Alabama has finished with the No.1 ranking in three of its last five seasons, so it’s probably not a surprise that fans like good football teams. The question is, is the concentration of intense college football fans simply because Alabama has fielded good teams in at least the last five years? Or is it the other way around. The University of Alabama has consistently been good because of the intensity of fan support. Fan support obviously often translates into financial support of the university.
Some Twitter users suggested that the map also shows where poorer areas of the country are, i.e. those unable to put much financial backing into a university football program. In some cases, that might be true, but looking at Washington State seems to debunk that. The state is on the lower end of college football popularity, yet the University of Washington certainly receives plenty of support and has fielded good teams in the past.
Other than Alabama, the rest of the Southeast and parts of the Midwest are also high in college football fan concentration. Another thing to look at is that college football tends to be more popular in places without an NFL team. For example, Alabama and Nebraska appear to have the highest concentration of fans and neither have an NFL team.
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