Nielsen has launched the Nielsen Scarborough Local College Football Fandom Index, a new set of college football rankings that puts Birmingham at No. 1 among U.S. local markets. The opening snapshot comes as another season of college football is underway, giving fans and advertisers a fresh read on where the sport runs deepest by market.
The first-place finish is not a narrow view of who watches the most. Birmingham scored 230 in the index, ahead of Des Moines/Ames at 212 and Columbus at 205, while the top five also included Omaha and Knoxville. Nielsen built the rankings from eight metrics: apparel purchases, general interest, live-event attendance, betting intent, social media engagement, radio listenership, streaming habits and linear TV viewership.
That wider formula matters because the rankings reward markets that show strength across more than one channel of fandom. Birmingham leads in interest and attendance, and it still sits in the top four for apparel, social media, radio, streaming and TV viewing. Des Moines/Ames leads outright in apparel, social media following and radio listening, while Columbus leads in streaming and also lands in the top four for apparel, interest, social media, radio and TV viewership.
The result is a market-by-market picture that looks different from a simple viewing chart. Nielsen said the index follows a record-breaking year in which viewers consumed more than 179 billion minutes across Nielsen-rated networks, and viewing rose 9% year over year. The new ranking builds on the inaugural NFL Fandom Index, but this version shows how college football loyalty concentrates in specific local markets instead of spreading evenly across the map.
It also exposes the gaps between the metrics. Memphis finished 10th overall even though it posts the single highest college football betting index in the country and tops both Birmingham and Columbus in that category. New Orleans ranked eighth and was second in betting, while Atlanta landed ninth with a score of 161 as the only large multi-sport market in the top 10. Chattanooga, seventh with a score of 174, placed in the top five for interest, betting and streaming, which shows how a strong mark in one area can lift a market without making it dominant everywhere else.
The clearest pattern is at the top of the list: mid-size markets near flagship programs, with fewer competing professional sports franchises, are doing the most work. The absence of major coastal metros is the most obvious theme in the top 20, and that leaves the rankings telling a familiar but sharper story about where college football still owns the calendar. What Nielsen has not laid out is how the eight metrics are weighted to produce the final score, which means the index is best read as a broad measure of local fandom rather than a full formula in public view.
