Nielsen reveals top-10 college football viewing markets in country

We’ve all heard that college football “just means more” in the South, but now we have some data to back up that sentiment.

Earlier this week, audience measurement firm Nielsen revealed the top-10 local markets for college football viewership this season. Unsurprisingly, it is dominated by cities in the southern United States, save for two markets in Ohio.

Birmingham, AL, tops the list, which ranks TV markets by “household rating,” a measure of the percentage of TV households in a given market watching a given program. In this case, Nielsen measured the percentage of TV households watching college football, and Birmingham ranked the highest.

The next two markets both hail from Ohio, the only local markets outside the southern United States to crack the top-10 list. Columbus and Dayton, OH, clocked in at second and third, respectively, no doubt fueled by Ohio State’s continued success on the field.

Greenville, SC, and Tulsa, OK, round out the top-5 college football-crazed markets. Oklahoma City, OK, slots in right behind Tulsa in sixth.

Interestingly, the first market to also host an NFL franchise falls all the way down at No. 7. Atlanta, GA, home to many Georgia Bulldogs fans (and also home to a resurgent Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets team), can hold football fans’ attention on both Saturdays and Sundays.

Knoxville, New Orleans, and Jacksonville take the final three spots in the top-10, solidifying eight of the 10 biggest college football TV markets for SEC country. In addition to the two aforementioned Ohio cities, each market on this list can claim an SEC school. Places like Greenville (Clemson), Tulsa/Oklahoma City (Tulsa and Oklahoma State), and Atlanta (Georgia Tech) are certainly lifted by non-SEC schools that have major followings in the market. But Nielsen’s list makes clear what most already find apparent: Southern states watch college football at higher rates than Northern, Midwestern, and Western markets.