The Geography of College Football

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I found it interesting that, according to this study/method, Minnesota has more fans than Washington and Pittsburgh. Those are two teams located in metro areas that have both had real success at times. It's shocking that Minnesota has the 28th most fans in the nation despite most of us never seeing a good season. I might be missing a team somewhere, but the only team on that list with more fans than Minnesota that has not been to a BCS bowl is South Carolina who currently has Steve Spurrier coaching its team.
 

EG#9 said:
I found it interesting that, according to this study/method, Minnesota has more fans than Washington and Pittsburgh. Those are two teams located in metro areas that have both had real success at times. It's shocking that Minnesota has the 28th most fans in the nation despite most of us never seeing a good season. I might be missing a team somewhere, but the only team on that list with more fans than Minnesota that has not been to a BCS bowl is South Carolina who currently has Steve Spurrier coaching its team.
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Another thing I found interesting was the comparison between Minnesota and Oregon. While the Twin Cities market is much larger than Eugene's, I would expect there to be huge bandwagon jumpers after their very recent success. I know the method isn't perfect, but the difference is close to 300,000 fans which is mind-boggling.
 

"The only two conferences that can feel completely secure right now are the Big Ten and the S.E.C..

They’re the two that have taken the most conservative attitude toward expansion over the past decade or two, waiting for programs of the caliber of Penn State, Nebraska and Texas A&M to become interested before increasing their ranks."

Stay the course.

We have "more fans" than all the Pac-12 schools but the two LA teams, and the entire Big East. I also find it interesting that Boston College is really low. Before Belichek and Brady, B.C. at times outdrew the Patriots on a weekend.
 


EG#9 said:
I found it interesting that, according to this study/method, Minnesota has more fans than Washington and Pittsburgh. Those are two teams located in metro areas that have both had real success at times. It's shocking that Minnesota has the 28th most fans in the nation despite most of us never seeing a good season. I might be missing a team somewhere, but the only team on that list with more fans than Minnesota that has not been to a BCS bowl is South Carolina who currently has Steve Spurrier coaching its team.
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I think it's pretty accurate. If you asked Minnesotans who they cheer for in college football, most of the natives are going to say Minnesota. They're just going to really effing cynical about it. We have a massive latent fan base, if we could somehow figure out how to string together a great five year run you'd really see it. Not much competition in the area. We even steal some fans from the eastern part of the Dakotas, though I see that dwindling if we can't knock off NDSU or South Dakota every once in a while. ;)

Pittsburgh has major competition, most of Pennsylvania is going to cheer for Penn State, and you have a very successful BCS team in WVU in their backyard.

Washington is affected by Washington State, and the pacific NW is far less "tuned into" college football than the midwest.

The list does have a lot of flaws though. I mean, I highly, highly doubt Georgia Tech is the 11th most popular team in the nation. They get bumped up due to Atlanta's rabid SEC fan base. But most of ATL residents are transplants and don't give a crap about Georgia Tech.

Also, who really thinks Auburn is more popular than Alabama?
 

NateDawgUM said:
Also, who really thinks Auburn is more popular than Alabama?
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I can't speak for Auburn vs Alabama but I can vouch for something similar: Texas A&M is as popular as Texas. Texas is the glamour school but there are just as many A&M fans as UT fans and I'd even consider A&M fans to be more "passionate." It wasn't surprising to me to see A&M and Texas basically tied for # of fans.

I agree with GT. This survery doesn't take into consideration rabid fans. More people may consider GT "their" team compared to Georgia but I'm willing to bet a very large chunk of those GT fans follow their team by checking the box score online and no more.
 

It was mentioned in another thread, but one major flaw in this study is that it's based on google searches for "college football" by area and then the number of people who have gone to that site to identify what college team they follow. The writer also did some normalizing of the data based on revenues of different athletic departments (which, oddly, only factored out some really small schools as opposed to normalizing rabid fans like Alabama clicking multiple times).

Kind of a flawed system (it may not get the exact #4 vs #5 teams) but overall I think the trend is pretty accurate.

I'd also agree that many people who identified themselves as gopher fans clearly don't show it (ticket sales, apparel, and general fan interest proves otherwise) but that they are big time latent fans. Tons of people in this state have a son/daughter who went to the U, a brother, a niece, SOME tie that they would absolutely pull for the Gophers and be avid followers if we showed some moxy on the field for a while. Alas.
 

It would be interesting to take this data and cross reference it with home stadium size and annual attendance. My feeling is there is a sleeping fan base for Gopher football that would spring to action and stay for the long haul if the team underwent the same, prolonged transformation that Wisconsin has enjoyed since the 90's. It would take that long, but I would think you'd see the stadium expanded to 65K if not the actual potential 80K if it became a semi-consistent upper tier Big 10 team over a 20 year period.

I do think the current stadium capacity would be filled regularly even with Mason type team success over a 10 year period (provided that overall moderate success isn't punctuated with the endless series of gut punch collapse games). The dome was a natural college fan suppressor. Even Mason-like success could cultivate a better fan base in the new stadium, provided some other college game day atmosphere barriers are removed over time. We all know what most of these barriers are as they have been discussed at length here.

I know a LOT of people that simply keep the Gophers on the back burner but they do pull for the team and wait for a sign to invest more of their attention. The key to college football success in this market starts with team success but the stadium is a game changer that will keep a lot of fans even in down years if they get hooked. The problem is, that "hook" has remained on the shelf for over 40 years now. 2003 was as close as I have seen to the ignition we all want to see. One putrid half of football against Michigan ensured that sleeping fan base could be allowed to hit "snooze" for one more 10 year period of time.
 



RailBaronYarr said:
It was mentioned in another thread, but one major flaw in this study is that it's based on google searches for "college football" by area and then the number of people who have gone to that site to identify what college team they follow. The writer also did some normalizing of the data based on revenues of different athletic departments (which, oddly, only factored out some really small schools as opposed to normalizing rabid fans like Alabama clicking multiple times).

Kind of a flawed system (it may not get the exact #4 vs #5 teams) but overall I think the trend is pretty accurate.

I'd also agree that many people who identified themselves as gopher fans clearly don't show it (ticket sales, apparel, and general fan interest proves otherwise) but that they are big time latent fans. Tons of people in this state have a son/daughter who went to the U, a brother, a niece, SOME tie that they would absolutely pull for the Gophers and be avid followers if we showed some moxy on the field for a while. Alas.
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Tons of people grew up(and still live) in this state as Gopher fans without ever anttending the U or having a family member attend the U. This is the University for the whole state of Minnesota. This is the only D1 school(except hockey) in the state. This is a fan base that if often overlooked by many people.
 

station19 said:
Tons of people grew up(and still live) in this state as Gopher fans without ever anttending the U or having a family member attend the U. This is the University for the whole state of Minnesota. This is the only D1 school(except hockey) in the state. This is a fan base that if often overlooked by many people.
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My point was that other than this being THE state university there are tons of ties to the U whether it's family, friends, attended a hospital, or just plain love MN but are very latent because of the team's ineptitude. They'll wear a MN sweatshirt but never attend a game. Check the score on the TV but not talk about it at the cooler the next day. Etc.
 

NateDawgUM said:
If you asked Minnesotans who they cheer for in college football, most of the natives are going to say Minnesota. They're just going to really effing cynical about it. We have a massive latent fan base, if we could somehow figure out how to string together a great five year run you'd really see it.
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I agree with Nate.
 

Studwell & Nate preach the good word.

My personal opinion: Minnesota & Wisconsin are quite similar programs...the difference is that they got the right people in place, kicked down the F-ing door in 1993 and their program, fan base & state have never looked back. Minnesota has yet to do it! We had one shot in 2003 and we let it slam in our face.
 



Schnauzer said:
It would be interesting to take this data and cross reference it with home stadium size and annual attendance. My feeling is there is a sleeping fan base for Gopher football that would spring to action and stay for the long haul if the team underwent the same, prolonged transformation that Wisconsin has enjoyed since the 90's. It would take that long, but I would think you'd see the stadium expanded to 65K if not the actual potential 80K if it became a semi-consistent upper tier Big 10 team over a 20 year period.

I do think the current stadium capacity would be filled regularly even with Mason type team success over a 10 year period (provided that overall moderate success isn't punctuated with the endless series of gut punch collapse games). The dome was a natural college fan suppressor. Even Mason-like success could cultivate a better fan base in the new stadium, provided some other college game day atmosphere barriers are removed over time. We all know what most of these barriers are as they have been discussed at length here.

I know a LOT of people that simply keep the Gophers on the back burner but they do pull for the team and wait for a sign to invest more of their attention. The key to college football success in this market starts with team success but the stadium is a game changer that will keep a lot of fans even in down years if they get hooked. The problem is, that "hook" has remained on the shelf for over 40 years now. 2003 was as close as I have seen to the ignition we all want to see. One putrid half of football against Michigan ensured that sleeping fan base could be allowed to hit "snooze" for one more 10 year period of time.
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I agree that their is a sleeping fan base for Gopher football, but I strongly disagree that Mason type "success" would regularly fill the stadium. Going 3-5 in the conference and regularly losing to Iowa and Wisconsin won't put any more buts in the seats. At a minimum, the team needs to hit a few 6-2 seasons and hold their own against Iowa and Wisconsin to regularly sell out the stadium. If we want to expand the stadium, we need to win at least one Big Ten title, or finish second in a a really strong year and win a BCS game. I completely agree that their are a lot of people out their who either gave up on Gopher football or never got in to Gopher football because they don't want to spend their time rooting for a team that does not challenge for championships.
 

Did you notice TCF holds about 14000 less than the Metrodome? Look at the average yearly attendance during the Mason years (40K or so?). factor in a college stadium on campus, and you've got about 50000 tickets sold on a regular basis.

Unless you are asserting the core fan base would erode further and the loss of more fans would offset the benefit of an on campus stadium. In that event, I wouldn't argue, but would be surprised.

You also failed to acknowledge the very big IF I included with my opinion:
" Even Mason-like success could cultivate a better fan base in the new stadium, provided some other college game day atmosphere barriers are removed over time. We all know what most of these barriers are as they have been discussed at length here."
 

EG#9 said:
I agree that their is a sleeping fan base for Gopher football, but I strongly disagree that Mason type "success" would regularly fill the stadium. Going 3-5 in the conference and regularly losing to Iowa and Wisconsin won't put any more buts in the seats. At a minimum, the team needs to hit a few 6-2 seasons and hold their own against Iowa and Wisconsin to regularly sell out the stadium. If we want to expand the stadium, we need to win at least one Big Ten title, or finish second in a a really strong year and win a BCS game. I completely agree that their are a lot of people out their who either gave up on Gopher football or never got in to Gopher football because they don't want to spend their time rooting for a team that does not challenge for championships.
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oh you mean like the wild, twins, vikings and t-wolves?

p.s. i am not referring to EG#9. but pro sports rubes and those who want the U of M to do well, but instead turn away from the U of M in favor of rooting for and spending money to go and watch a bunch of over-paid professional check cashers are pathetically hypocritical and imo, stupid people. it is why i will always put the U of M first. and why i will always live and die with the success of OUR gophers, but can much more easily get over the successes or failures of the twin cities pro sports franchises. i have far more respect for and interest in watching college athletics over pro sports.
 

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