If you're like me, you've wondered a time or two about what states are home to the most college football programs.
Growing up in Michigan, and then playing small college football in Ohio, it seemed like there were a ton of college football programs within a six-hour radius or so.
Well thanks to Reddit user RealBenWoodruff, we now have an answer because took some research that went state by state (including Washington, DC) and broke down how many Division I (FBS and FCS), II, III and NAIA programs there are in each state, and then took things a step further. To be honest, I found some of the results pretty surprsing.
Here's a quick look the states who have at least 30 college football playing programs within their borders.
I was surprised by a number of those states, especially Massachussets with a whopping 30 programs. I also didnt realize that Pennsylvania was the king as far as total college football programs.
It should come as no suprise that Texas is home to the most FBS schools (12), followed by Ohio with eight, and Florida, California, and North Carolina with seven a piece.
As far as FCS schools go, Texas, Pennsylvania, and New York all have eight a piece. Pennsylvania is the home to the most Division II program (17) by a large margin, with North Carolina (13), and Missouri (10) both also in double-digit territory.
The small school numbers are also very interesting. At the Division III level there are 10 schools in double-digit territory, led by Pennsylvania with 25, Ohio and Massachusets both have 21, Illinois is home to 19, New York has 18, and Wisconsin has 17. Just as interesting, 13 states don't have any Division III programs (AZ, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, NM, ND, OK, SC, SD, UT, WY).
At the NAIA level, the highest concentration of schools can be found in Kansas (13) and Iowa (10) while over half the states (26) have no NAIA programs represented within state lines. A number of talent-rich states would probably benefit from adding some NAIA football, as long it would make sense for them travel-wise with opponents.
User RealBenWoodruff goes on to compile all that data to reflect all teams per million residents according to 2016 US Census data, and came up with this map for those that prefer things more visual.