Best States For College Football Fans: Michigan Earns Spot Among Southern Strongholds

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. Michigan’s playoff appearance last year drew quite a bit of attention from Michigan sports betting sites.

The state’s other three Football Bowl Subdivision squads — Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Western Michigan — 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).

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Best States for College Football Fans

Rank	State	Most Teams	Recruiting	Attend.	Win %	CFP Playoff	National Title	Total Points
1	🏈 Alabama	35	38	40	37	40	41	231
2	🏈 South Carolina	28	37	36	40	36	40	214
3	🏈 Ohio	40	31	37	23	41	39	211
4	🏈 Georgia	31	32	31	27	37	38	196
5	🏈 Louisiana	35	29	35	22	35	37	191
6	🏈 Michigan	35	36	39	28	38	0	176
7	🏈 Florida	38	40	38	26	32	0	174
8	🏈 Oklahoma	28	35	30	39	39	0	171
9	🏈 Indiana	31	30	28	14	34	0	137
T10	🏈 Texas	41	41	41	10	0	0	133
T10	🏈 California	38	39	32	24	0	0	133
12	🏈 Wisconsin	7	17	27	41	33	0	125
13	🏈 Pennsylvania	28	27	34	35	0	0	124
14	🏈 Washington	9	22	25	34	32	0	122
T15	🏈 Mississippi	28	34	24	26	0	0	112
T15	🏈 Virginia	35	19	22	26	0	0	112
17	🏈 Tennessee	31	26	33	21	0	0	111
18	🏈 North Carolina	38	28	21	20	0	0	107
19	🏈 Oregon	19	25	11	19	32	0	106
20	🏈 Utah	28	16	20	38	0	0	102
21	🏈 Kentucky	28	24	19	29	0	0	100
22	🏈 Iowa	19	14	26	30	0	0	89
23	🏈 Arkansas	19	20	23	15	0	0	77
T24	🏈 Colorado	28	11	17	16	0	0	72
T24	🏈 West Virginia	9	13	18	32	0	0	72
26	🏈 New York	28	6	16	17	0	0	67
27	🏈 Arizona	19	23	12	12	0	0	66
T28	🏈 Nebraska	7	21	29	8	0	0	65
T28	🏈 Idaho	19	5	8	33	0	0	65
30	🏈 Illinois	28	9	14	12	0	0	63
31	🏈 Maryland	19	18	13	9	0	0	59
32	🏈 Minnesota	7	12	6	32	0	0	57
33	🏈 Missouri	7	15	15	19	0	0	56
34	🏈 Kansas	19	7	12	5	0	0	43
35	🏈 Massachusetts	19	8	11	4	0	0	42
36	🏈 New Mexico	19	4	11	2	0	0	36
37	🏈 Nevada	19	2	7	6	0	0	34
38	🏈 Wyoming	7	1	6	13	0	0	36
39	🏈 New Jersey	7	10	6	3	0	0	26
40	🏈 Hawaii	7	3	6	7	0	0	23
41	🏈 Connecticut	7	1	2	1	0	0	12

States were ranked by each of the seven metrics above. The top state in each category received 41 points, down to 1 point for the last state. A state had to have a team make the CFP or win the national championship to be awarded points in those categories.

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How We Got Our Results

GreatLakesStakes.com 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), via 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 Sports’ 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.

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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.

It’s 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 Michigan’s 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.