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Is Philadelphia the Worst College Football City in America?
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College football begins on Saturday, and with it comes seasonal depression:
Is Philadelphia the worst college football city in America? You could loosely define this as “lack of interest/local program kind of stinks.”
These are the things working against us:
- Temple just isn’t very good. The Owls are the city’s only D1 program and they’re a mediocre Group of Five team playing inside of a rented NFL stadium. It was dope to experience 2015 and 2016 and a couple of 10-win seasons, but that was certainly the exception, and not the norm.
- Delaware is nearby, but doesn’t penetrate the city proper, or the surrounding counties. The Blue Hens were also an FCS program for many years, before they went up to D1 last season and went 7-6. I will say, that because of their FBS move, and somewhat surprising season, we will keep a closer eye on them moving forward.
- Villanova remains an FCS program. Even with the playoff run last year, they just don’t move the needle very much. They also suffer from the same “not a Philly school” stigma that the basketball team suffers from.
- Penn doesn’t really excite anybody. They’ve had some decent seasons under Ray Priore, but it’s been 10 years since they last finished atop the Ivy.
- Rutgers has a decent alumni base around here, but geographically they’re a little too far north and they happen to be bang average. Greg Schiano’s second stint hasn’t resembled his first stint, namely because this is now a Big 10 program in the NIL era, and not a Big East program in the old era.
- Penn State is both loved and hated around here. It’s a wide spectrum. Certainly you’ve got a ton of alumni in these parts, and branch campuses in Montco and Delco with about 4,000 students, but there’s also a robust dislike for the Nitters based on the fact that State College is 3 hours away. There’s also lingering anti-Paterno and Sandusky stuff around here, the “Happy Valley is a cult” narrative remaining firm.
- Successful professional teams like the Eagles and Phillies dominate attention and media coverage, and it’s justifiable. The Sixers just landed LeBron James and the Flyers are turning a corner. There’s little time for Big 5 hoops, Philadelphia Union, and combat sports already, so college football is even further down the pecking order.
- There are Notre Dame fans here, but that’s everywhere. It’s the Irish Catholic thing.
- A few people on social mentioned that Philly has fewer transplants than other big cities, which is a good point. There is less college football fandom being imported from the outside.
Honestly, you could make a case for any big city in the Northeastern United States. They’re all bad college football cities. New York loves baseball and has no D1 college football programs. They have Fordham, Columbia, and Wagner in FCS, although I do remember Rutgers was doing huge TV numbers back in 2006 on the strength of the New York media market. Unfortunately, Ray Rice and Ramel Meekins ain’t walking through that door now.
Boston has B.C., but Traitor U* hasn’t been shit since Matt Ryan was under center for Jeff Jagodzinski.
D.C. and Baltimore are pro sports towns just like Philly is, and while I think you could make the case that most NFL cities are bad college football cities, places like Detroit and Cleveland do have a ton of Michigan and Ohio State fans. I don’t have any numbers to back this up, but I think you’d find more overlapping support for the nearby college football program in the Midwest much more than you would in the Northeast.
Anyway… go Owls! Beat Rhode Island!
*we will never forgive Boston College for its role in killing off Big East football, and producing undesirables like Cutter Gauthier
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com