re: Why is CFB way more popular in the south than NFL?

The NFL started in the Midwest, then expanded to the Northeast half a century before it was anywhere near the south. Remember...while the NFL started in 1920...there were professional teams in the Upper Midwest from the late 1800s.

There was an NFL team in Louisville, Kentucky...it lasted for 5 seasons (21-26)

Here's where the NFL franchises were in the 20's and 30s (when people started listening to games on the radio and building a fanbase).


The first NFL team in the South that lasted for more than a year was the Dallas Cowboys in 1960...that same year, the Houston Oilers started up in the AFL...(Technically, the Dallas Texans were in the league in 1952...but they only lasted 1 season).

You finally got a team in the Southeast in 1966 with the addition of the Miami Dolphins in the AFL and the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL.

So...if you just go by the NFL as the starting timeline for pro football (which isn't really accurate)...If you lived in the Southeast, you only had teams from other parts of the country to follow from 1920 until 1966. You finally got the Saints in 1967.

In 1995 you got the addition of the Panthers...then the Oilers moved to Tennessee in 1997.

So...you tend to support the same program your parents and grandparents support...because they were the ones who took you to games or watched/listed to them with you growing up. While the NFL was establishing themselves in other parts of the country...college football became the staple in the Southeast.