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

Best States For College Football Fans: Michigan Earns Spot Among Southern Strongholds
By Christopher Boan
Fact Checked by Michael Peters

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 .

The state’s 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).

 
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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 4133 0 125
13🏈 Pennsylvania 28 27 34 35 0 0 124
14🏈 Washington 9 22 25 3432 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.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 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.

 

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.

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Author

Christopher Boan has covered sports and sports betting for more than seven years and has worked for publications such as ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.

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