40% of college grads say they’ll watch the playoffs
The Super Bowl is a national event: in an Economist/YouGov Poll earlier this year, even one in four of those who didn’t think of themselves as fans of the National Football League said they’d be watching that game. The NCAA Division I college championships won’t get nearly as much attention. Less than a third in this week’s Economist/YouGov Poll say they might watch the playoffs.
There is more interest among those who went to college: 40% of those who graduated from college say they will probably watch, and that includes nearly half of male college graduates.
Although all four universities – Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Alabama – are located in the South as classified by the US Census, there is not much more interest in the playoffs among those who live in the South.
The Division I playoffs this year begin with the four top-rated teams playing on New Year’s Day, and the championship game played a week later. What distinguishes the contest this year is that there is no true favorite. The number one ranked team, Clemson University, gets the support of just 22% overall, and of only 27% of those who say they are interested in the college football. Clemson fares slightly better among those who say college football is one of their top interests: a third in that group favor the South Carolina university.
