Where College Football Players Come From

With college football bowl game season upon us, the whole nation seems to be celebrating the pigskin. Yet, some parts of the United States are more naturally football-inclined. Of course, there’s Texas, where the game is as big as the state, but there are a handful of other football hubs, as we discovered when we mapped every single college football player by their hometown.

View Where College Football Players Are From in a full screen map

Click around the map for yourself—it contains 25,000 NCAA football players. Or, read on to see the insights we’ve snapped from the map.

Top States for Football

The map makes it clear what some already knew—there are states that tend to produce more college football players than others. There are five states in particular that are home to more college football players than any other states in the U.S.

As we’ve mentioned, Texas tops the list of states with the most college football players. With 2,877 college football players who call the state home, Texas surely wins in producing these college athletes. Second on our list is Florida. The Sunshine State can claim 2,589 college football players as their own. California concludes the top three, flaunting a whopping 2,335 college football players. These top three states are all home to 2,000 or more college football players.

Georgia earns its place in the top five states with just under 2,000 college football players—1,950 to be exact. We close out the top five states for college football players with Ohio. The state has 1,080 players and is the last state to have 1,000 or more college football players call it home.

Curious about the states that produce the least amount of college football players? The following five states have all produced less than 25 college football players. Wyoming has 23 college football who claim the state as home. Maine and New Hampshire both have 21 homegrown college players. Arkansas has 14 and Vermont has the very lowest with only two college football players to claim as their own.

Top Hometowns

There are over 5,000 distinct hometowns for college football players.

That breaks up further into 3,000 cities that have two or more college football players claiming them as their hometown. There are 1,215 cities that have produced five or more college football players. Exactly 529 cities are home to 10 or more college football players. As for cities with 50 or more college football players calling them home, there are 49. And finally, 17 cities can claim 100 or more football players as homegrown.

The top ten cities for producing college football players might not be a much of a surprise. A large majority of these cities are located within the top 5 states for football players.

Just as expected for the number one top state for raising college football players, a Texas city produces the most college football players. Which city in the football player hub produces the most for the state? Houston, Texas. Houston is home to 319 college football players, which is more than any other city.

Second place goes to Miami, Florida which is home to 296 football players. Rounding out the top three is another city in Florida: Jacksonville, Florida, which is the hometown of 213 college football players. Atlanta, Georgia is home to 204 college football players, ending the 200 plus, and our top four cities.

The rest of the cities on our top ten list are all home to 100 or more college football players.

Most Popular Colleges for Houston, Miami, Jacksonville, and Atlanta

Our top four cities: Houston, Miami, Jacksonville, and Atlanta also have certain colleges where more college football players stay close to home to play than others.

The most popular colleges for Houston, Texas, where players from the same city attend, include the Houston Cougars with 20 players attending from Houston, the Texas Southern Tigers with 19 players, the Rice Owls with 13 players, and the Texas A&M Aggies, Texas Tech Red Raiders, and Houston Baptist Huskies all with 12 players.

The most popular colleges for Miami, Florida include the Florida Intl Golden Panthers with 25 players who have chosen to stay in their hometown of the capital of the Sunshine State, the Miami Hurricanes with 15 players who chose to stay, the Florida A&M Rattlers with 14 players, and the South Florida Bulls and Florida Gators, both with 13 players.

As for Jacksonville? The most popular colleges for Jacksonville, Florida football-playing residents include the Florida Atlantic Owls with 13 players, the Savannah State Tigers with 10 players, the Jacksonville Dolphins with 9 players, the Florida Gators with 8 players, and the Florida A&M Rattlers, UCF Knights, and the Florida Intl Golden Panthers with 7 college football players choosing to stay close to home.

The most popular colleges for Atlanta are the Georgia Bulldogs with 9 players, the Georgia State Panthers with 7 players, the Florida A&M Rattlers and Savannah State Tigers both with 6 players, and the Alabama A&M Bulldogs, Southern Jaguars, Hampton Pirates, and Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders all with 5 players.

Image courtesy of SBNation

International College Football Players

While many college football players are from hometowns within the U.S., we can’t forget the players not from the U.S. These players hail from all across the globe. From Canada to Australia to Puerto Rico, we were curious as to where these international college football players come from.

Three American college football players get to call Austrailia home. Alex Bland, who plays for the Oregon State Beavers is from the Land Down Under. Matt Leo, number 89 for the Iowa State Cyclones and Dominic Panazzolo, who plays for Texas Tech Red Raiders are also from Australia.

Miguel Provencio represents Mexico in the U.S. Provencio plays for the New Mexico State Aggies. Dereck Boles, who plays for the Arizona Wildcats, is from Jamaica. Withney Simon, who plays for Southern Illinois Salukis, is from Haiti. Three players come from the Bahamas. Mavin Saunders, who plays for the Florida State Seminoles, Chris Ferguson, who plays for the Cincinnati Bearcats, and Glen Bethel, number 70 for the South Florida Bulls all call the Bahamas home. Puerto Rico is home to Miami Hurricanes player Elias Lugo-Fagundo, and also home to Gerardo Rodriguez, who plays for the Stetson Hatters.

While Austalia, Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, the Bahamas, and Puerto Rico produce some college football players, the vast majority of international college football players come from Canada. Canada represents a large part of American football.

Ontario, Canada, the most populous province in Canada, is home to 32 college football players. Quebec, Canada has produced 16 players who play college football in the U.S. British Columbia can lay claim to nine American college football players. Seven players are from Nova Scotia, Canada. Five players are from Alberta, Canada, and of those five, three play for the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Two players are from the district of Manitoba, Canada. These two players both happen to play for the same team: both Brady Oliveira and Mason Bennett play for the North Dakota Fighting Hawks. Canadian player Ladji Bagayoko plays for the San Diego State Aztecs.

This makes Canada’s grand total out to be 72 college football players.

By the Numbers: Height and Weight in College Football

Since we were looking at every college player, we decided to dig a little deeper than just the hometown. Football players are known for their size, so we also considered their measurements, too. In fact, you can use the map to group and filter by weight or height ranges.

The median height of all of the college football players is 73 inches or 6’1″, which we think is pretty tall. Even taller than that is the maximum height of the college football players which is 83 inches or 6’11”. Two players reach this massive height: Justin Wright, a quarterback for the Hampton Pirates and Sherman Harris, a defensive back for the Duquesne Dukes. No one can say they beat 6’11” currently in college football, so there are no 7-footers. But 6’11” is still pretty tall.

Rudy Ruettiger, who was known for his shorter height of 5’6″ has some competition in the current crop of college football players. There are 29 players shorter than the famous Rudy: 15 running backs, seven wide receivers, six placekickers, and one defensive back. However, the current minimum height is 60 inches or a solid 5’0″, which is six inches shorter than Rudy! This height belongs to Ronald Ricci of the Florida A&M Rattlers.

The median weight of all of the 25,000 NCAA football players is 215 pounds. The largest of the group? Both Cheickna Doucoure of the Central Connecticut Blue Devils and Jamari Logan, playing for the Northern Colorado Bears come in at the maximum weight of 425 pounds. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the minimum weight, which is 130 pounds and belongs to Champ Flemings of the Oregon State Beavers.

There you have it! Now you know the details of every single college football player! Whether it’s hometown, or height and weight, discover more about your favorite college football players on the map above. And if you’re more of a professional sports fan, check out these NBA Finals Winners and Losers on a Map.