NY Times produces map of CFB fandom

NY Times produces map of CFB fandom

"According to a recent study conducted by The New York Times, the southeastern region of the United States is second to none when it comes to college football fandom. 
The study used data from Facebook -- the percentage of users that "liked" a college football team -- to determine which states (and counties) had the greatest concentration of college football fans. Using the results of the study, The Times was able to produce a map, which can be seen below. The map highlighted several interesting trends.
The southern United States had the greatest concentration of fans, but the midwest was also well-represented -- each of the top ten states were from the south or the midwest. The northeastern region of the country doesn't appear to care about college football, as the bottom seven states were all from the northeast. Most of the western states were lacking as well, with the notable exceptions of Oregon and Wyoming.
The data suggests that states lacking professional sports franchises nearby tend to rate highly when it comes to college football fandom. The only professional sports team located in one of the top eight states in the study is the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team that relocated from Seattle in 2008.
Rural areas also did well. For instance, the state of Georgia was very low on the list at 13 percent, but that was mainly because of the Atlanta metro area, with an 11 percent rate in DeKalb County and a 15 percent rate in Fulton County. The rural areas of the state rated similarly to the rest of the southeast.
As far as which state ranked the highest, the map showed that Alabama reigns supreme and it's not particularly close. Nearly 34 percent of Alabama Facebook users were fans of a college football team, more than five percentage points ahead of the next-highest state (Nebraska). The top ten states can be seen below.
Top Ten States by Percentage:
1. Alabama: 34
2. Nebraska: 28
3. Oklahoma: 27
4. Arkansas: 26
5. Iowa: 26
6. South Carolina: 25
7. Kentucky: 25
8. Mississippi: 22
9. Louisiana: 21
10. Ohio: 21