Geography of College Football (NYTimes Blog)
Good Read on a survey done for the geography of CFB.
http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/the-geography-of-college-fo…
The study used an online survey asking 30,000 fans nationwide to identify their team and where they live.
Clickable map of fandom nationwide:
CommonCensus Sports Map Project
Most popular teams (according to the survey)
B1G:
September 19th, 2011 at 6:56 PM ^
but there must be a better way to determine how many college football fans there are in different parts of the USA than to track how often "college football" is Googled. Are TV rating data not available by region?
September 19th, 2011 at 6:59 PM ^
Eastern Michigan is huge in Montana!
September 19th, 2011 at 9:02 PM ^
Eastern Michigan is huge in Montana!
Hurons forever!
September 19th, 2011 at 7:01 PM ^
B10 should grab ND and try to swipe TAMU out from under the SEC's nose and then stop at 14 teams. UT is way too much trouble and it's hard to see any of the other reasonably available schools being worthwhile.
September 19th, 2011 at 7:03 PM ^
I was shocked how low Oklahoma is on that list. Texas A&M is listed as having 2 M fans versus the Sooner's 1.2 M - that sheds light as to why the SEC would realistically consider A&M, despite the Aggies finishing in the Top 25 all of one time this decade.
September 19th, 2011 at 7:19 PM ^
If their methodology is to be believed, it probably just means that Oklahoma fans express their fandom less on the Internet.
September 19th, 2011 at 7:23 PM ^
Probably can't operate it...
September 19th, 2011 at 7:43 PM ^
The Internet made it to Oklahoma? We HAVE arrived in the 21st century now.
September 19th, 2011 at 11:47 PM ^
We are running out of our AOL free minutes.
September 19th, 2011 at 7:48 PM ^
Depending on what happens with Texas, they might have a big recruiting advantage ala Florida. "Sure, son, you can go play for FSU or Miami (Texas and Tech or Oklahoma) or you can come play in the ESSS EEEE SEEEE."
September 19th, 2011 at 7:03 PM ^
This "study" claims that Georgia Tech has over a 50% larger fan base than Georgia.
September 19th, 2011 at 7:04 PM ^
#2 overall. I can tell you that the number of Michigan fans here in NE Ohio has dropped dramatically since I was in high school 12-15 years ago. Once things return to their natural order aka us whipping Ohio, we will be #1.
September 19th, 2011 at 7:51 PM ^
I don't know, I was trying to find a throwback jersey the other day and couldn't. I feel like the tide may be turning...
September 20th, 2011 at 12:26 AM ^
Is natural order considered an unranked 7-4 Michigan upsetting an 11-0 OSU team?
September 19th, 2011 at 7:15 PM ^
interesting conclusions, basically in line with what most of us believe will happen for the B1G:
try like hell to land Notre Dame and bring Mizzou along if it happens
September 19th, 2011 at 7:15 PM ^
Those Wal-Mart Wolverines...
/sarcasm
September 19th, 2011 at 7:15 PM ^
there are all sorts of issues with the methodology here. for starters, what college football fan actually googles "college football"? that sounds distinctly like something a non-fan would do. i don't google "michigan football", i just go to espn and mgoblog. brian's more obscure references, on the other hand, i will google. that doesn't mean i like those things, just that i came across them and was inquisitive.
September 19th, 2011 at 7:24 PM ^
yea but the clickable map of 30,000 entries seems something only a fan would go through. It's clearly not a scientific study, but I think theres some very interesting findings in there. At the very least, we can assume the B1G is a pretty internet heavy fanbase.
September 19th, 2011 at 9:00 PM ^
so we can reasonably conclude that big 10 fans are more capable of affording and using a computer...?
September 19th, 2011 at 9:37 PM ^
The author acknowledged that the method isn't perfect in the article:
"This approach isn’t going to be perfect — unless you were willing to spend literally hundreds of thousands of dollars on a scientific survey of college football fans, you’re going to have to resort to some educated guesses."
It is a non-conventional way of getting this information, but it is still an interesting result.
September 19th, 2011 at 7:31 PM ^
The data really supports UM-OSU being the biggest rivalry game.
September 19th, 2011 at 8:07 PM ^
This is a really interesting blog post and does indicate where the B1G ought to expand if it so chooses. I'm not crazy about expansion, but I think that's where this thing is gonna end up. Some of the data seems fishy but I don't think there's any way around that in a survey like this that simply uses available data/techniques.
If expansion to 16 had to happen would hope it was Missouri, Kansas, Notre Dame, and then I don't really care about #4. Judging from Silver's blog post, though, the B1G ought to add Rutgers and then send Notre Dame out there to play in New York, since they have the largest sheer numbers of fans in NYC than anywhere else.
September 19th, 2011 at 8:07 PM ^
however, I have visited mgoblog thousands of times over several years. where's my vote?!
September 19th, 2011 at 8:12 PM ^
I think Hoke has changed the tide on the rivalry. Hell people in Ohio are starting to believe him. Never in a million years I would have thought that. Selling Michigan jerseys is a good start.
September 19th, 2011 at 8:17 PM ^
Michigan State would be number one if this survey was conducted on a "Nationally polled level" and not a "nationwide" poll. So, I don't see any validity in this one bit.
September 19th, 2011 at 8:18 PM ^
Some of these make sense, but others are odd. Does Iowa really have more fans than Nebraska? I don't know about that one. I have a hard time believing Clemson is in the top 10, ahead of Georgia and LSU (to name a couple).
September 19th, 2011 at 8:25 PM ^
Passionate fans of college football are less likely to Google "college football" than casual fans. In fact, people who Google "college football" are probably doing so for reasons other than fandom.
September 19th, 2011 at 9:07 PM ^
I don't think I've googled just "college football," but I have googled "college football scores" and such before. Does that count?
September 19th, 2011 at 9:09 PM ^
503 message strikes again.
September 19th, 2011 at 8:27 PM ^
Places like West Virginia don't even have the internet yet, so this seems a bit flawed.
September 19th, 2011 at 8:34 PM ^
Didn't know where to post this but I was wondering what you guys think of this article?
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-wetzel_notre_dame_should_jump_to_acc_091911
It pretty much says ND should join the ACC because of population trends and even though big ten offers more money ND isn't really worried about money and it keeps them on the east coast. Plus there is this:
Conference Wholly-Owned Top 50 TV Markets Partially-Owned Top 50 TV Markets
ACC 10 9
Big Ten 9 2
Pac-12 12 4
SEC 4 11
Don't think it will happen but I think its more of a possibility than people think given the large ND presence on the east coast.
September 19th, 2011 at 9:04 PM ^
Thats a decimal between the number so
acc 10.9
big ten 9.2
pac 12 12.4
sec 4.11
September 19th, 2011 at 8:58 PM ^
its a little suprising to me how high penn state is on that list
September 19th, 2011 at 9:05 PM ^
Why? They're the flagship school of a large state, have a long history of success, and play in a giant stadium (second in size only to ours). They seem like a logical top-5 fanbase to me.
September 19th, 2011 at 9:26 PM ^
I was thinking that Texas or Notre Dame one of the schools with more tradition and history of winning would be higher
September 19th, 2011 at 9:46 PM ^
PSU is fifth in all time wins, eleventh in win percentage and has seven national titles.
September 19th, 2011 at 10:23 PM ^
I know, but Texas and Notre Dame are second and third in wins and nd has 12 national titles i belive
September 19th, 2011 at 9:14 PM ^
a 98.3 % chance that we should have recruited East Lansing HS alum Nate Silver. I think these are great metrics; how to quantify a "fan base" is not immediately obvious, and this kind of ad hoc multifactor analysis is as useful as anything. I'd like to see more metrics on depth of interest. Maybe more detailed licensing/ merchandise data is available?
(And admit it, Nate beat you in debate in high school in the 90s as well.)
September 19th, 2011 at 9:57 PM ^
While the author admits the shortcoming in data collection, it makes a lot of sense - and shows why the B1G may be content to sit at 12, unless a ND comes knocking. Which I hope is the case.
Thank you for posting this
September 19th, 2011 at 10:41 PM ^
Possibly the Mgobloggers googling Ohio state to determine how much popcorn we need to butter?
September 20th, 2011 at 1:54 AM ^
But I like Rutgers. They have by far the most fans in New York, and can deliver the 9 million people in New Jersey(sort of). Then, combined with Michigan, OSU, PSU, and perhaps ND should be just enough to get the BTN on basic tier in NY. Christ, if that happens, we should rename ourselves the "STFU and pay me" conference.
September 20th, 2011 at 10:56 AM ^
The money alone that would come from getting BTN into NYC would be nice. But people in NYC don't care about college football. They have the Yankees and Broadway. They get about as excited for college football as they do about visiting the Midwest.
September 20th, 2011 at 10:14 AM ^
take this survey again in a couple years after ohio has a few bad seasons and then tell me how many fans they have