Largest College Football Fanbase?

#27
#27
I suspect most of us would be surprised at Syracuse's fan base.

New York State has about 19 million people. Almost half of those are in the city, which who knows what teams they follow. But once you get upstate, with the other roughly 10 million folks, it's all about Syracuse University. From Buffalo to Albany to Binghamton, and everything in between, it's all about Syracuse.

So there's a potential fan base one and a half times the size of the state of Tennessee's population. They simply have a larger base to build from.

And yes, folks there follow football. Basketball is #1 to Syracuse fans, of course, but football is a bigger draw for them than many of us seem to think.

So yeah, I'm not surprised they're on that list. I agree with Ricky, though: Tennessee is being sold short in that count: I've always heard our fan base numbers in the mid-4million range, like 4.5 give or take.

Go Vols!


EDIT: And p.s., Tennessee's population has boomed in the past few decades, from below 5m in 1990 to more than 7m today. A lot of those folks are transplants from other states, and bring their loyalties along. But some of them will embrace the local lads, and even more of their children and grandchildren will.

So when I said the Vols' fan base has long been 4.5m or so, I think maybe that's getting dated, too. We might be significantly higher, maybe above 5m by now. Need a new survey by folks who know how to run valid ones. And no, not by some station up in Connecticut whose employees tend to think anything west of Philadelphia is just "fly over country" populated by trailer parks.
 
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#28
#28
UT97Vol said:
Fanatics Best-Selling Schools (2024 regular season and CFP):
  1. Notre Dame
  2. Ohio State
  3. Georgia
  4. Texas
  5. Tennessee
  6. Alabama
  7. Michigan
  8. Oregon
  9. Penn State
  10. Florida
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Looks pretty accurate to me. Ratings based on 4 factors:

Natural affinity- how many Catholics are there in the country

State population- probably only 3 states listed, Tennessee, Oregon and Alabama not in Top 10 population size

In addition to population itself, number of Major college programs instate... Can you imagine if Texas was the only major program instate. Great advantage for tOSU and us to a lesser extent. UGA only has GT with a rather limited student body and support.

And I almost forgot, great winning tradition.:)

Gambling tip from a professional player in Las Vegas. These teams always have maybe a 2 point differential in the books because they realize many in these huge fan bases will bet on their team no matter what the odds.

Gonna be at Harrahs Lake Tahoe for our UAB game day.
 
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#31
#31
Unconditional Surrender said:
The fact that Neyland has 100k seats and is consistently the most expensive ticket in the country since Covid ought to tell you a little. The above estimates may be correct in terms of casual fans but they don’t measure intensity. I am not saying we are number one but we aren’t that far down. Below Auburn? Come on! Go on social media (Twitter and Facebook) and look at followers for the major sports. That might give a better picture.
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This is a very good analysis. Most weeks for the past few years I have looked at prices of tickets for games for most every team. The REAL UT is often the highest ticket on the market at home or away. The supply and demand curve for tickets should tell someone a lot about the number of fans. Unless, it just means the hardcore that have to be at most or every game in person only applies to UT fans and a few others! I know hundreds of fans just myself that are big fans that don't attend the games due to the crazy high prices these days. I can't imagine UT having less than 5 million fans! Hell, there are over 300 million in the US. If only a third of them claim to follow any college team, that is 100 million. If we are in the top 15, there is no reason to think UT has less than 5 million fans!

I would say UGA is too low too due to the football team's success the last 5 years and the size of Atlanta and population of the whole state. They haven't had the baseball and basketball UT has had in the last 5 years. I would still say they are above 5 million too!
 
#32
#32
I’m 32 and noticed as a teenager even in Tennessee kids my age didn’t like Tennessee. This was when we were down and awful. I knew more people my age in Tennessee that rooted for Alabama than for the vols. Us being awful for so long didn’t help.
 
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#34
#34
This is of underrated importance. Especially for bowls and stuff. Back when Lavell Edwards coached BYU he used to tell the media that when BYU fans traveled to bowl games they brought a copy of the Ten Commandments and a $20 bill and didn’t break either.
Tin Man said:
Coda: Where Tennessee’s fans travel, we make a positive impact. Overwhelmingly, folks want us to return. Their chambers of commerce want us back. Their local media produce glowing stories about our visits. We’re the shizzle.
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#36
#36
1. I’d like to see how many different fans have attended games for any particular team.

2. I’d like to see an accurate report of how many fans watch a game on average just because it’s their team.

3. I’d like to see how much money any given team has made on merchandise.

These statistics would be the best indication on a fan base’s worth to their team. Anything else is nothing more than speculation about whether a person has anything to offer as a “fan”. I haven’t seen the Carrier Dome at capacity on TV in years, if not decades.

Teams relevant to any title race have viewers who don’t care which teams are playing, but may have interest in who advances or allows their team to move ahead.
 
#37
#37
Unconditional Surrender said:
The fact that Neyland has 100k seats and is consistently the most expensive ticket in the country since Covid ought to tell you a little. The above estimates may be correct in terms of casual fans but they don’t measure intensity. I am not saying we are number one but we aren’t that far down. Below Auburn? Come on! Go on social media (Twitter and Facebook) and look at followers for the major sports. That might give a better picture.
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Meh. I'm not so sure how many new lifelong fans we have gained since 2021 when Heupel and White arrived-at least out of state ones or those with no connection to UT.

2021 and 2022 we were THE sexy team in CFB. Throwing the ball all over the place and hanging half a century on people. Brings eyeballs from casual fans. Add in the bandwogoners

Last two years we really haven't been as explosive (or at all really ha ha) and most of those "newer" fans moved onto the next new thing

In terms of attendance and ticket costs, I think that stems from the fact that we were starving for a winner. We basically sold out Neyland most of the time when we were horrid didn't we? Prices went up and people kept coming.
 
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#38
#38
YankeeVol said:
They care about college basketball quite a bit actually. Lacrosse as well.

I still remember a teacher putting the tourney on during class.
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Syracuse is into those sports, but basketball is pretty big here, so are baseball and some women’s sports. At least in the neighborhood of lacrosse. I imagine that there is more passion for Tennessee athletics than Syracuse athletics
 
#39
#39
Berry4Heisman14 said:
I’m 32 and noticed as a teenager even in Tennessee kids my age didn’t like Tennessee. This was when we were down and awful. I knew more people my age in Tennessee that rooted for Alabama than for the vols. Us being awful for so long didn’t help.
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What part of Tennessee are you from? I’m just a bit older than you, and Tennessee had a solid majority when I was a teenager even with our struggles.
 
#40
#40
TCNC53 said:
I don’t even believe the number compared to Auburn. And USC? They’re too busy crying about all the issues in CA to care about college football. The VOLS are ranked a bit too low here but whatever. GBO.
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USC has a lot of fans. They are the favored team in So Cal, which has a huge population base. They just aren’t necessarily die hard like us hillbillies.
 
#44
#44
Ohio States Alumni base is about 2X the size of UT Knoxville:
The State of Tennessee had a population of 5.4 million in 1998. 7.3 million in 2025 with many being transplants (some are also now Vols fans)

Basically what I’m saying is…

That list is TRASH and don’t believe it for a second.
 
#45
#45
jeff1vol said:
If they factor in the "bandwagon" fans... it makes a lot of sense. Folks like winners and there is no doubt that winning correlates to the list above. Population of the home state and the size of the alumni base may factor in as well. Wisconsin and Syracuse DO NOT have a bigger fanbase that UT. Green Bay Packers DOMINATE the fandom in Wisky. And pro sports dominate the NY region as well. I'd like to see their "formula".
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Yes. If you only count “obsessed/passionate/die hard” fans only, we’re top 5 easily. Most of the other schools have a large percentage of casual fans who aren’t that interested
 
#46
#46
There is only ONE type of TN fan. It’s all or nothing. Other schools have a wide range of “types” of fans from casual, in name only, moderate, to serious.
 
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