CFP title hopes: Map shows who every state wants to win

The good folks at BetOnline.ag have gathered geotagged data on X -- formerly Twitter; can we just go back to that, Elon? -- to discover every state's rooting interest to take home the 2025 CFP title trophy.

This cool info map is based on geotagged X data from last Thursday night (when matchups were set) to now, tracking official fan hashtags in each state. For example, #GoIrish (Notre Dame), #HookEm (Texas), #WeAre (Penn State), and #GoBucks (Ohio State). Over 180,000 tweets were tracked, per Jimmy Shapiro from Stuff Media Group which supports BetOnline's fun content.

As you can see from the map, Notre Dame has fan backing from 40 states, making it college football's "America's team."

Here's the breakdown:

Notre Dame - 40 states (figure out the map and count 'em yourselves)
Penn State - 5 states (Alaska, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania)
Texas - 4 states (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas)
Ohio State - 1 state (Ohio)

There are that many Irish faithful (cough, cough, Catholics) out there, but the gap is still startling.

For what it's worth, Notre Dame (as of this evening, Tuesday, Jan. 7) is a 2-point favorite over Penn State while, despite getting no love from any other state across the country other than Ohio, the Buckeyes are fat 6-point favorites over Texas.

Means plenty of people are betting with their heads and not their hearts.

Probably smart since OSU was always the preseason favorite to win it all and they're humming on all gears now.

Can the Longhorns slow down the Buckeyes or at least keep pace?

We'll find out on Friday.

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