I don't think their donor base and fanbase are nearly as big as people think they are. They are in Northern Florida and once you cross the state line you are in the fan territory of whatever SEC team resides there. Florida is by far the top school in that state. Clemson has SEC type fans and South Carolina has traditionally been pretty bad at football so Clemson has a long history of being the winning program in that state.
This data is from 2011, but I think it will still be illuminating. https://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/the-geography-of-college-football-fans-and-realignment-chaos/ Florida State would be ahead of Ole Miss but behind Kentucky on the above list if they were in the SEC. Clemson would be #4 in the SEC, ahead of LSU and behind only Auburn, Alabama, and the chomp Florida Gators chomp. I guess Florida State is way further down that list than I appreciated, and Clemson is very high. This was in 2011, too, so I can imagine some bad years might have pushed Florida State down while Clemson is riding high off its success.
I didn't look at the methodology, but take it all with a grain of salt. I don't think Auburn is the biggest fanbase in Alabama, for instance.
It wouldn't surprise me either way. I think a lot of it depends on how close the schools are to the state's biggest metro's. I know if Alabama has more fans it isn't by much.
The study was performed in 2011. The year before was the Cam Newton year. They were coming off a national championship. You would expect their numbers to be at a crest after that huge breakthrough. AL and AU both being really big and really close strikes me as reasonable. Alabama might be ahead now, but Auburn was on a high at that point and is still not far back.
Urban could win BIG at FSU and FAST. The problem is that FSU will not pay the bucks that it will take to get Urban.
Born and raised in Birmingham, AL and a former Tide Pride Member and Season Ticket holder at Alabama. Alabama is definitely the dominant fan base in the state like the Hawkeyes are in Iowa. Auburn has hardcore and loyal fans like Iowa State, but they are outnumbered by Alabama fans 3-2 or something like that on a good day for Auburn. You can order season tickets to Auburn if you like without donating. You can get on the Alabama Tide Pride waiting list if you want to be eligible for Alabama tickets in the future. They even charge a small fee for being on the waiting list starting this past year! Even before Saban, it took a while to work your way from waiting list to getting the option to have season tickets.
I was talking to a long time FSU fan that they are still paying Jimbo 15+ million and if they bought out their current coach it would be an additional 17 mil.
Would love to see them go after Frost. He had success in Florida. And, there would be a major meltdown in Nebraska.
