The Notre Dame football team is used to being the villain of college football. Fans around the country usually love to hate the Fighting Irish.
So, just how unlikeable is Texas, Penn State and Ohio State to the rest of the country? Very according to a new study by BetOnline. The Spun took the study and put together a graphic map that showed who most of the country is rooting for in the College Football Playoffs.
Somehow, some way, the Notre Dame football team has a massive, overwhelming majority of college football fans rooting for them over anyone else in the field.
This is actually crazy. According to @BetOnline_ag, Notre Dame is EASILY the favorite of most college football fans for the rest of the college football playoffs. pic.twitter.com/SHymtHnu9x
— Oliver VanDervoort (@itmeolliev) January 7, 2025
Notre Dame football is now America’s Team
The Spun said that the data was put together “by combing through geotagged data on X/Twitter from ‘last Thursday night (when matchups were set) to now, tracking official fan hashtags in each state.’ Over 180,000 tweets were documented.”
The Irish carried 40 of 50 states. Penn State is the second most rooted for team in these playoffs, though they aren’t close to Notre Dame. The Nittany Lions have captured fans in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, Maryland and Alaska.
The Texas Longhorns have the next most states with Texas (shockingly), and then Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. Ohio State appears to be the least liked of the four teams left in the College Football Playoffs. The Buckeyes carried only the state of Ohio.
One big reason why Notre Dame football has become more popular is head coach Marcus Freeman. He’s a good coach who also has a ton of charisma and he’s winning fans over who have spent most of their lives hating the Golden Domers. That’s just another reason to make sure to keep Freeman in South Bend as long as humanly possible.