New York Times CFB Fan Map
The New York TImes just came out with a cool interactive map that breaks down which team each county in the U.S. roots for. If you click on the map it should pop up.
There are a bunch of interesting things in here. For example:
- There are more Michigan fans in the Columbus area than there are Ohio State fans in Ann Arbor
- Northwestern doesn't crack the top three in any county in the state of Illinois
- Michigan is number 3 in Chicago behind Notre Dame and Illinois
- Auburn and Alabama are not nearly as even geographically as I would have imagined
What else can you find?
October 3rd, 2014 at 11:17 AM ^
Lower Manhattan has a plurality of UM fans.
My last zip code in Chicago (60657) has UM leading... my new zip code is tied with Illinois and ND. No wonder I like it around here.
October 3rd, 2014 at 11:24 AM ^
Interesting to see the different mix of team alliances near the Michigan/Ohio border.
October 3rd, 2014 at 11:29 AM ^
It's evident that they did not include UNC in their analysis, but then they go on to comment about how UNC is not the most popular team in any ZIP code in North Carolina.
October 3rd, 2014 at 11:32 AM ^
Most of San Francisco has Michigan as the #3. This is surprising. Cool map. Thanks
October 3rd, 2014 at 11:53 AM ^
I see some weird stuff in here that makes me doubt how accurate it is. They say it's just the number of facebook likes from that county. The third most popular team in Luce County, MI in the UP is Oregon? At 4.4%? Maybe only like 10 people live in that county and a family moved there from Oregon? There are some other weird ones like a county near Chicago where 5% like Texas for some reason.
Still cool to see. It's interesting that besides Lansing, State is more popular in the Traverse City area.
In Gilpin County, CO, it says Michigan is the most popular team.
Surprised how Oregon is more popular than Stanford or Cal immediately outside of San Fran. Stanford doesn't even come in 2nd in the surrounding counties.
Check out the counties in a state with no football powers like ND. It's a total hodgepodge.
NC is probably the most divided state. A bunch of programs but none of them good enough to dominate large swaths of territory.
Solely looking at the size of where they're first, Oregon has the largest footprint. They own Oregon, and half of California and Montana each.
October 3rd, 2014 at 11:43 AM ^
This is a pretty cool map, and it is nice to see that downriver's (home ZIP of 48174) Wolverine fans outpace their Spartan counterparts by a slightly more than a 2:1 margin in most of the surrounding ZIP codes.
Another thing that is interesting about Wayne County is that the relative mix of Michigan / MSU north of M-14 and so on to Eight Mile evens out a little bit, although it still favors Michigan. It narrows further once you cross into Oakland County too.
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:08 PM ^
It's almost as if the further away from Ann Arbor you get the more MSU fans you encounter. Although that one douchy OSU fan is everywhere.
October 3rd, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^
It looks like the state of Michigan has a large tumor right in the middle.
October 3rd, 2014 at 11:49 AM ^
October 3rd, 2014 at 12:57 PM ^
Thoughts...
1. Ugh, being from Mid-Michigan sucks. Almost anywhere else in the state...
2. This map definitely illustrates why so many State alums think their fanbase consists of very few non-alum fans: they're from outside Mid-Michigan and during their time here, didn't see much beyond East Lansing, not that there is much to see. I know Ingham, Eaton, Clinton, and Shiawassee Counties pretty well, and I can tell you the ~40-70% of people in those counties who are MSU fans are definitely not mostly alumni. Lots of them are just green-clad carbon copies of the people they love to deride as "Walmart Wolverines"
3. My girlfriend is from the GR area, surprised the gap between M and State isn't larger. Seems like far more Michigan fans when we're there, although we don't go many places besides downtown
4. Surprised the Michigan fan count isn't a little higher around Columbus. Obviously it's overwhelmingly Buckeye, but I lived there a while and it seemed like ~10-15% of people I met detested Ohio State. Many thus pulled for Michigan despite having no ties, mainly just to annoy their Buckeye friends and family
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:05 PM ^
I grew up in the GR/Cascade area. I'd say it's getting to be pretty split down the middle, maybe 60-40 for Michigan in the early 2000s, and that is creeping more towards 55-45 now that State is good at football as well as basketball. It is closer to Lansing obviously, and maybe State putting in the medical facilities downtown has something to do with it also. Who knows.
I suspect what you're saying about Michigan fans in Ohio is right...in Michigan, if you want to rebel/annoy your ties to one school, you just cheer for the other one. In Ohio there isn't another big state school to rival OSU so you look elsewhere. Obviously the further South you go, generally the less that happens.
October 3rd, 2014 at 11:52 AM ^
Thanks for the post.
October 3rd, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^
We are number one in Gilpin County, Colorado (pop. 5440)!
I live in Colorado, where many of us are transplants, but I am still surprised by the low level of support for CU, CSU, and Air Force.
October 3rd, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^
Interesting that Traverse City is like an MSU exclave
Also interesting to see how far into California Oregon has reached. They are all up in Stanford and Cal's territory
October 3rd, 2014 at 12:10 PM ^
There are more Wisconsin fans than Minnesota fans in the home zip code of Minnesota's stadium. That's a rough statistic for a Gopher fan.
October 3rd, 2014 at 12:15 PM ^
Interesting find. I honestly expected there to be a little more Wolverine love in Toledo than there is. Whenever I'm there or talking to people from there, I've gotten the impression that it was closer to 50/50 split. I think I may have been a bit off...
October 3rd, 2014 at 12:19 PM ^
Washington DC has Maryland #1, but either osu or Michigan second.
Ohio, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Arkansas are extremely homogeneous.
Surprisingly strong Michigan presence right around UCLA on the map. Otherwise, it's all USC, UCLA, and Oregon.
ohio state is strong in that den of iniquity, las vegas. Makes sense ;)
South Dakota is basically North Nebraska.
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:02 PM ^
Especially Howard County or Montgomery County in MD, and DC proper. All teem with Michigan fans, lots of Maize and Blue, block M hats and gear on Saturdays.
If you see two Asians with a Bernese Mountain Dog wearing Michigan gear, say hi to me and my wife.
October 3rd, 2014 at 12:59 PM ^
Wisconsin covers the state with 80% fans. Even in Ann Arbor the best we can do is high 60s.
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:22 PM ^
That may have something to do with the number of Power 5 football programs in the state of Wisconsin.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:38 PM ^
The large Florida fanbase in New England surprises me. What explains that?
Minnesota is interesting as well. They really are apathetic there - the Gophers are struggling to get above 10% support in most countries, and Wisconsin has basically annexed large portions of the state - including Minneapolis!
Arizona and Mississippi are other weird ones. In most states the flagship school has the larger fanbase and the agricultural school is stuck in a little area, but there it's the opposite.
Finally, did UNC fans boycott this? They don't show up anywhere in North Carolina.
October 3rd, 2014 at 5:29 PM ^
No wonder Illini fans think we're their archrival . . . Cook County is 9% Illinois, 7% ND and 7% Michigan - and we're in first place in several Chicago zip codes.
October 26th, 2019 at 7:20 PM ^
What, awesome map and idea in general :D What also would be cool is to search by zip codes or by area codes. I live at 215 area code location which is in Pennsylvania and Penn State is my team.