Lexington has landed in a familiar kind of spotlight: one that says the city cares deeply about college football.
Nielsen’s new College Football Fandom Index, released this month, placed Lexington in a tie for 14th among the top 20 college football fan markets in the country. The ranking comes from a report that followed a record year for the sport, with Nielsen saying college football saw a nine percent year-over-year increase in minutes consumed.
The company built its local fandom index around more than just television numbers. It used eight different measures to shape the list: apparel purchases, general interest levels, live-event attendance, betting intent, social media engagement, radio listenership, streaming habits and linear TV viewership.
That broader approach helped produce a list that leans heavily toward places where college football sits at the center of the sports conversation. Nielsen said the rankings show “where the sport’s pulse beats strongest across America’s local markets.”
For Lexington, Kentucky was identified as the flagship program. The same was true in the Cincinnati market, where Kentucky checked in at No. 13 and split that market with the University of Cincinnati. Louisville did not make the top 20.
Nielsen also pointed to a bigger trend behind the numbers: “America’s most intense sports fandom is not concentrated in its largest media hubs, but in college towns and legacy markets built around teams the entire community can rally behind.”
That pattern showed up throughout the rankings, with programs such as Alabama, Auburn, Iowa State, Iowa and Ohio State appearing prominently. Ohio State, in particular, showed up in three different markets. The list was also heavy with SEC schools, and none of the programs mentioned were farther west than Texas.
For Lexington, though, the takeaway is simple enough: Big Blue Nation made its presence felt, and football was a big part of why the city earned a spot among the nation’s top fan bases.
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