Which Football School Has the Most Alums in NYC?

Which Football School Has the Most Alums in NYC?

"Since no college football powerhouses reside in the five boroughs (sorry, Fordham Rams), we set out to determine which non-local football school has the biggest alumni contingent in the city. Among the 30 schools surveyed, Penn State was tops with 23,000 alumni in the metro New York area, according to their alumni association. Michigan, one of Penn State's Big Ten rivals, fared well, too, with 12,592. Meanwhile, the Southeastern Conference, whose teams dominate on the field, has few schools with a significant number of alumni. This disparity is also reflected in TV ratings. Six of the top 10-rated games in the New York market last season were Big Ten games while only one of the top 10 featured an SEC team.

The alumni numbers may signal why college football isn't a priority in the city—after all, traditional basketball mecca Georgetown has six times as many alumni in the area as Alabama, the No. 1 football team in the land.

But there are still plenty of college football-obsessed alumni to make Saturdays in New York an event. "If you want to see the popularity of college football in New York, all you need you to do is make your way from bar to bar on a Saturday afternoon," said New Meadowlands Stadium CEO Mark Lamping, who is in charge of scheduling college games at the new stadium. "You move from block to block and there are SEC fans, Big 10 fans, Pac-10 fans."

The Meadowlands can expect a few more fans, as well. Three of the schools with high alumni figures—Penn State, Southern California and Notre Dame—will play there in the next four years. "

 

 

Saturday's Loudest Cheers

Here is a sampling of some big football programs' alumni in metro New York City, according to their respective alumni associations.

College	Alumni
Alabama	2,000
Auburn	1,336
Florida	8,400
Florida State	7,950
Georgia	3,085
LSU	2,100
Michigan	12,592
Nebraska	3,171
North Carolina	10,300
College	Alumni
Notre Dame	3,040
Ohio State	4,600
Oklahoma	1,975
Penn State	23,000
Southern California	7,000
Stanford	9,058
Texas	7,180
Utah	3,600
West Virginia	732