I remember talking about this article when it came out. Didn't buy it then and don't now.
I don't buy it either.
The only one I might see is Oklahoma because their population is on par with Iowa and I'm assuming there are more Oklahoma State fans than Iowa State fans. They also have Tulsa which probably isn't very significant.
Tennessee has double Iowa's population. Nobody in that state cares about Vanderbilt, Memphis or Middle Tennessee.
Georgia has triple Iowa's population. Even if they split half the state with Georgia Tech, that's still 1.5 million more than Iowa has. I guarantee that's not the case and that Georgia has more fans than Georgia Tech.
Louisiana has 4.5 million to Iowa's 3 million and while they have UL Monroe, UL Lafayette and La Tech, I'd venture to guess most of their alum are LSU fans for football.
Florida's population is six times the size of Iowa's. Even with Florida, Miami, South Florida, Central Florida and Florida International(did I miss anyone?), you could split the state evenly with all six schools and it's the same as Iowa's population. Obviously USF, UCF and FIU have less fans than Florida, FSU and Miami. And I would say Miami has less fans than Florida and FSU.
Nothing needs to be said about the size of California(LA) and USC. The idea that Iowa has more fans than USC is laughable.
There is obviously more to it than just population because fans relocate. There are Iowa fans in Los Angeles and USC fans in Iowa(although it's not many). I'll just assume for the most part that states trade as many people as they get back. So the population itself stands for the amount of people that are potentially fans. That's another thing you have to account for... not everybody watches sports. I just don't buy that Iowa has more fans than some of the schools they're listed ahead of. Another thing I don't buy is that colleges located in states with professional sports lose fans to pro sports. They might lose fans at the gate but I don't know why being a fan of pro teams would interfere with your ability to be a fan of a college team. I personally have a favorite NCAA team, NFL team, NBA team, MLB team and I also watch UFC. I'm guessing Georgia fans for instance are capable of liking the Bulldogs, Falcons, Braves and Hawks. I don't know why having pro teams would prevent you from being a college fan.
