Right before the season kicked into full gear, Nielsen dropped something college football fans love to argue about: a ranking of the most avid local markets in the country. On3 reported the release on Sept. 2, and the list says a lot about where college football really lives.
How the index works
Nielsen didn't just count TV viewers. Its local fandom index blends eight signals into one score, with 100 as the national benchmark:
- Apparel purchases
- Event attendance
- Streaming
- Social media following
- TV viewership
- Radio listening
- Betting intent
- Overall interest
Those factors are averaged without weighting, so a market that buys gear, shows up to games and follows teams online gets credit across the board.
The top 10
Here's how the top of the list shook out, per On3's breakdown of the Nielsen data:
- 1. Birmingham (Alabama, Auburn) – 230
- 2. Des Moines/Ames (Iowa State, Iowa) – 212
- 3. Columbus (Ohio State) – 205
- 4. Omaha (Nebraska) – 193
- 5. Knoxville (Tennessee) – 188
- 6. Oklahoma City (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State) – 186
- 7. Chattanooga (Tennessee) – 174
- 8. New Orleans (LSU) – 166
- 9. Atlanta (Georgia, Georgia Tech) – 161
- 10. Memphis (Memphis, Ole Miss) – 161
Birmingham scoring more than double the national benchmark isn't exactly a shock. But a few things jump out.
Smaller markets, bigger passion
The most interesting finding: eight of the top 10 markets, including each of the top seven, don't have an NFL team alongside their college program, per On3. When there's no pro franchise competing for attention, the local college team becomes the Saturday, Sunday and everything-in-between team. That's a big deal for athletes in those markets. Their local following isn't split across a dozen pro rosters.
Tennessee is the other headline. Two separate markets, Knoxville at No. 5 and Chattanooga at No. 7, land in the top 10 on the back of one program. That's a lot of passion concentrated around a single program.
Georgia makes the cut
Atlanta's No. 9 spot is notable for a different reason. On3 points out that it's the largest media market in the top 10,. Georgia Tech and Georgia are the programs tied to the market in the ranking. Landing in the top 10 as a big, busy metro says Atlanta's college fans are as invested as anybody's.
Why this matters in the NIL era
Look at the ingredients again: apparel, attendance, streaming, social following. Those are commercial behaviors. Fans in these markets aren't just watching. They're buying and engaging. For athletes building a name, image and likeness business, a market's fandom score is a rough map of where attention, and the dollars that follow attention, are concentrated.
It also cuts the other way. An athlete at a school outside the biggest markets can still build a strong following if they give fans a reason to engage directly. The index measures how much a region cares about college football. What fans do with that passion is still up for grabs.
The takeaway: college football fandom is deepest where it doesn't have to share the spotlight, and those fans are already spending time and money on the teams they love.