I can appreciate the concept, but a glaring problem with this map is ND. They have fans nationally; however, on the map they appear to be a smallish section of Indiana. That is not accurate. BYU, to a much lesser extent, is in a similar boat to ND.

I agree with a lot of you on the map.. Who ever drew it up did a great job and it's base on football..

That's why you got few FCS schools that can pull their weight with fan, and winning..

Got the map from Roadyville UTSA fan site, and even if ain't perfect gives us a great map to discuss..

Some one I'm sure can even make it better.... Hear the older to compare..

(02-02-2012 01:31 PM)miko33 Wrote:  I can appreciate the concept, but a glaring problem with this map is ND. They have fans nationally; however, on the map they appear to be a smallish section of Indiana. That is not accurate. BYU, to a much lesser extent, is in a similar boat to ND.

Missed Army and Navy.

What you can't really show with a map like this is the reach of not just ND/BYU, but other programs with a significant regional or national following. A given school's color would be deepest in the home regions shown, but to be more realistic you'd have things like a fading maroon circumference centered on Los Angeles, a fading burnt orange circumference centered on Austin, a fading blue circumference centered on Ann Arbor, etc. that would reach out into neighboring areas.

Split Indiana up differently and just trim the US in gold for Notre Dame (or at last trim from Indiana and east-northeastward in gold) LOL

I always preferred the Commoncensus map because it uses real data, even if it is two years out of date. I wish the guy would update it.

http://www.commoncensus.org/sports_hotspot.php?sport=5

I posted this map of North Carolina on another thread. I think the point is to show proportionally the fan composition of each state, and roughly where the fan concentrations are. Broad generalization.

For NC, it is true that there are fans of all schools across the state, and that a majority are either UNC or NCSU fans, the diaspora roughly even statewide. ECU fans are the largest minority by a wide margin, and the concentration of Pirate fans downeast dwarf that of either UNC or NCSU. Duke has a small following statewide (not necessarily concentrated in Durham). However, I've never met a Duke alum who was actually FROM North Carolina, and many Blue Devil fans in this state couldn't spell DUKE if you spotted them the D, K, and E. Wake fans are very rare. If you spot one in the wild, you're probably in Winston-Salem, and have either made your way to a prayer breakfast or Tim Duncan autograph signing. Please take lots of pictures and send them to the Smithsonian.

(02-02-2012 02:55 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  I always preferred the Commoncensus map because it uses real data, even if it is two years out of date. I wish the guy would update it.

http://www.commoncensus.org/sports_hotspot.php?sport=5

That's nice but you can't see anything. With the text and these colors its hard to tell who is who.

(02-02-2012 12:38 PM)He1nousOne Wrote:  

(02-02-2012 12:09 PM)SMUstang Wrote:  I'm not biased of course. But giving TCU that much area and SMU that little area is ridicules.

Well, as an Iowa fan I would say his Iowa/Iowa State comparison isn't on the mark either. Iowa State's area would be slightly larger but I think he is going purely on football power with these comparisons.

Michigan would probably be larger as well if this was based on anything but recent success at sports.

In that light I think his TCU/SMU comparison is pretty much on the money.

We all know SMU is on the rise.

Who won the SMU vs TCU game in 2011 in Fort Worth?

This is a more accurate depiction of IL.

Please keep in mind that the part of IL that matters (population, economy, political) is the Northern Illinois Region.

(02-02-2012 03:38 PM)SMUstang Wrote:  

(02-02-2012 12:38 PM)He1nousOne Wrote:  

(02-02-2012 12:09 PM)SMUstang Wrote:  I'm not biased of course. But giving TCU that much area and SMU that little area is ridicules.

Well, as an Iowa fan I would say his Iowa/Iowa State comparison isn't on the mark either. Iowa State's area would be slightly larger but I think he is going purely on football power with these comparisons.

Michigan would probably be larger as well if this was based on anything but recent success at sports.

In that light I think his TCU/SMU comparison is pretty much on the money.

We all know SMU is on the rise.

Who won the SMU vs TCU game in 2011 in Fort Worth?

I bolded the part that would be the response. One game does not change everything but it can signal a change is coming.

(02-02-2012 11:04 AM)CD11 Wrote:  I've seen a few renditions of maps with this general concept but nobody has managed to make it this attractive. It still isn't great but some of the other attempts have been terrible.

And yeah the BC region is laughable. I'd also make the IU one much larger, into Indy at the least.

For Indiana there is a hydrid, You have Purdue, then you have the IU-ND hybrid fans, they root for IU basketball and ND Football (they have reversible jackets).

I think UConn is over exaggerated on the 2nd map. they dont stretch into southeastern new york. Also rhode island would probably lean more towards Massachusetts and thus BC then UConn

Pretty well agree with the NC map. South Carolina is getting inroads in Charlotte. GA is probably good. Georgia Southern might have a little bigger slice of the pie, though, as they get heavy coverage in Savannah and down to Brunswick.

South Carolina is like NC, probably need a map for more explanation, but South Carolina and Clemson are pretty much split and they have fans over the entire state (depending on the area). Coastal is growing fast in the Myrtle Beach area, and if their program gets a boost the next few years, they will gain a lot of fans.

Wofford has a minority of fans in Spartanburg, and Furman a bigger minority in Greenville (plus a couple other towns), but go 15 miles out of town, and you barely see any of them. SC State has a pretty large amount of fans in Orangeburg, Calhoun and Richland Counties (and some in Charleston), but struggles in the rest of the state (haven't had much success in their other sports).

The Citadel has a little more of a statewide fan base. They are #3 in Charleston, have a decent minority in Columbia, and have enough fans in the Upstate for a radio affiliate. They also do well in the Pee Dee. Presbyterian and Charleston Southern are the least followed. PC is 60 miles from Columbia, 45 from Greenville, and in a small town, so they are only big in the couple of counties around Clinton. CSU has trouble drawing in North Charleston.

In the major cities (especially Charleston, Myrtle, Greenville, Hilton Head) there's fans of almost any major team.

here is a decent map of Texas I came up with that shows the 12 FBS schools and the major out of state fan bases. I tried as best I could to take into account school size/alumni base/regional t-shirt appeal. So, while UH appears smaller than UTEP, UH has a highly concentrated fan/alumni base in a large city with lots of competiton while UTEP has EP and surrounding area almost exclusively to themselves, but at the same time that area, like all of West Texas, is mostly empty compared with the central/eastern part of the state.

(02-02-2012 04:41 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(02-02-2012 11:04 AM)CD11 Wrote:  I've seen a few renditions of maps with this general concept but nobody has managed to make it this attractive. It still isn't great but some of the other attempts have been terrible.

And yeah the BC region is laughable. I'd also make the IU one much larger, into Indy at the least.

For Indiana there is a hydrid, You have Purdue, then you have the IU-ND hybrid fans, they root for IU basketball and ND Football (they have reversible jackets).

They actually make reversible jackets for that?? Wow.

(02-02-2012 02:40 PM)IceJus10 Wrote:  Split Indiana up differently and just trim the US in gold for Notre Dame (or at last trim from Indiana and east-northeastward in gold) LOL

I'd just trim the North and West in gold. There's very few Catholics in the South.

BYU, however, just stays in Utah. Sure, there's BYU fans everywhere, but there's also Nebraska, Texas, and Florida fans everywhere. The only other school that really has a national fanbase and no region of their own is Duke.

Agreed that some of the states are split right down the middle, with no regional dominance to speak of. Indiana is one, and I think that Alabama and Mississippi are two others.

I like how they included the D-1AA schools. Maine needs to be added.

Other changes: Louisville's region goes further South, but shouldn't go as far North. Cincinnati's extends into Kentucky and Indiana (only a few counties, but it's not shown).

(02-02-2012 09:40 PM)gosports1 Wrote:  I think UConn is over exaggerated on the 2nd map. they dont stretch into southeastern new york. Also rhode island would probably lean more towards Massachusetts and thus BC then UConn

I doubt Rhode Island leans toward BC or UConn, same goes for New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.

The trouble with Rhode Island is, they don't like the nearest FBS teams, but they don't like any of their own FCS teams either.
And Vermont has no teams at all. There isn't a single full scholarship football program left in either state. Maine at least has one, so you could say they win by default even though they're not very popular. In New Hampshire, I think the southeast corner is essentially an extension of the north shore suburbs and somewhat BC-infested. Same might go for Providence. Don't know how you color the rest of those states. And there isn't any BC interest at the western borders of Massachusetts. BC fans don't even consider that the same state.

(02-02-2012 04:41 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(02-02-2012 11:04 AM)CD11 Wrote:  I've seen a few renditions of maps with this general concept but nobody has managed to make it this attractive. It still isn't great but some of the other attempts have been terrible.

And yeah the BC region is laughable. I'd also make the IU one much larger, into Indy at the least.

For Indiana there is a hydrid, You have Purdue, then you have the IU-ND hybrid fans, they root for IU basketball and ND Football (they have reversible jackets).

We have the same sort of thing in Villanova basketball/Penn State and/or Notre Dame football fans.