College football has long been a fall staple in the Great Lakes State, with Michigan and Michigan State dominating the landscape.
Michigan lays claim to two College Football Playoff participants, with the Wolverines making the field in 2021 and the Spartans doing so in 2015. Michiganβs playoff appearance last year drew quite a bit of attention from Michigan sports betting .
The stateβs other three Football Bowl Subdivision squads β Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Western Michigan β have had varying levels of success since the dawn of the CFP in 2014, with WMU posting a .612 winning percentage, while CMU (.485) and EMU (.414) have been less successful.
GreatLakesStakes.com used the success of a state's FBS programs both on the field (win percentage and bonus points for CFP appearances and national titles) and off-field (recruiting rankings and average attendance) to come up with a ranking for each state.
After crunching the numbers, the state of Michigan finished sixth, with 176 points, coming in between Louisiana (191 points) and Florida (174 points).
Best States for College Football Fans
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How We Got Our Results
GreatLakesStakes.comβ―developed a ranking system of the best states to be a college football fan since the adoption of the College Football Playoff in 2014.
The first category measured attendance between 2014 and 2019 (the most recent year available), viaβ―NCAA.com, to determine a ranking for each of the 41 states with at least one FBS team, based on a 1-41 metric (1 being the lowest, 41 the highest).
We used that same scoring metric to measure recruiting, utilizing 247 Sportsβ FBS rankings to assign points to each team.
We also ranked each state by winning percentage of its FBS teams since 2014 and by the number of FBS schools per state. We then gave bonus points to states based on College Football Playoff appearances and National Championships.
Michigan Among Best States to be a CFB Fan
After crunching the numbers, we found Michigan ranked third in average attendance, coming in behind Texas and Alabama by that metric.
Michigan ranked sixth in recruiting rankings, bringing an extra 36 points to the state, while adding 38 bonus points by having the fourth most appearances of any state in the CFP.
The Great Lakes State scored 28 points when it came to aggregate win percentage, at .567, finishing 14th by that metric since the start of the CFP in 2014.
Itβs safe to say Michigan, thanks in large part to its Big Ten contingent, is among the bellwether states for college football nationally.
Better yet, with Michiganβs 7-0 start and No. 4 ranking in the latest Associated Press top 25 poll, it seems the Great Lakes State should continue to hang with the top states for college football in the nation.
Michigan mobile betting apps have the Wolverines tied with Clemson in national title odds at +1600.
