NYT: Football fans by school

KoldBeer · September 19, 2011

This is kind of interesting to look at. I think it gives you a little feel for where schools are with regards to overall popularity (the sample size on the popularity numbers seems a little low and rankings based on favorite team and not on teams people would watch). North Texas finishes above a couple of schools we hear a lot about in realignment.

School of interest:

5. UT

6. A&M

19. OU

33. Texas Tech

65. TCU

85. Baylor

86. North Texas (3rd in Belt behind Troy and Arkansas St)

97. SMU

103. Rice

105. Tulsa

112. Houston

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/the-geography-of-college-football-fans-and-realignment-chaos/?src=twrhp

TheColonyEagle · September 19, 2011

That is a fascinating read.

The Sunbelt ranks above the MAC and the WAC. One comment was what the sunbelt has going for it:

"it’s in the right part of the country for college football"

Which is why I think a hybrid conference along the gulf from TX to FLA with Sunbelt and CUSA teams could work long term.

UNTFan23 · September 19, 2011

We'd be right in the middle of the pack in CUSA. :rolleyes:

TIgreen01 · September 19, 2011

Great stuff!

Funny that little old UNT has more fans than every other school in the state that's not playing Auto-AQ football and is BARELY behind Baylor. We come in at 202k fans and the mighty Houston Cougars have 100K!

Also funny that La Monroe has more fans than La Tech!! Ha!

rcade · September 19, 2011

That link claims Georgia Tech has 500,000 more fans than Georgia (1.6 million to 1.1). I can't take anything else seriously after noting that.

There are at least five times as many Georgia fans as Georgia Tech fans in the state.

ColoradoEagle · September 19, 2011

It's nice, but how do you explain $14 million per year TV contract for CUSA (2,641,778 fans) vs. $1 million for SBC (1,797,894 fans)? As much as I like our position on the list, I don't buy these numbers.

Eastwood Eagle · September 20, 2011

Yeah, I highly suspect that this list is full of statistical inaccuracies. Correct me if I'm wrong but they used google searches to generate these numbers?

Mean Green 93-98 · September 20, 2011

That link claims Georgia Tech has 500,000 more fans than Georgia (1.6 million to 1.1). I can't take anything else seriously after noting that.

There are at least five times as many Georgia fans as Georgia Tech fans in the state.

Look at the formula. This thread is misnamed, as the article does not deal directly with fan following or game attendance, but has everything to do with TV sets. Georgia Tech is in Atlanta, which has a whole lot more TV sets than Athens.