It’s hard to quantify how popular a team really is given you can’t exactly poll every sports fan in America. But one recent study may have offered an idea of which college football team has the biggest fanbase.
A recent study released by strategy consultant TJ Altimore on fanbase size uncovered some fascinating data. Among the findings were that 92-percent of college football fans are fans of Power Five programs and that 50-percent root for the top 16 teams in the country.
But as for the biggest fanbase in the country, there was a pretty clear winner: Ohio State. According to data accumulated from numerous studies over the past decade, the Buckeyes have an estimated 11.26 million fans.
The next closest in terms of fanbase size is Notre Dame with 8.21 million, followed by Texas with 7.82 million. Penn State and Michigan are the only other schools with more than six million fans.
Naturally, fans took to the comments immediately and expressed doubt about the accuracy of the data. Some of the highlights include questioning how Syracuse could be in the top 16, how Oregon is ahead of Alabama, and the popularity of the Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors.
There’s bound to be a margin for error somewhere in this study, but fans are widely dismissing it outright as a result.
However, they weren’t the ones who did the research.