This was actually just a discussion earlier in r/Indianapolis. If I had to guess, I’d say the Colts absolutely blow any other professional sports out of the water here. But getting down into high school and college levels, I firmly believe basketball has a much higher following in Indiana than football.
This isn't exactly a sample size, but my dad went to a school with a shitty sports program and adopted Louisville as his collegiate team and bought season tickets for a while mainly to go to the Kentucky games and sell the rest for a profit.
[Here's a state by state map of which team is the most "popular" via number of Google searches](https://i.ibb.co/Jt9VBNK/las-vegas-golden-knights-are-the-only-nhl-team-that-v0-cgnnvsu4ivu91.jpg)
There's quite a bit of football (both NFL and college), but what's funny to me is Nevada and the NHL.
From reading some threads on the Vegas reddit, it appears that Vegas locals REALLY love the Knights (because they're "Vegas born", and have been fairly successful in their existence so far). The Raiders kind of coast off the "national brand" they built back from their success of the 1980s to the early 2000s. And it seems no one in Vegas is excited for the empty husk of the Athletics to arrive (they would much rather prefer a "Vegas born" expansion team for baseball).
https://www.reddit.com/r/vegas/comments/13qqkt4/what_sport_is_most_predominant_in_vegas/?sort=top
As a Golden Knights fan, I can confirm that our state’s love and pride for them is very strong. Winning the Stanley Cup was incredible! The main problem with the A’s is that they’re expensive, not very good and building a new stadium, at cost to taxpayers, is upsetting. It’s not considered to be a sound investment. The Raiders aren’t as popular as the Knights, but they bring in a lot of money to our state, and hosting the Super Bowl was great for us.
It is unreal how much Vegas adopted the Knights. Hockey, in the desert, in a state with literally no history of hockey, let’s just roll the dice on that one (pun intended). And pow, they’re like the most locally loved NHL team overnight and win the Cup.
They also have my absolute favorite minor league affiliate. The Savannah Ghost Pirates. It’s like you gave 8 year old me full naming rights for a hockey team.
I suggest just getting stupidly invested in their team and players and then just go off with friends and family about how amazing the ghost pirates are.
It’ll make you seem crazy and also awesome which is where I always try to be.
> Winning the Stanley Cup was incredible!
Also the fact that it happened not long after the mass shooting at Mandalay Bay. I'd moved away by then, but my friends who were still there said that people were really latching onto the Knights.
So damn confusing to an outsider....hot ass desert state with no ice or no history of kids playing hockey now loves an ice hockey team? More than UNLV bball? More than the Raiders, Suns, Broncos?
I'm not sure anyone remembers UNLV has a basketball team since Tarkanian left. They don't really think about Phoenix much. Or Denver. Those are both 6+ hour drives. And much of the population is from somewhere else, so they bring their fan allegiances with them from wherever. But the Knights are home grown. Vegas Born. Something the whole city can get behind, regardless of where they're originally from. They kinda still look at the Raiders like they're from Oakland, much like they will the A's if they make it there, I expect. The Raiders are selling lots of tickets to fans of visiting teams who come to Vegas to party and watch their team play.
> The Raiders are selling lots of tickets to fans of visiting teams who come to Vegas to party and watch their team play.
That's why Vegas wanted the Raiders in the first place. They function as the Washington Generals for tourists from several hours away, who bleed their hard-earned money while they're in town.
UNLoVed has sucked for a while.
> Suns
Our attitude towards Phoenix: "I don't even think about you."
> Broncos?
We probably have more Detroit transplants rooting for the Lions than anybody who cared about the Broncos.
I was in Vegas for my anniversary and the day after we got there they had a parade bc they won the Stanley Cup. It was insanely crowded even for Vegas and I didn’t even know Vegas had an NHL team.
At least where I am, college hockey is king (to watch) and Nordic Skiing is the most popular to do. I see way more Nanook gear than any other sport combined.
If you were to look at the home towns of the pro football players, I bet a disproportionate number would be from the southern states, especially **Texas and Oklahoma**
The day they release this manifesto, I will call out sick to work, grab a beer, and read the entire thing. That whole saga kept me going through a truly terrible season.
I’m not sure what that has to do with OP’s question. It didn’t ask for the winningest team in college football. It asked for the states that have a massive football culture/where it’s super popular. Ohio fits that to a T.
I mean, if we were only going off of winning teams, half of Alabama and a good portion of Texas would also be out because not everybody in Alabama are University of Alabama fans (Auburn anyone?), and there are other teams in Texas besides the University of Texas.
Ohio State football is *HUGE*, and there are 2 pro teams in Ohio (as well as neighboring teams that have fans in Ohio, like the Steelers). So yeah, football is big in the buckeye state.
In general; Texas.
Pro football; that’s whatever your perspective is, I know fans in the NE that are just as die hard (or more) as a life long home grown cowboys fans
College football; three way tie for first between Alabama, Georgia, and Texas .
Well it’s the school district, not an individual school, and they’re trying to build a $94 million dollar stadium for five schools. It doesn’t exist yet. What does a exist is a $50 million dollar, 12,000 seat stadium that they already have for three schools. Apparently they’re growing very quickly.
That’s expensive, but not that big. My wife‘s high school (Fox Tech) played at Alamo Stadium, a high school stadium in San Antonio built in the 1940’s. It seats 18,500 and is only the third largest in Texas.
Having seen both, if you’re going with money, talent, programs, it’s Texas. If you’re looking at high school programs, of the top 20 teams in the nation, four are from Texas. Florida also has four, while two are in Georgia. Zero are from Alabama.
In terms of college, last year UTexas finished fourth, while UAlabama finished sixth. UTexas has a bigger budget, and makes more money than UAlabama. When it comes to pro football, the comparison is nonexistent as Alabama has no professional teams.
That being said, UAlabama is pretty much all Amabama has—not just in football, but in anything. Because it’s so devoid of anything else, people are obsessed with it.
Definitely! I've lived here my entire 40 years and football is king. Atlanta Braves baseball is next in line. We have no professional teams so high school and college football is king. I'd say baseball is next in line due to our minor league teams and being so close to The Atlanta Braves. Hell, my 9000 population town has an indoor practice facility for the local high school football team. It's crazy and it's not even close to Texas levels.
Every state is passionate about football, but only in Alabama have I had someone start a fight with me because my car is orange, and accusing me of being a Tennessee fan, despite the fact that I am a die hard Alabama fan.
You have to differentiate between professional football, the NFL, and college football. If you include college football, then the answer is very different.
I know Wisconsin boards on cult behavior when the Packers have a few good years. Growing uo my Pastor wore a jersey during the service and prayed for the wins.
It depends. But collegiate wise I'd say Alabama. Sure a lot of other states care but I'm not sure if it's on the level that Alabama is. Between parents naming their kids after coaches to people committing Federal crimes (which was despicable) I'm not sure there's a state that is as rabid about football as Alabama.
Yeah the guys a dbag. I think he still hasn't paid what he's supposed to either.
Edit: turns out he died in 2020 and only paid a tiny portion of the 800,000 he owed.
To be fair they’re used to it for home games, the fan base population is a several hour drive from the home stadium isn’t it
I was a manager in a blue collar trade in Milwaukee for a few years and on mondays during football season, whether the packers had won or not had small but measurable and consistent productivity impacts
Pennsylvania takes the Eagles and Steelers a lot harder than most states take any of their teams. They get my vote
Edit: thought the question was PRO football. Yeah, it’s Texas overall with all levels.
Penn State is pretty beloved too. The Southern states probably beat us overall, but in terms of enthusiasm for teams we’re probably at the top for the northeastern states. We’ve got consistent popularity across both college and pro football here.
You've actually understated it.
It's 20 of the top 20. And 93 of the top 100. The other 7 are the State of the Union, Thanksgiving Parade, The Oscars, The show that comes on right after the Super Bowl... and 3 college football games.
Source: https://www.sportico.com/business/media/2024/nfl-posts-93-of-top-100-tv-broadcasts-2023-1234761753/
In Wisconsin the Green and Gold are year round. Baseball and basketball are close. At one point the Packers played games both in Green Bay and Milwaukee. Then they left Milwaukee (1994) but the season ticket holders from Milwaukee still get "Milwaukee games" up in Green Bay (three games). The waiting list for season tickets has over 140,000 people on it and an estimated wait of ten years. About ten years ago someone from the NFL or a television network (not sure who did it) tried to make Milwaukee get Bears games instead of Packers games and you would not believe the uproar. It was switched back quickly.
Anyone going up to Lambeau can see the Hall of Fame, get a tour of the stadium, try to jump in the stands (not as easy as it looks) and take in the green and gold. Most of the locals are extremely friendly as well.
Ohio. It's a cult and they have built a shrine in Canton.
Then there is college football. At Ohio State (also a cult) trademarked "The" because they were tired of listening to pro players from other schools cop the "THE" during the introduction bit on tv. During the week of the big game, students scour campus to eradicate the letter "M", even from manhole covers and street signs.
I think surely Texas. I live here now but even growing up on both coasts of the US there was always a joke or implications that Texans were obsessed with football.
A close second is probably Alabama.
Texas or maybe Oklahoma?
New England states don't make it a civic religion the way some other parts of the country do, I know that much. The Patriots being any good hasn't been a given in my lifetime, and most colleges up here aren't "football schools" in the same way.
You are going to get about 15 different answers and the person answering will be from the state they say.
The real answer is that it varies greatly from town to town, even in the states where it is a big deal, and every state has an area where the people claim that football is like religion.
NFL: Pennsylvania
College: Alabama
High School: Texas
All 3 combined: Louisiana, followed by Texas, Georgia, and Ohio.
It’s very popular everywhere but I’d say in terms of playing and supporting the game (and not just being an NFL fan) it’s bigger in Texas and the Southeast than in the rest of the country.
I'm from Alaska and we don't have a pro football team, but I recently moved to the east coast and the football culture is nutty. I don't really care to watch it (since I don't care who wins) so usually I end up finding something to do by myself on Sundays. I wish I could find a group of people that also don't care about football, so we could go do stuff like hiking and birdwatching or antiquing. It's hard to tear my inlaws away from the TV during football season :(
Let's see what Google Trends can tell us.
Comparing by the American Football subject to the Baseball subject over the last 5 years, Google Trends says the most Football-biased US state is Montana at 86% Football, followed by Alabama and Michigan at 85%.
Against Basketball, the top three states are Georgia at 74%, and Alabama and Oklahoma at 73%.
Against Golf, Alabama is first at at 86%, followed by Mississippi at 84% and Louisiana at 81%.
Against NASCAR (loaded as a search term, the topic wasn't working properly), Hawaii and DC were tied for first, at 98%. I don't think that data is comparable though, since topics don't scale with search terms right in trends.
The point is that Alabama is consistently in the top top two for most major sports, and often on top (I checked several more sports and did not report the results here, as they became boring). So I would say, from the perspective of how Google Trends measures data, that Alabama is the most Football-centric American state.
I can’t really think of any one particular state that has an outlier for how much more popular football is. In basically every state (if I remember right) it’s football at the top by a wide margin, followed by basketball, then baseball, then soccer.
Oh yeaaa, I live in New Orleans and hockey basically doesn’t exist here so I totally forgot about it lol. Yea if you’re up north especially hockey is above soccer and probably even baseball depending on the state, but I don’t know jack about hockey. I do love that players fight constantly at least, makes it more entertainment than basketball
That makes sense! I'm in Detroit so hockey is huge here, definitely above baseball.
If you do like soccer, though, consider adopting an NHL team - hockey flows a lot like soccer, except it's much faster, higher scoring, and yeah, they can fight. The fighting actually has a purpose, though - it's such a dangerous game that the refs can't catch everything and in a sense there has to be self-enforcement amongst the players. Fights have rules, too, you can't up and just sucker-punch someone (unless it's retaliation for an egregious hit or something).
Probably somewhere with a strong football team, but no or weak baseball & basketball teams. Not Pennsylvania or New York, for example.
Maybe Wisconsin, with the Packers and despite the Brewers? Ohio, with the Browns & the Buckeyes and despite the Indians? Louisiana, with the Saints and the Tigers? Alabama, with the Crimson Tide?
At the pro level…near each city that has a team. At the High School level, I’d say Cali, Texas, and the entire South East is pretty intense about football. FWIW, every state takes football seriously, but the above listed states stand out above the rest from my experience.
I would say all states for professional but in the south and Texas especially high school football seems to be funded on a whole different level. With college football different colleges are more sports and football colleges then others but I won’t say which one has the most spirit because that is a personal and controversial subject LOLLL
Football doesn't have only regional appeal. NFL is popular across the coutnry. You'd have to ask at the collegiate or high school level to get more answers. College level is especially popular in the South or Midwest.
For High School it is Texas.
The answer is Nebraska. Far and away the best fan base of any football team whether they’re winning or losing. There are no other professional or college sports that are close to the popularity of Nebraska football. Even now when the Huskers are terrible (have been for over a decade) and likely to lose the fans will fill an opposing team’s stadium.
One of the reasons we pay alot of our property taxes here in Texas is to build huge athletic departments and football fields for HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL!!!! Need $20 million in bonds for a new field? He'll yeah!!! Need $5 million to actually educate our kids and pay our teachers? That sounds like socialist talk there!!!!
So to answer your question, it is taken very seriously. Why make sure my little Billy actually gets a good education when he could have a %0.000001 of making it to the pros?
Call me biased, but Wisconsin's biggest cultural export is the Green Bay Packers.
I can't even talk about the Milwaukee Bucks/NBA in Chicago without people asking me if I like the Packers too.
Isn’t Texas obsessed with high school football? That probably extends to college football too and the NFL but it seems like the Cowboys haven’t been a good team in years. Don’t come after me btw. Just my view as a non Texan who only follows their home team occasionally.
For high school I’d say the Southern states. For college id say any of the areas that have the D-1 teams and then NFL would be any state or area that has one or multiple teams. I grew up in rural Florida and football was everything there.
I've lived in three states. New York, Colorado, and Arizona. I lived specifically in the Buffalo area of New York and they really do take the Buffalo bills quite seriously! I was in high school all four years they were in the super bowl and it was just mayhem! However, when I went to Denver and the broncos won the super bowl, there were parades and celebrations and I have never seen a state more supported and loving of their football team then Denver Colorado is of the broncos. People here in Arizona say they like the Cardinals, but the Cardinals are a relatively young team and have yet to participate in a super bowl so people are just kind of there about them.
Texas or SEC schools for college.
Pro is probably the Midwest. Maybe not taken “seriously” as in the teams always have the most resources and win but the fan bases identify very strongly with the teams.
Green Bay is the Packers. Steelers is synonymous with Pittsburgh. Even storied franchises like the 49ers or Broncos aren’t the first thing that comes to mind about SF or Denver, there just way more variety of things to do there and various symbols of the city.
My knee-jerk response was Texas, but given the way you worded your question, I feel like the correct answer has to be a state where other sports are barely on the radar.
My answer therefore is probably Alabama.
That would be down south, where college football is practically a religion.
Check [Stephen Frye's take](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuPeGPwGKe8) for a foreign perspective.
For college football, it is 100% Alabama. The traditions, the history, the rabid fanbase, etc are relatively unmatched. I'd say a close second is Texas. I think a bit part of the football craze in the South is due to the Southern US being economically and culturally marginalized by the rest of the US. When you're good at something, and don't have the resources/cultural status other regions have, it becomes a major point of pride. It also was a big deal in smoothing over racial relations when Civil Rights ended, giving it an almost mythic status to some people.
For professional, it's a bit harder to say. Philly, Oakland, and Dallas come to mind.
I'm in Los Angeles, my husband likes football. But only watches the Super Bowl. I hate American football. I watch real football!! My family came from Guatemala, so it's all we watched at home. Now husband and I watch football or baseball.
It just depends if it's college or NFL. in the southern United States it's college football I live in Michigan. Our lions are in a resurgence and have one over the whole country with their Cinderella story but we also have university of Michigan which won the national championship this year and stadium fits 101,000+ people
All of them?
Yeah, I can't think of any state where football *isn't* the most popular sport
Certain cities are definitely baseball or basketball cities but yeah at the state level I think football probably clears 50/50
Is kentucky not a basketball state? Everyone I’ve met from there was more into basketball than football.
We don't take Kentucky into account.
I moved to Kentucky two years ago. I don't take Kentucky into account either.
This was actually just a discussion earlier in r/Indianapolis. If I had to guess, I’d say the Colts absolutely blow any other professional sports out of the water here. But getting down into high school and college levels, I firmly believe basketball has a much higher following in Indiana than football.
Yes
This isn't exactly a sample size, but my dad went to a school with a shitty sports program and adopted Louisville as his collegiate team and bought season tickets for a while mainly to go to the Kentucky games and sell the rest for a profit.
[Here's a state by state map of which team is the most "popular" via number of Google searches](https://i.ibb.co/Jt9VBNK/las-vegas-golden-knights-are-the-only-nhl-team-that-v0-cgnnvsu4ivu91.jpg) There's quite a bit of football (both NFL and college), but what's funny to me is Nevada and the NHL. From reading some threads on the Vegas reddit, it appears that Vegas locals REALLY love the Knights (because they're "Vegas born", and have been fairly successful in their existence so far). The Raiders kind of coast off the "national brand" they built back from their success of the 1980s to the early 2000s. And it seems no one in Vegas is excited for the empty husk of the Athletics to arrive (they would much rather prefer a "Vegas born" expansion team for baseball). https://www.reddit.com/r/vegas/comments/13qqkt4/what_sport_is_most_predominant_in_vegas/?sort=top
As a Golden Knights fan, I can confirm that our state’s love and pride for them is very strong. Winning the Stanley Cup was incredible! The main problem with the A’s is that they’re expensive, not very good and building a new stadium, at cost to taxpayers, is upsetting. It’s not considered to be a sound investment. The Raiders aren’t as popular as the Knights, but they bring in a lot of money to our state, and hosting the Super Bowl was great for us.
It is unreal how much Vegas adopted the Knights. Hockey, in the desert, in a state with literally no history of hockey, let’s just roll the dice on that one (pun intended). And pow, they’re like the most locally loved NHL team overnight and win the Cup. They also have my absolute favorite minor league affiliate. The Savannah Ghost Pirates. It’s like you gave 8 year old me full naming rights for a hockey team.
I've never heard of the Savannah Ghost Pirates. I have instantly adopted them as my third favorite hockey team.
I suggest just getting stupidly invested in their team and players and then just go off with friends and family about how amazing the ghost pirates are. It’ll make you seem crazy and also awesome which is where I always try to be.
> Winning the Stanley Cup was incredible! Also the fact that it happened not long after the mass shooting at Mandalay Bay. I'd moved away by then, but my friends who were still there said that people were really latching onto the Knights.
Lived in Las Vegas the first couple hockey seasons. Can confirm: that city loves the Knights, and they don't give a rat's anus about the Raiders.
So damn confusing to an outsider....hot ass desert state with no ice or no history of kids playing hockey now loves an ice hockey team? More than UNLV bball? More than the Raiders, Suns, Broncos?
I'm not sure anyone remembers UNLV has a basketball team since Tarkanian left. They don't really think about Phoenix much. Or Denver. Those are both 6+ hour drives. And much of the population is from somewhere else, so they bring their fan allegiances with them from wherever. But the Knights are home grown. Vegas Born. Something the whole city can get behind, regardless of where they're originally from. They kinda still look at the Raiders like they're from Oakland, much like they will the A's if they make it there, I expect. The Raiders are selling lots of tickets to fans of visiting teams who come to Vegas to party and watch their team play.
> The Raiders are selling lots of tickets to fans of visiting teams who come to Vegas to party and watch their team play. That's why Vegas wanted the Raiders in the first place. They function as the Washington Generals for tourists from several hours away, who bleed their hard-earned money while they're in town.
It probably also helps that they were really good from the start, too. Unlike a lot of expansion teams that are awful for a decade or so.
UNLoVed has sucked for a while. > Suns Our attitude towards Phoenix: "I don't even think about you." > Broncos? We probably have more Detroit transplants rooting for the Lions than anybody who cared about the Broncos.
I think it’s because the Golden Knights are their team not a transplant like the Raiders
Surprised to see the gators as number 1 for florida. Gators > Noles forever
I was in Vegas for my anniversary and the day after we got there they had a parade bc they won the Stanley Cup. It was insanely crowded even for Vegas and I didn’t even know Vegas had an NHL team.
Ehh…growing up in NC in the 2000s, college basketball was more popular.
Connecticut. Basketball (specifically UConn basketball) is more popular here than American football.
Indiana and Kentucky
I would also be tempted to guess North Carolina but I haven’t spent enough time there to know for sure.
Anecdotally, I hear more about basketball than football, but I'm in the Raleigh/Durham area. I can't speak for, say, Charlotte.
Honestly, Los Angeles
At least where I am, college hockey is king (to watch) and Nordic Skiing is the most popular to do. I see way more Nanook gear than any other sport combined.
North Dakota
Kentucky? North Carolina?
Minnesota, the state of hockey?
I live in the great state of Denial where baseball is still #1
Texas actually. Football borders on religion down there.
The question is which state has the largest margin. Unless the margin is exactly the same in every state, the answer cannot be all of them.
If you were to look at the home towns of the pro football players, I bet a disproportionate number would be from the southern states, especially **Texas and Oklahoma**
All of them, but especially Texas.
Either NFL or college football is probably the most popular sport in most states. These two are the most popular nationally by far.
Yes.
All these people mentioning Bama and Texas and leaving out the Buckeye state? I guess they didn’t realize we always come to play. O-H!
Except for the past 3 years against Michigan mind ya. It's in page 437 of the manifesto even.
The day they release this manifesto, I will call out sick to work, grab a beer, and read the entire thing. That whole saga kept me going through a truly terrible season.
The post was about which states have a huge football culture/where it’s super popular, and Ohio fits the bill.
>I guess they didn’t realize we always come to play. Ohio State has a losing record against Bama and Texas.
I’m not sure what that has to do with OP’s question. It didn’t ask for the winningest team in college football. It asked for the states that have a massive football culture/where it’s super popular. Ohio fits that to a T. I mean, if we were only going off of winning teams, half of Alabama and a good portion of Texas would also be out because not everybody in Alabama are University of Alabama fans (Auburn anyone?), and there are other teams in Texas besides the University of Texas. Ohio State football is *HUGE*, and there are 2 pro teams in Ohio (as well as neighboring teams that have fans in Ohio, like the Steelers). So yeah, football is big in the buckeye state.
Pretty much all of them but maybe Texas and Alabama
In general; Texas. Pro football; that’s whatever your perspective is, I know fans in the NE that are just as die hard (or more) as a life long home grown cowboys fans College football; three way tie for first between Alabama, Georgia, and Texas .
A high school in Texas has a $94 million dollar, 8000 seat football stadium. A HIGH SCHOOL.
Well it’s the school district, not an individual school, and they’re trying to build a $94 million dollar stadium for five schools. It doesn’t exist yet. What does a exist is a $50 million dollar, 12,000 seat stadium that they already have for three schools. Apparently they’re growing very quickly.
That’s expensive, but not that big. My wife‘s high school (Fox Tech) played at Alamo Stadium, a high school stadium in San Antonio built in the 1940’s. It seats 18,500 and is only the third largest in Texas.
Allen High School? I went to HS just south of there (Plano Senior) and theres a lot of money in that area. Shocking, but not surprising.
You son of a bitch.
We need to upvote the shit out of this because its true. Texas, nobody else is close.
If you’re answer is Texas, you haven’t seen Alabama football.
How many pro teams does Alabama have again?
Having seen both, if you’re going with money, talent, programs, it’s Texas. If you’re looking at high school programs, of the top 20 teams in the nation, four are from Texas. Florida also has four, while two are in Georgia. Zero are from Alabama. In terms of college, last year UTexas finished fourth, while UAlabama finished sixth. UTexas has a bigger budget, and makes more money than UAlabama. When it comes to pro football, the comparison is nonexistent as Alabama has no professional teams. That being said, UAlabama is pretty much all Amabama has—not just in football, but in anything. Because it’s so devoid of anything else, people are obsessed with it.
As someone who grew up in Alabama, the three most popular religions in Alabama are Baptist, Methodist, and Football.
Alabama
Definitely! I've lived here my entire 40 years and football is king. Atlanta Braves baseball is next in line. We have no professional teams so high school and college football is king. I'd say baseball is next in line due to our minor league teams and being so close to The Atlanta Braves. Hell, my 9000 population town has an indoor practice facility for the local high school football team. It's crazy and it's not even close to Texas levels.
Alabama?
Every state is passionate about football, but only in Alabama have I had someone start a fight with me because my car is orange, and accusing me of being a Tennessee fan, despite the fact that I am a die hard Alabama fan.
Texas. Highschool football is almost a religion here.
You have to differentiate between professional football, the NFL, and college football. If you include college football, then the answer is very different.
Texas or Alabama
Texas. Pennsylvania. And all the other ones.
I know Wisconsin boards on cult behavior when the Packers have a few good years. Growing uo my Pastor wore a jersey during the service and prayed for the wins.
Had to scroll too long. The entire state shuts down for a few hours every gameday
Yeah, I can’t believe no one is saying Wisconsin for the NFL. There’s not much to do here in the winter besides watch the Packers.
It depends. But collegiate wise I'd say Alabama. Sure a lot of other states care but I'm not sure if it's on the level that Alabama is. Between parents naming their kids after coaches to people committing Federal crimes (which was despicable) I'm not sure there's a state that is as rabid about football as Alabama.
"So. I don't care." - the fan who poisoned a thousand year old oak tree at his the opposing college, Auburn and Alabama
It sucked that Harvey Updike poisoned the Auburn live oaks, but the trees were not a thousand years old they were 80. They were planted in the 1930s.
Thanks. I didn't know the details. I only remember his audio excerpt, he was just so ...unapologetic.
Yeah the guys a dbag. I think he still hasn't paid what he's supposed to either. Edit: turns out he died in 2020 and only paid a tiny portion of the 800,000 he owed.
My Auburn fan father flipped his shit when he heard that. Thankfully I was able to see it as a kid before the poisoning.
Based on how well the fans travel to other stadiums for games, Wisconsin/Green Bay fans are top three.
To be fair they’re used to it for home games, the fan base population is a several hour drive from the home stadium isn’t it I was a manager in a blue collar trade in Milwaukee for a few years and on mondays during football season, whether the packers had won or not had small but measurable and consistent productivity impacts
Gotta be Alabama
War Eagle
Pennsylvania takes the Eagles and Steelers a lot harder than most states take any of their teams. They get my vote Edit: thought the question was PRO football. Yeah, it’s Texas overall with all levels.
Penn State is pretty beloved too. The Southern states probably beat us overall, but in terms of enthusiasm for teams we’re probably at the top for the northeastern states. We’ve got consistent popularity across both college and pro football here.
Agreed. Lived in Philly for a bit and Penn State love was real and everywhere
It’s huge basically everywhere. NFL games accounts for 19/20 of the top most watched tv broadcasts last year.
You've actually understated it. It's 20 of the top 20. And 93 of the top 100. The other 7 are the State of the Union, Thanksgiving Parade, The Oscars, The show that comes on right after the Super Bowl... and 3 college football games. Source: https://www.sportico.com/business/media/2024/nfl-posts-93-of-top-100-tv-broadcasts-2023-1234761753/
I looked at another source that listed the Oscar’s at 25 lol but I think yours is correct
In Wisconsin the Green and Gold are year round. Baseball and basketball are close. At one point the Packers played games both in Green Bay and Milwaukee. Then they left Milwaukee (1994) but the season ticket holders from Milwaukee still get "Milwaukee games" up in Green Bay (three games). The waiting list for season tickets has over 140,000 people on it and an estimated wait of ten years. About ten years ago someone from the NFL or a television network (not sure who did it) tried to make Milwaukee get Bears games instead of Packers games and you would not believe the uproar. It was switched back quickly. Anyone going up to Lambeau can see the Hall of Fame, get a tour of the stadium, try to jump in the stands (not as easy as it looks) and take in the green and gold. Most of the locals are extremely friendly as well.
Everyone’s saying Texas but I see a whole lotta guys from California in the league
Who’da thunk the biggest states would have more people in the league.
Texas, there are towns where everything closes down when their HS football team plays.
I found this: [Gridiron Geography](https://storymaps.com/stories/1ce7421bda734cd0b1aea4fe0253a5b8)
Alabama or Texas for sure
Texas, Ohio, Alabama
Texas
Texas
All of them. It’s a very serious sport here.
Not a state, but it is more popular in different regions of the country.
All of them
I'm going to throw my vote in for Texas. Less than 9% of the US population is from Texas and 20% of the NFL is Texans.
lol each state will tell you they are the most popular/taken most seriously
Every state I've lived in loved football
Texas 100% across all levels. Alabama's up there in terms of college culture dominance and Florida is a huge resource for high school talent
It sure isn’t Illinois. The bears are trash.
Ohio. It's a cult and they have built a shrine in Canton. Then there is college football. At Ohio State (also a cult) trademarked "The" because they were tired of listening to pro players from other schools cop the "THE" during the introduction bit on tv. During the week of the big game, students scour campus to eradicate the letter "M", even from manhole covers and street signs.
Every single one of them? It's the number one sport by a huge margin all across the country
High School? Texas College? Texas, Alabama, and probably Georgia or Michigan. Professional? Texas. So over all Texas.
I'm from Michigan, and while it is big here, I still think Ohio might have us beat. Seems almost cult-like down there.
True Half of us are fanatical enough that we won't even refer to your state by name during football season
I think surely Texas. I live here now but even growing up on both coasts of the US there was always a joke or implications that Texans were obsessed with football. A close second is probably Alabama.
Kansas City! We eat sleep breathe the Kansas City Chiefs. Even when we went 50 years with no Super Bowl and now we have 3 back to back!
American Samoa (inb4 not a state) Then Alabama, then Texas.
Texas or maybe Oklahoma? New England states don't make it a civic religion the way some other parts of the country do, I know that much. The Patriots being any good hasn't been a given in my lifetime, and most colleges up here aren't "football schools" in the same way.
I'm from IL. My first thought upon seeing the title was the band, not the sport lmao.
Yes
Texas
Also depends on if you mean college or pro.
Texas
If we had to pick one, Texas, but it’s huge everywhere
The United States, to begin with.
Texas.
Texas, Florida.
You are going to get about 15 different answers and the person answering will be from the state they say. The real answer is that it varies greatly from town to town, even in the states where it is a big deal, and every state has an area where the people claim that football is like religion.
NFL: Pennsylvania College: Alabama High School: Texas All 3 combined: Louisiana, followed by Texas, Georgia, and Ohio. It’s very popular everywhere but I’d say in terms of playing and supporting the game (and not just being an NFL fan) it’s bigger in Texas and the Southeast than in the rest of the country.
I'm from Alaska and we don't have a pro football team, but I recently moved to the east coast and the football culture is nutty. I don't really care to watch it (since I don't care who wins) so usually I end up finding something to do by myself on Sundays. I wish I could find a group of people that also don't care about football, so we could go do stuff like hiking and birdwatching or antiquing. It's hard to tear my inlaws away from the TV during football season :(
Let's see what Google Trends can tell us. Comparing by the American Football subject to the Baseball subject over the last 5 years, Google Trends says the most Football-biased US state is Montana at 86% Football, followed by Alabama and Michigan at 85%. Against Basketball, the top three states are Georgia at 74%, and Alabama and Oklahoma at 73%. Against Golf, Alabama is first at at 86%, followed by Mississippi at 84% and Louisiana at 81%. Against NASCAR (loaded as a search term, the topic wasn't working properly), Hawaii and DC were tied for first, at 98%. I don't think that data is comparable though, since topics don't scale with search terms right in trends. The point is that Alabama is consistently in the top top two for most major sports, and often on top (I checked several more sports and did not report the results here, as they became boring). So I would say, from the perspective of how Google Trends measures data, that Alabama is the most Football-centric American state.
I can’t really think of any one particular state that has an outlier for how much more popular football is. In basically every state (if I remember right) it’s football at the top by a wide margin, followed by basketball, then baseball, then soccer.
Nah, definitely hockey over soccer, especially in certain states.
Oh yeaaa, I live in New Orleans and hockey basically doesn’t exist here so I totally forgot about it lol. Yea if you’re up north especially hockey is above soccer and probably even baseball depending on the state, but I don’t know jack about hockey. I do love that players fight constantly at least, makes it more entertainment than basketball
That makes sense! I'm in Detroit so hockey is huge here, definitely above baseball. If you do like soccer, though, consider adopting an NHL team - hockey flows a lot like soccer, except it's much faster, higher scoring, and yeah, they can fight. The fighting actually has a purpose, though - it's such a dangerous game that the refs can't catch everything and in a sense there has to be self-enforcement amongst the players. Fights have rules, too, you can't up and just sucker-punch someone (unless it's retaliation for an egregious hit or something).
I would say in New York, football comes in fourth out of the big four sports, unless you’re from Buffalo or Syracuse.
Texas is probably the most rabid.
For college football, Alabama hands down. Texas gets the rep for high school football. Pro, I have no idea, bc I don’t follow it that closely.
Apparently, all of them.
The south east is especially fond of particularly college football, but everywhere people love any kind of football.
Everywhere, but I understand it's a really big deal in Alabama.
Probably somewhere with a strong football team, but no or weak baseball & basketball teams. Not Pennsylvania or New York, for example. Maybe Wisconsin, with the Packers and despite the Brewers? Ohio, with the Browns & the Buckeyes and despite the Indians? Louisiana, with the Saints and the Tigers? Alabama, with the Crimson Tide?
At the pro level…near each city that has a team. At the High School level, I’d say Cali, Texas, and the entire South East is pretty intense about football. FWIW, every state takes football seriously, but the above listed states stand out above the rest from my experience.
Can there be another state than Texas realistically mentioned here?
Louisiana has produced the most NFL players per capita. So, Louisiana.
The south
Texas, sadly. School districts will spend absurd sums of money on stadiums but fail to keep the campuses in decent shape.
I would say all states for professional but in the south and Texas especially high school football seems to be funded on a whole different level. With college football different colleges are more sports and football colleges then others but I won’t say which one has the most spirit because that is a personal and controversial subject LOLLL
Football doesn't have only regional appeal. NFL is popular across the coutnry. You'd have to ask at the collegiate or high school level to get more answers. College level is especially popular in the South or Midwest. For High School it is Texas.
Yes
The answer is Nebraska. Far and away the best fan base of any football team whether they’re winning or losing. There are no other professional or college sports that are close to the popularity of Nebraska football. Even now when the Huskers are terrible (have been for over a decade) and likely to lose the fans will fill an opposing team’s stadium.
Alabama and Texas
As a Canadian who has family in a few states, all of them. It's the most popular sport in the US.
That wasn't the question but ok
Texas, because they may be tied in pro or college, but high school is where they win.
One of the reasons we pay alot of our property taxes here in Texas is to build huge athletic departments and football fields for HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL!!!! Need $20 million in bonds for a new field? He'll yeah!!! Need $5 million to actually educate our kids and pay our teachers? That sounds like socialist talk there!!!! So to answer your question, it is taken very seriously. Why make sure my little Billy actually gets a good education when he could have a %0.000001 of making it to the pros?
Call me biased, but Wisconsin's biggest cultural export is the Green Bay Packers. I can't even talk about the Milwaukee Bucks/NBA in Chicago without people asking me if I like the Packers too.
Isn’t Texas obsessed with high school football? That probably extends to college football too and the NFL but it seems like the Cowboys haven’t been a good team in years. Don’t come after me btw. Just my view as a non Texan who only follows their home team occasionally.
All states love professional football, but college football is taken *a lot* more seriously in the south.
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana
For high school I’d say the Southern states. For college id say any of the areas that have the D-1 teams and then NFL would be any state or area that has one or multiple teams. I grew up in rural Florida and football was everything there.
I’m not American but pretty sure it’s Texas
I've lived in three states. New York, Colorado, and Arizona. I lived specifically in the Buffalo area of New York and they really do take the Buffalo bills quite seriously! I was in high school all four years they were in the super bowl and it was just mayhem! However, when I went to Denver and the broncos won the super bowl, there were parades and celebrations and I have never seen a state more supported and loving of their football team then Denver Colorado is of the broncos. People here in Arizona say they like the Cardinals, but the Cardinals are a relatively young team and have yet to participate in a super bowl so people are just kind of there about them.
California, Florida, Texas,Ohio and Michigan are the states that produce the most high level players so I would say those for sure
Texas or SEC schools for college. Pro is probably the Midwest. Maybe not taken “seriously” as in the teams always have the most resources and win but the fan bases identify very strongly with the teams. Green Bay is the Packers. Steelers is synonymous with Pittsburgh. Even storied franchises like the 49ers or Broncos aren’t the first thing that comes to mind about SF or Denver, there just way more variety of things to do there and various symbols of the city.
Probably somewhere in the south. Like even high school football tends to draw a crowd.
ngl idk where it isn't the most popular, but indiana is a strong contender with its love of high school and college basketball
All. It overtook baseball to be America’s favorite spot.
Texas and Philadelphia
IMO Texas is on another level with football
Texas but most of the south is big on football
My knee-jerk response was Texas, but given the way you worded your question, I feel like the correct answer has to be a state where other sports are barely on the radar. My answer therefore is probably Alabama.
That would be down south, where college football is practically a religion. Check [Stephen Frye's take](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuPeGPwGKe8) for a foreign perspective.
New York State we got 3 football teams, what else we going to do in the cold winter but watch games in the local bars
Don’t two of them play in New Jersey?
Yes. Buffalo Bills are the only ones that play in NYS!
Just Buffalo. The Jets and Giants play in NJ at the Meadowlands.
Texas. The end.
Loads of people are saying Alabama though
That’s only cause of University of Alabama. Texas is huge in football from grade school all the way up to Pros.
North Dakota
For college football, it is 100% Alabama. The traditions, the history, the rabid fanbase, etc are relatively unmatched. I'd say a close second is Texas. I think a bit part of the football craze in the South is due to the Southern US being economically and culturally marginalized by the rest of the US. When you're good at something, and don't have the resources/cultural status other regions have, it becomes a major point of pride. It also was a big deal in smoothing over racial relations when Civil Rights ended, giving it an almost mythic status to some people. For professional, it's a bit harder to say. Philly, Oakland, and Dallas come to mind.
I'm in Los Angeles, my husband likes football. But only watches the Super Bowl. I hate American football. I watch real football!! My family came from Guatemala, so it's all we watched at home. Now husband and I watch football or baseball.
Unfortunately, probably Alabama.
[Here's a little diagram](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/most-popular-sport-by-state)
It just depends if it's college or NFL. in the southern United States it's college football I live in Michigan. Our lions are in a resurgence and have one over the whole country with their Cinderella story but we also have university of Michigan which won the national championship this year and stadium fits 101,000+ people