Let me preface this by saying that I didn't take a deep dive and read their methodology carefully like I did with
the previous NYT study.
IIRC, the methodology for the aforementioned NYT study was to analyze clicks on internet pages.
Things that stood out to me:
- As an Ohio State fan I'd love to believe that tOSU has the largest fanbase and that it is nearly half-again as large as #2 Notre Dame and nearly double the size of #5 Michigan but frankly I find both of those propositions hard to believe.
- I also have a hard time believing that there are seven fanbases larger than Alabama's and that Alabama's fanbase is less than half the size of Ohio State's and smaller than Oregon's.
- No offense to Penn State but I've NEVER thought that their fanbase was equal to Michigan's. My anecdotal view was always that Ohio State was competing with Michigan for #1 in the league and that Penn State was a distant third until Nebraska joined. Once Nebraska joined, I assumed that they and Penn State were competing for third.
I'm also not sure how one would go about separating temporary bandwagon fans from more permanent die hard fans. We have guys on here like
@rolltidefan who I think is an alumnus of the University of Alabama. Even if he isn't, it seems a fair assumption that he'll still be a Bama fan in five or ten years even if Saban retires and their football program falls into a prolonged state of mediocrity. It is the same for me with Ohio State. I've lived in Ohio for 50 years. I'm an alumnus, and I've been a Buckeye fan since before I knew what fans, Buckeyes, or football were. If the Buckeyes suck for the next decade, I'll still be a fan in 2033. That is a different thing than some guy who picked up an Elephant/Brutus t-shirt because he sees the Tide/Buckeyes on TV a lot.
If you didn't click and/or can't read it, their main thrusts are:
- That 50% of CFB fans root for just 16 schools - 12% of teams
- That 75% of CFB fans root for 35 teams - 28% of teams
- That 90% of CFB fans root for 61 teams - 47% of teams (basically this is the P5 with a few exceptions either way)
Their top-16 (50% of CFB) fans are:
- 11.26M, Ohio State
- 8.21M, Notre Dame
- 7.82M, Texas
- 6.36M, Penn State
- 6.26M, Michigan
- 5.89M, Florida
- 5.54M, Oregon
- 5.34M Alabama
- 4.57M, Wisconsin
- 4.46M, USC
- 4.02M, Louisiana State
- 3.99M, Georgia
- 3.87M aTm
- 3.45M, Syracuse
- 3.27M, Auburn
- 3.27M Tennessee
They do not include the LA twins in the B1G but I have added them and here are the 16 B1G schools; after each B1G school I added the corresponding SEC school for comparison:
- 11.26 Ohio State; 7.8 Texas
- 6.36 Penn State; 5.9 Florida
- 6.26 Michigan; 5.3 Bama
- 4.57 Wisconsin; 4.0 LSU
- 4.46 USC; 4.0 UGA
- 3.07 Michigan State; 3.9 aTm
- 2.55 Nebraska; 3.3 Auburn
- 2.36 Iowa; 3.3 Tennessee
- 2.35 UCLA; 3.2 Oklahoma
- 1.91 Maryland; 2.7 USCe
- 1.36 Illinois; 2.6 Mizzou
- 1.26 Minnesota; 2.2 Arkansas
- 1.18 Rutgers; 2.1 UK
- 0.99 Purdue; 1.7 Ole Miss
- 0.82 Northwestern; 1.3 MissSt
- 0.61 Indiana; 0.8 Vandy
I compared to the SEC because none of the others are even remotely close to what is now the "BIG TWO". I found it interesting that according to these guys the B1G's biggest fanbases are bigger. The top-5 B1G schools have larger fanbases than their corresponding SEC schools but after that the drop-off is much less severe in the SEC. From #6-#16 the SEC fanbases are considerably larger.
I would guess that makes the SEC comparatively easier to manage. Since their fanbases are more equal (at least according to this), in theory at least, they should have more similar motivations. Examples (all per this study):
- The top-4 fanbases in the B1G make up more than half of the B1G's fans (55.4%) for the SEC it takes six to get to half.
- The biggest B1G fanbase is bigger than the smallest eight. In the SEC the biggest is bigger than the smallest four.
Their table also makes it VERY clear why the ACC is willing to bend over backwards to please the Irish. Per this study the ACC's average fanbase size is third behind the big two but a humongous chuck of the ACC's fans are Notre Dame fans. They have ND at 8.21M then Syracuse at 3.45M then four schools between 2-3M (Miami, FSU, UNC, Clem), two more over 1M (GT, Pitt) and the other six schools have Indiana/Vanderbilt sized fanbases of <1M.
Finally since we are forever talking about expansion around here, here are some much discussed expansion possibilities:
- 8.21 Notre Dame
- 5.54 Oregon
- 3.45 Syracuse
- 2.74 UNC
- 2.46 Washington
- 2.27 VaTech
- 1.84 WVU
- 1.28 GaTech
- 1.07 Pitt
- 0.89 Stanford
- 0.86 Virginia
- 0.81 Iowa State - there used to be an Iowa fan with a screenname something like itsthehawkeyestate, he was right.
