The Most Influential Colleges in Football Today

Badge for MOST INFLUENTIAL COLLEGES IN FOOTBALL

By Dr. Winston Ewert and Dr. Jed Macosko

Updated: Oct 18, 2023

Find the colleges and universities that have the biggest impact in football based on the influence of their alumni in the sport. See which schools have proven histories of attracting and cultivating some of the most influential athletes today.

College football is massively popular on a regional scale. Our research finds that among all college athletics, the football field is home to the largest number of highly influential programs.

In simpler terms, if you want to go to a college or university with a great football program, you have a lot of schools to choose from. The most noteworthy university football programs cast an enormous influence over their surrounding regions. Not only that, but when it comes to college football, there is a huge amount of influence to go around.

The list of the best 50 football colleges and universities is topped by major programs such as the University of Michigan, Ohio State, and the University of Florida. However, schools ranking in the thirties like Clemson, Baylor, and Texas A&M also score as highly influential in their own regions.

Top football programs generally boast a history of top players. For instance, Michigan enjoys its top spot thanks to former NFL quarterback and current head coach Jim Harbaugh, NFL Hall of Famer Charles Woodson (who remains the only defensive back in history to win college’s coveted Heisman Trophy), and of course, 7-time Super Bowl winning quarterback and consensus G.O.A.T., Tom Brady.

Besides basketball, football is another top sport played by Americans. According to Forbes, 32 National Football League (NFL) teams generated a total revenue of approximately $11.9 billion. This all-time high in national revenue significantly contributed to the ever-growing sports and entertainment industry.

Football is also one of the most-played college sports. While college football has limited capacity and is yet to expand internationally, the NCAA segment still has significant global implications. Each year, NCAA football generates upwards of $1 billion in income and contributes significantly to the growth of the sport’s international talent base and fan bases.

If you’re a high school student with great football talent or just a fan of football who wants to know which college football schools are making names in the industry, this list is for you. We’ve ranked the most influential college football programs with meticulous research.

University of California, Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Michigan
University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Southern California
University of Pittsburgh
Ohio State University
University of Notre Dame
Purdue University
Syracuse University

Michigan State University 88%
Washington State University 83%
University of Alabama 80%
Louisiana State University 76%
University of Oklahoma 73%
University of Tennessee 68%
Brigham Young University 67%
Ohio State University 53%
Purdue University 53%
Syracuse University 52%

San Diego State University 25 to 1
Louisiana State University 22 to 1
Brigham Young University 21 to 1
Auburn University 20 to 1
University of Alabama 19 to 1
University of California, Berkeley 19 to 1
University of Wisconsin–Madison 18 to 1
University of Tennessee 18 to 1
Florida State University 17 to 1
Michigan State University 17 to 1

University of Southern California $64,726
University of Notre Dame $60,301
Syracuse University $60,135
Stanford University $58,416
University of Miami $57,194
University of Pittsburgh $19,760
University of Michigan $17,454
Michigan State University $16,437
University of California, Berkeley $11,564
Ohio State University $11,525

University of Southern California $63,468
University of Notre Dame $59,644
Stanford University $56,487
Syracuse University $43,428
University of Miami $41,580
University of Michigan $25,894
University of Pittsburgh $24,962
Michigan State University $20,202
Washington State University $12,366
Ohio State University $12,092

University of California, Berkeley
Brigham Young University
University of Pittsburgh
University of Oklahoma
Purdue University
Washington State University
Florida State University
Louisiana State University
University of Notre Dame
San Diego State University

San Diego State University
Auburn University
Washington State University
North Carolina State University
University of Tennessee
University of Oklahoma
University of Alabama
Louisiana State University
Florida State University
Brigham Young University

Stanford University 4%
University of California, Berkeley 11%
University of Southern California 12%
University of Notre Dame 13%
University of Michigan 18%
University of Miami 19%
University of Florida 23%
Florida State University 25%
San Diego State University 39%
University of Georgia 43%

Stanford University 5 to 1
University of Notre Dame 9 to 1
University of Southern California 9 to 1
University of Michigan 12 to 1
University of Miami 13 to 1
University of Pittsburgh 13 to 1
Purdue University 14 to 1
Syracuse University 15 to 1
Washington State University 15 to 1
North Carolina State University 16 to 1

University of Florida $4,477
Florida State University $4,640
University of Oklahoma $4,920
San Diego State University $5,742
Brigham Young University $6,304
North Carolina State University $6,535
Louisiana State University $8,038
University of Wisconsin–Madison $9,273
Purdue University $9,718
University of Georgia $9,790

San Diego State University $7,176
Brigham Young University $7,932
University of Oklahoma $8,034
University of Georgia $8,878
North Carolina State University $9,095
Louisiana State University $9,132
Florida State University $9,684
Purdue University $9,718
Auburn University $10,386
University of Wisconsin–Madison $10,728

How We Determine the Most Influential Athletes

For the time period from 2012 to 2022, we identified thousands of influential athletes in 10 of the most popular collegiate sporting fields, who attended or are attending college within the US or Canada. Being influential in the last 10 years does not necessarily mean that someone had to be playing during the last ten years. Influential people can cast very long shadows that can impact a sport for decades. While that is true, our algorithm is time sensitive, meaning that if one athlete’s influence is fading, while a younger athlete’s influence is capturing the world’s attention now, we catch and compare those, as well. The result: we have fun and insightful lists that highlight not only colleges with historical influence in a given sport, but also colleges that are shaping future legends now.

To build the list, we used our machine-learning-powered InfluenceRanking™ Engine (originally developed for DARPA) to find athletes associated with specific sports. Once we find all the mentions of “golfer,” “basketball player,” etc., we produce a numerical score of achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia and Wikidata. Our machine-learning algorithm does not just count citations. It goes several steps further by weighing the importance of web links to and from an athlete’s mentions, meaning larger publications have more weight. Furthermore, we consider web searches and page views associated with a given athlete.

Once we’ve identified and ranked athletes individually, our AI finds the colleges and universities the athletes attended and calculates the accumulative score of all of the athletes associated with the school, for a given sport. In the end, we list the colleges with the largest accumulative scores, and we show, in order of influence, all the athletes that helped produce the schools’ scores.

Find out more about our Methodology. Note: for the purposes of our overall list, the influence of entertainers, TV personalities, and models were adjusted downward.

football player running with the football

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