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Post by Whup Em All on Jun 28, 2022 9:12:13 GMT -6
If you haven't seen it yet, Matt Sorenson crunched some Twitter data and produced a map of the most followed D-I college football team in each county in the U.S. You can see it here.It's awesome work, but it has a fatal flaw, especially in SEC country: Is it really news that the Tide dominates Alabama? Or that UGA dominates Georgia? But if you click on an individual county, you can see the Top 5 teams in that county. Suddenly, all that data gets interesting. While the Tide is the most popular team in our own county, most of you will be happy to know we come in just ahead of Auburn to take the silver medal. So I let curiosity get the better of me, and collected the Top 5 for each county in Alabama. Then I removed all P5 teams. Bye, Bama and Auburn. Hasta la vista, UGA, Clemson, and FSU. Good riddance, Tennessee, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State. What I was left with, while not perfect, was, imho, a much more revealing map. For your consideration, I present to you a map of the Top Non-P5 Team In Each County In Alabama: NOTE: Counties without a non-P5 in their Top 5 are shown in gray. By the Numbers:
troy state - 23 counties JSU - 9 counties UAB - 9 counties UNA - 9 counties USA - 4 counties ASU - 1 county no data - 12 counties These numbers don't account for population, of course. If population were considered, USA's share would look much better, and the trojans would not appear quite as dominant as they do. (Not that 23 counties isn't impressive in its own right. I was shocked how far west their evil influence has spread.)
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Post by Whup Em All on Jun 28, 2022 9:22:20 GMT -6
Back to the original Matt Sorenson map... in case any of you were wondering -- because I absolutely did -- the Gamecocks don't appear on any Top 5s outside Alabama.
I figured we'd at LEAST make a showing in places like Floyd and Polk counties, right across the border from us, but those areas are dominated by P5s. Get closer in to the Atlanta Metro, and Kennesaw starts to make an appearance. No Gamecocks though.
If I had access to Sorenson's raw data, we might squeak into a couple of Georgia counties, but in the absence of that, we'll have to settle for our 9 counties in Alabama.
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Post by Cleburneslim on Jun 28, 2022 19:51:08 GMT -6
I have always scratched my head as to why we don’t have so much as a pennant in cedartown or Rome. Have we conceded to UWG and shorter college? There is nearly 1/2 million people who live in counties that border alabama within east driving distance of Jax St. step in 2 counties and that number grows in leaps. Plus this is a rapidly growing region in Ga. some of these squatters are even moving in on my neighborhood.
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Post by JSUSoutherner on Jun 28, 2022 21:12:25 GMT -6
I have always scratched my head as to why we don’t have so much as a pennant in cedartown or Rome. Have we conceded to UWG and shorter college? There is nearly 1/2 million people who live in counties that border alabama within east driving distance of Jax St. step in 2 counties and that number grows in leaps. Plus this is a rapidly growing region in Ga. some of these squatters are even moving in on my neighborhood. The M word.
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Post by pubdaze on Jun 29, 2022 6:19:57 GMT -6
I have always scratched my head as to why we don’t have so much as a pennant in cedartown or Rome. Have we conceded to UWG and shorter college? There is nearly 1/2 million people who live in counties that border alabama within east driving distance of Jax St. step in 2 counties and that number grows in leaps. Plus this is a rapidly growing region in Ga. some of these squatters are even moving in on my neighborhood. The M word. Mundane?
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Post by JSUSoutherner on Jun 29, 2022 6:44:35 GMT -6
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Post by Dixon Hall on Jun 29, 2022 7:04:51 GMT -6
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Post by gemofthehills on Jun 29, 2022 8:09:40 GMT -6
Money? Muskewitz?
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Post by gemofthehills on Jun 29, 2022 8:10:11 GMT -6
Kennesaw did better than GSU.
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Post by Whup Em All on Jun 29, 2022 9:28:37 GMT -6
Kennesaw did better than GSU. Did Georgia State even make a Top 5 other than in Fayette and Rockdale? (Honestly, I'm surprised they even made the cut in those two.) Back to JSU... it's such a low bar to reach the Top 5, especially in the rural border counties where I thought we'd make a showing. For JSU to make the Top 5 in Floyd, we'd just need 110 Twitter followers. In Polk, we'd just need 43. Haralson would only take 24. I mean, I know Twitter's a horrible way to measure fan engagement and market reach. The only people I know on that platform are diehard sports fans and people who love to argue about politics. Out of my group of (local) friends, I'm the only one with a Twitter account, and I only have one because 1) I need it for work and 2) I realized without it, I can't find squat about recruiting and transfers. But that said, Sorenson's Twitter data does mostly seem to jibe with reality. It's kind of sad JSU can't meet such a low bar in those border counties. Of course, it's even sadder that non-P5s in Georgia have such a hard time making the cut in their own state.
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Post by Cleburneslim on Jun 29, 2022 11:08:04 GMT -6
It might help if we made any effort to be seen in Ga. also Ga has a growing number of transplants from elsewhere.
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Post by onefansopinion on Jun 29, 2022 19:08:01 GMT -6
I am in complete agreement regarding the comments of “efforts to be seen in Georgia” and our lack of presence in the “border counties”. For any number of reasons what was once fertile JSU ground just declined over time. The good news is the University has gotten “back in the game” recently.
Efforts have been made to more aggressively reach out to high school students from the border counties - those efforts are resulting in increased enrollment numbers from those areas.
Our sports programs are reaching into Georgia for recruits more so than in recent years. This is especially true in Football with the new coaching staff.
For all practical purposes the only active Georgia alumni chapter in recent years has been Rome. Earlier this year the NWGA Chapter was rechartered after being inactive for several years. Efforts are underway to get a West Georgia Chapter (Carrollton Area) chartered by Homecoming. There are ongoing discussions to possibly divide up greater Atlanta into more focused alumni chapters - maybe Cobb as its own chapter.
The most hopeful sign is our University is seeing the same challenges and opportunities as has been discussed on this board, and they are moving on them.
Go Gamecocks!!!
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Post by Cleburneslim on Jun 30, 2022 3:00:51 GMT -6
You know I wasn’t really thinking about alumni chapters but rather just simply seeing or hearing our name on stuff. You know JSU is all over alabama 810 which is great I suppose but I don’t thing anyone under 50 listens to classic country.
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Post by gemofthehills on Jun 30, 2022 5:54:24 GMT -6
You know I wasn’t really thinking about alumni chapters but rather just simply seeing or hearing our name on stuff. You know JSU is all over alabama 810 which is great I suppose but I don’t thing anyone under 50 listens to classic country. Telling on yourself
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Post by pubdaze on Jun 30, 2022 6:27:52 GMT -6
Kennesaw did better than GSU. Did Georgia State even make a Top 5 other than in Fayette and Rockdale? (Honestly, I'm surprised they even made the cut in those two.) Back to JSU... it's such a low bar to reach the Top 5, especially in the rural border counties where I thought we'd make a showing. For JSU to make the Top 5 in Floyd, we'd just need 110 Twitter followers. In Polk, we'd just need 43. Haralson would only take 24. I mean, I know Twitter's a horrible way to measure fan engagement and market reach. The only people I know on that platform are diehard sports fans and people who love to argue about politics. Out of my group of (local) friends, I'm the only one with a Twitter account, and I only have one because 1) I need it for work and 2) I realized without it, I can't find squat about recruiting and transfers. But that said, Sorenson's Twitter data does mostly seem to jibe with reality. It's kind of sad JSU can't meet such a low bar in those border counties. Of course, it's even sadder that non-P5s in Georgia have such a hard time making the cut in their own state. Need more billboards along the interstate.
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