# Why is football such a big deal in the south? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 20, 2018, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078 "2018-01-20T22:22:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CastletonSnob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ea924/32.png) [@CastletonSnob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CastletonSnob)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/1 "2018-01-20T22:22:06Z")
Why is football such a big deal in the south? I know it’s a big deal in the US as a whole, but it seems to be a religion in the south. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2018, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/2 "2018-01-21T00:56:18Z")
PA, OH, and TX are the football religion states. The South are johnnies-come-lately, since the SEC became a major power (unless you consider Texas as part of the South). ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2018, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/3 "2018-01-21T03:02:22Z")
Damned if I know. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2018, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/4 "2018-01-21T04:17:41Z")
I always assumed that those were regions with large, contiguous rural areas, and that football was the best opportunity for wealth for most young people there. As a result there is a large focus on developing football talent from an early age. Why football, and not basketball or baseball? I’m not quite as sure about that. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2018, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/5 "2018-01-21T08:23:23Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Why football, and not basketball or baseball? I’m not quite as sure about that. With baseball, it was the lack of MLB franchises until the 1960s when the Braves moved to Atlanta. There were a number of minor league teams before then but they were largely considered to be summertime diversions before college football season started. In fact, the lack of both NFL and MLB franchises in the Deep South and Texas likely had a lot to do with how college football became so intensely popular in the region. In fact, people forget it took awhile for professional football to catch on in Texas. The NFL’s first franchise in Texas, [the Dallas Texans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Texans_(NFL)), was such a flop that it folded after only one season. As for basketball, don’t forget that the state of North Carolina is practically the hub of the universe as far as college basketball is concerned (e.g., Duke and UNC) and in Kentucky, UK and Louisville have been powers for years. In all these schools, the college football programs are a distant second in terms of popularity and fan interest. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2018, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/6 "2018-01-21T09:56:37Z")
I think it may be the martial nature of the sport. It is a very kinetic sport with aggression and is more like two sides waging war against each other than any other major team sport there is in the US. The South also contributes more personnel to the military than any other region of the US, IIRC. Add to that the speed, highlights (“did you see that one-handed catch?”), excitement, 1-on-1 confrontation (i.e., WR vs. DB)and intensity of the sport and it’s very appealing to the South, Texas, and some other regions. Finally, once a sport gets popular in a region, it becomes self-perpetuating. You might as well ask why soccer is so popular in Europe and South America. It just is. Once it reached a certain critical mass, it became permanently self-sustaining, always popular because it’s popular. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2018, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/7 "2018-01-21T09:59:33Z")
Also, the need for authority, discipline, teamwork in the sport. One of the reasons Alabama is so good in college football is because it runs extremely tough practices. That’s very Southern; “discipline leads to success”. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2018, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/8 "2018-01-21T12:03:50Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > PA, OH, and TX are the football religion states. The South are johnnies-come-lately, since the SEC became a major power (unless you consider Texas as part of the South). Okay.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2018, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/9 "2018-01-21T12:06:23Z")
Football has always been popular in the South. The South is a masculine culture, and football is a masculine game. Football has become a bigger deal in the South mainly thanks to the fact that they allow everyone, regardless of color, to play the game, which wasn’t always the case. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2018, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/10 "2018-01-21T19:42:12Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Also, the need for authority, discipline, teamwork in the sport. One of the reasons Alabama is so good in college football is because it runs extremely tough practices. That’s very Southern; “discipline leads to success”. If you asked people what part of the United States is typically associated with discipline and hard work, I doubt most people would say the South. Surely New England would be the likelier choice. Also, what sport doesn’t require discipline to be good at? A much likelier and less culturally biased answer to the OP’s question is simply that big time college football was the South’s first major sport. It is not that long ago in historical terms when professional sports were very limited in geography; it wasn’t until the 1960s that the big pro sports leagues ventured there, and most of the South still doesn’t have much. Big college football, however, has been a big success in the South. The Crimson Tide were winning national titles when Calvin Coolidge was President. Colleges have a very different sports economy than professional leagues; MB or the NFL couldn’t even have had a team down south in 1925. A decades-long head start matters. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/11 "2018-01-21T20:04:37Z")
I thought it might be that the sport got popular in the south after the northeast. [This website](https://www.quora.com/Why-is-college-football-so-revered-in-the-South)has some opinions on the subject but this one gets at what I was originally thinking: > [@Mike Page](#): > > The reason that football is so popular down south is that after the Civil War and Reconstruction - the South continued to be dominated by the financially and industrially stronger regions of the North and the Northeast. Southerners continued to experience a sense of defeat and loss in their own land - in their own towns. In the 1920’s this seemed to change when the University of Alabama Crimson Tide football team won the Rose Bowl game and the “National Championship” against the University of Washington Huskies. The prestige and the home-grown pride that was unleashed from this achievement lit a fire under every Southerner. Southern football teams play each other harder every year than any other conference anywhere in the nation. That’s just the way it always has been and I cannot imagine it changing anytime soon. The best athletes in any town across the South are found on the high school football teams. We look at our football team as our gladiators and the high school or college stadium as our Colosseum. Southern players dominate the sport like Latin American players dominate baseball. It’s our thang and Saturdays in the fall are meant to be spent with a tall, ice-cold Co-cola, a chili dog, and your feet propped up while your watching the game. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2018, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/12 "2018-01-21T21:40:27Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > If you asked people what part of the United States is typically associated with discipline and hard work, I doubt most people would say the South. Surely New England would be the likelier choice. > > Also, what sport doesn’t require discipline to be good at? > > A much likelier and less culturally biased answer to the OP’s question is simply that big time college football was the South’s first major sport. It is not that long ago in historical terms when professional sports were very limited in geography; it wasn’t until the 1960s that the big pro sports leagues ventured there, and most of the South still doesn’t have much. Big college football, however, has been a big success in the South. The Crimson Tide were winning national titles when Calvin Coolidge was President. Colleges have a very different sports economy than professional leagues; MB or the NFL couldn’t even have had a team down south in 1925. > > A decades-long head start matters. This is a good post. The lack of professional sports teams is arguably one of the main reasons why football is big in the south. Long before Louisiana had the Saints or Cowboys, they had the LSU Tigers. Going back probably 75 years, they also followed high school teams like West Monroe, Neville, Haynesville, and Istrouma - they were on the front pages of the sports section of local newspapers. Even today, the Super Dome Classic is a big deal. A crazy weekend in early December. People talk about Friday Night Lights in Texas, but it’s not just Texas. It’s everywhere from Texas all the way over to Florida and Georgia. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2018, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/13 "2018-01-21T23:50:25Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > . . . Long before Louisiana had the Saints or Cowboys, they had the LSU Tigers. . . . If they were the New Orleans Cowboys, I’d like them a lot better. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/14 "2018-01-22T00:18:22Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > If they were the New Orleans Cowboys, I’d like them a lot better. LOL! Sorry. It’s a Northwest Louisiana thing - you wouldn’t understand. But I shouldn’t expect anyone to understand - my bad. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/15 "2018-01-22T01:54:46Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > LOL! Sorry. > > It’s a Northwest Louisiana thing - you wouldn’t understand. But I shouldn’t expect anyone to understand - my bad. My apologies for assuming that New Orleans = the entire state. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/16 "2018-01-22T13:17:21Z")
I think RickJay pretty much nailed it. To this day, there aren’t any pro sports teams in Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, and South Carolina. College football will always be king down there whereas say Penn State has to compete not only with the Steelers and Eagles but also the Pirates, Penguins, Phillies, Eagles, Flyers, and 76ers. There’s only so much time anyone has to follow sports and the southern fan has fewer alternatives to college football. For NFL football, I don’t see a lot of difference. Vikings fans are I don’t think any less fervent than say Falcons fans. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/17 "2018-01-22T14:27:14Z")
Am I reading that quote from Mike Page correctly? Football is popular because the South is still sore about losing the Civil War, and football is one way to get back at the oppressive North? And this guy is a Southerner, and he’s still proud of that? Good lord, that culture is even more toxic than I’d thought. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/18 "2018-01-22T16:29:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Am I reading that quote from Mike Page correctly? Football is popular because the South is still sore about losing the Civil War, and football is one way to get back at the oppressive North? And this guy is a Southerner, and he’s still proud of that? Good lord, that culture is even more toxic than I’d thought. He is saying that. He seems to be talking about the 1920s, the time of a resurgence of the KKK, the era when statues of Confederate generals were being built. But it’s part of the continuing divide we still see today. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/19 "2018-01-22T17:32:41Z")
To be honest I think my argument is a hell of a lot more sane and supported by objective evidence. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078/20 "2018-01-22T18:11:50Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > To be honest I think my argument is a hell of a lot more sane and supported by objective evidence. It’s the same explanation, just without the Civil War as a motivation. Football was old news in the north when the south began to adopt it at the college level. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-football-such-a-big-deal-in-the-south/807078.md?page=2)