There are many rivalries in college football, from The Game and the Iron Bowl to the Red River Showdown and the Egg Bowl. These rivalries run deep, and yet they begin way before the players even take to the field.
Tailgating is an essential pre-game experience, and yet whose fans show up the most?
We thought we’d take a look at one of America’s favorite past times to see what the data says and what college can claim the title of Tailgate Champion.
Most Popular College Football Tailgates According to Instagram
We analyzed 44,916 images on Instagram to determine which colleges were tagged the most for tailgates. As a result, we’ve compiled a list of the top 40 most popular college football tailgates, according to Instagram.
The data showed us the following:
- Penn State is the most popular college for tailgates, with the highest number of images tagged #tailgate. The University of South Carolina is the second, and the University of Florida is the third most popular.
- The most popular conference for tailgates is the SEC, followed by the Big Ten.
- The most popular region in the U.S. for tailgates is the Southeast, followed by the Midwest.
The full rankings are as follows:
- Penn State University
- University of South Carolina
- University of Florida
- Michigan State University
- University of Texas
- University of Michigan
- Louisiana State University
- University of Miami
- Howard University
- University of Arkansas
- Ohio State University
- Florida State University
- Auburn University
- Rutgers University
- University of Iowa
- University of Tennessee
- University of Notre Dame
- Texas A&M University
- University of Alabama
- Texas State University
- University of Kentucky
- Iowa State University
- Indiana University
- Florida Atlantic University
- University of Central Florida
- University of Maryland
- Norfolk State University
- University of Southern California
- East Carolina University
- University of Utah
- Purdue University
- University of Georgia
- Texas Tech University
- University of Mississippi
- University of Washington
- University of Illinois
- North Carolina State University
- West Point – The U.S. Military Academy
- University of Oregon
- University of Oklahoma
Data Source: Instagram
Data Analysis: At the time of writing, the total number of images tagged with the hashtag #tailgate on Instagram is over 1 million. We took a sample of the latest 44,916 images posted and aggregated the location data to come up with the rankings.
I have been smoking and grilling meat from an early age and enjoy sharing my knowledge and expertise through the hundreds of articles I have written about BBQ. I hope to make everyone’s BBQ journey that little bit easier.