Schools With the Most Active Sports Fans

For some students, the prospect of waking up each Saturday morning and getting ready for the big game is one of the central things they look forward to when they get to college. To help ensure these students find the school for them, the 2014 Princeton Review compiled a list of schools that are home to the most active sports fans in the country. While football continues to be the most popular college sport in the nation, there are many other sports that garner student’s attention.

For example, at the number nine school, Clemson University, students are known to wait hours for tickets to their highly ranked soccer team, who has won 2 national championships in the past few years. University Connecticut and Gonzaga University are known much more for their basketball stars than it is for any other sport. And a place like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which includes a wide variety of excellent sports programs, can boast just a general appreciation for athletics beyond a single sport.

But it is still the time-honored traditions of celebrating football teams that dominate this list of active school sport fans. The University of Notre Dame ranks number one on this list, and their Fighting Irish are one of the most famous institutions for football in the country. The team began playing in 1887 and continued to dominate the headlines in the sport for many years. While in recent times they have lagged in competition, the loyalty of their fans continues, often braving cold winter nights to cheer on their team. The University of Southern California, which ranks number 2 on this list, also has a long historical tradition of great football, dating back to 1888. The Trojans are a well-known football powerhouse, having won 11 National Championships. Over 450 Trojans have successfully entered into the NFL Draft. For these reasons, you could project that there is some correlation between the list of schools in the country with the most active school sports fans and schools with the most well-known football programs.

Most Active School Sports Fans

^{Ranked 2014}

1. University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
2. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
3. The Univeristy of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
4. Penn State University – University Park, University Park, PA
5. University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
6. University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
7. University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
8. Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
9. Clemson University, Clemson, SC
10. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
11. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
12. West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
13. Auburn University, Auburn, AL
14. University of Mississippi, University, MS
15. Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
16. University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
17. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
18. University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
19. Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA
20. University of South Carolina – Columbia, Columbia, SC