Fascinating New Maps Reveal America’s Favorite Out-Of-State NFL And NCAA Football Teams

Maps Favorite Out State Football Teams

Getty Image


Just because you happen to live in a certain state doesn’t mean you automatically have to be a fan of the sports teams that play in that state. Just ask anyone who lives in Arizona.

Many people out there aren’t even from the states they currently live in, plus sometimes the teams in your state, well, they just don’t do it for you.

For example, Los Angeles Chargers fans have pretty much abandoned their team since the move from San Diego, resulting in a large portion of the usually tiny crowd at the games being represented by whoever the team happens to be playing that week.

So, with all of that in mind, which out-of-state football teams, be it in the NFL or in college, are the most popular?

An analysis of this very question was put together by the team at Custom Ink, who compared Google search interest data for to find the non-local favorite football teams, both pro and college, for each state.

Here a few of their findings…

• The San Francisco 49ers are the favorite out-of-state team in the most states overall (7), followed by the Pittsburgh Steelers (6), and the New York Giants (6).

• States tend to favor out-of-state teams that are within the same region, with the Bears being the common favorite of the Midwest, the Giants in the Northeast, and the 49ers in the West. In the South, however, the Pittsburgh Steelers are the most common favorite out-of-state team.

• Football programs that have actually had some recent success like the New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals don’t appear as out-of-state favorites for any states.

• On the college front, there wasn’t one team in particular that stands out. It was a four way tie with three states each rooting for Stanford, Notre Dame, Army and Air Force.

• Tulane, Florida, Cal, Bowling Green and Arizona tied for second most with two states apiece.

• When broken down by region, Stanford, Notre Dame and Air Force dominated most of the nation with Arizona carving out a decent out-of-state fanbase for itself in the Northeast.







Douglas Charles headshot avatar BroBible
Before settling down at BroBible, Douglas Charles, a graduate of the University of Iowa (Go Hawks), owned and operated a wide assortment of websites. He is also one of the few White Sox fans out there and thinks Michael Jordan is, hands down, the GOAT.