You don’t just find Notre Dame football fans close to South Bend, Ind., or in the midwest but instead spread entirely around the nation. For some people, it’s because of the connection the Fighting Irish football team made with loved ones. Others may appreciate the history of the small private midwest university rising to the nation’s elite college football programs with a true underdog story. And others may just say they like Notre Dame because you always know they’ll be on NBC for each home game.
Whatever the reason, Notre Dame is the closest to a national college football team there is. So where does that put them in terms of the size of their fan base versus the rest of college football?
Self-proclaimed strategy analyst Tony Altimore did what he does best: analyzed. This past spring, Altimore researched the fan bases of all 130 Football Bowl Subdivision teams. To the surprise of exactly no one, Notre Dame finished near the very top of that list.
Just how high up were the Fighting Irish faithful, though?
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2.16 million
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2.27 million
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3.33 million
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2.35 million
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2.36 million
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2.56 million
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2.55 million
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2.64 million
Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports
2.69 million
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2.74 million
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2.79 million
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2.99 million
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3.07 million
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3.22 million
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3.27 million
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3.27 million
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3.45 million
Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports
3.87 million
Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
3.99 million
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4.02 million
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4.46 million
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4.57 million
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5.34 million
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5.54 million
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5.89 million
Former Michigan great Braylon Edwards takes a photo with fans Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
6.26 million
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6.36 million
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7.82 million
Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
8.21 million
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11.26 million
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A lot of happy thoughts after that dominating victory.
Can’t play much better than that.
Current winning streaks: Notre Dame 1, Michigan 0
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