The 2026 college football season is getting fully underway this weekend.
Week 1 of the 2026 college football season is set, with several big games on tap, including Clemson vs. LSU, which will highlight the opening weekend slate on Saturday evening.
There were some games last weekend – Week 0 – with USC’s dismal attendance highlighting the first few days of the season.
“I moved to Los Angeles 14 years ago and absolutely love it. I have also traveled around the country and attended more sporting events than I could possibly count. LA is not a sports town in any sense of the word. It is an entertainment town. A high proportion of residents grew up elsewhere rooting for other teams. If a team is competing for championships and playing a big game the people will turn lot. If it’s not they won’t. In many places the fans are true for hards. There is fluctuation but they pretty much show up regardless. Very few people in LA die hard for their teams. They just find something else to do. Pretty simple,” sports writer Seth Davis shared.
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Which American cities actually like college football the most?
According to Nielsen, here are the 10 American cities most obsessed with the state of college football in 2026.
America’s 10 most obsessed college football cities
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Des Moines, Iowa
- Columbus, Ohio
- Omaha, Nebraska
- Knoxville, Tennessee
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Chattanooga, Tennessee
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Memphis, Tennessee
Notably, there are very few major cities on this list, and none on the West Coast.
It’ll be interesting to see if this list looks any different by the time the 2026 college football season comes to an end.
Will we see any different college football cities on this list by the time the regular season is over?
