This bounced around the Internet last week: A map of college football fandom by county with the caveats that it’s only the top 25, and based on Facebook. This link is to the largest image I could find. The problem with such maps is that trying to differentiate 25 colors on something like this is very tricky to do and understand at the micro level. Some cross-hatching or dot patterns for some would have made for better legibility. As might be expected, the areas without top-25 teams have a varied quilt of team fandom. Here’s where fans in Iowa allegedly are looking when their own team isn’t falling flat on its face.
- Nebraska: A whole bunch of western and central Iowa, all the way to Black Hawk County
- Texas: About 23 counties in eastern Iowa, none of which get the Longhorn Network.
- Wisconsin: 13 counties, mostly along the Mississippi River
- Michigan: Tama and Lucas counties. No, I don’t understand this either.
- Oregon: Henry and Jones counties
- Oklahoma (?): Winnebago County
- Insufficient data: Ringgold County
Indiana, central Illinois, and eastern Pennsylvania are hotbeds for the Figthing Irish.