Every college football fanbase has someone they love to hate. Sometimes it's the conference rival who stole their recruit. Sometimes it's the blue blood that's been kicking them around for 20 years. Sometimes it's just the program whose entire identity feels engineered to provoke the rest of the sport.
To map out the most hated college football teams state by state, RotoWire assigned every state in America a single villain -- the FBS program that fans in that state hate the most, drawing exclusively from out-of-state programs.
The methodology weighed four factors: conference rivalries, recent on-field damage (2016–2025), historic blood feuds and universal-villain narratives that travel beyond any single league.
The headline finding will surprise people who assume 
Alabama is the country's most-loathed program.
Notre Dame8Alabama6
Ohio State5
Georgia3
Nebraska3
Penn State3
USC2
Wisconsin2
Boise State2
Texas2
Clemson2
LSU1
BYU1
Missouri1
Tennessee1
Kansas1
Arizona1
Michigan1
Washington1
Oklahoma1
Oregon1
Pittsburgh1
Colorado State1| # | Team | States | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Notre Dame CA, CT, ME, MA, NH, NY, RI, VT | 8 | |
| 2 | Alabama AK, GA, HI, LA, MS, TN | 6 | |
| 3 | Ohio State IL, IN, MI, PA, WI | 5 | |
| 4 | Georgia AL, FL, SC | 3 | |
| 5 | Nebraska CO, ND, SD | 3 | |
| 6 | Penn State DE, MD, NJ | 3 | |
| 7 | USC AZ, UT | 2 | |
| 8 | Wisconsin IA, MN | 2 | |
| 9 | Boise State MT, NV | 2 | |
| 10 | Texas NE, OK | 2 | |
| 11 | Clemson NC, VA | 2 | |
| 12 | LSU AR | 1 | |
| 13 | BYU ID | 1 | |
| 14 | Missouri KS | 1 | |
| 15 | Tennessee KY | 1 | |
| 16 | Kansas MO | 1 | |
| 17 | Arizona NM | 1 | |
| 18 | Michigan OH | 1 | |
| 19 | Washington OR | 1 | |
| 20 | Oklahoma TX | 1 | |
| 21 | Oregon WA | 1 | |
| 22 | Pittsburgh WV | 1 | |
| 23 | Colorado State WY | 1 |
| State | Most Hated Team |
|---|---|
| Alabama | Georgia |
| Alaska | Alabama |
| Arizona | USC |
| Arkansas | LSU |
| California | Notre Dame |
| Colorado | Nebraska |
| Connecticut | Notre Dame |
| Delaware | Penn State |
| Florida | Georgia |
| Georgia | Alabama |
| Hawaii | Alabama |
| Idaho | BYU |
| Illinois | Ohio State |
| Indiana | Ohio State |
| Iowa | Wisconsin |
| Kansas | Missouri |
| Kentucky | Tennessee |
| Louisiana | Alabama |
| Maine | Notre Dame |
| Maryland | Penn State |
| Massachusetts | Notre Dame |
| Michigan | Ohio State |
| Minnesota | Wisconsin |
| Mississippi | Alabama |
| Missouri | Kansas |
| Montana | Boise State |
| Nebraska | Texas |
| Nevada | Boise State |
| New Hampshire | Notre Dame |
| New Jersey | Penn State |
| New Mexico | Arizona |
| New York | Notre Dame |
| North Carolina | Clemson |
| North Dakota | Nebraska |
| Ohio | Michigan |
| Oklahoma | Texas |
| Oregon | Washington |
| Pennsylvania | Ohio State |
| Rhode Island | Notre Dame |
| South Carolina | Georgia |
| South Dakota | Nebraska |
| Tennessee | Alabama |
| Texas | Oklahoma |
| Utah | USC |
| Vermont | Notre Dame |
| Virginia | Clemson |
| Washington | Oregon |
| West Virginia | Pittsburgh |
| Wisconsin | Ohio State |
| Wyoming | Colorado State |
Notre Dame, Not Alabama, is Hated in the Most States
The Fighting Irish show up as the top hated team in 8 states -- more than any program in the country. Alabama is second with 6. Ohio State is third with 5.
That ordering looks wrong to anyone who's lived through the SEC's championship dynasty. But Notre Dame's villain status works differently than Alabama's. The Tide are hated intensely by a smaller geographic footprint -- basically the rest of the SEC. The Irish are hated broadly, across a corridor stretching from California to Maine, for reasons that have nothing to do with conference standings.
In California, Notre Dame is USC's defining national rival -- the cross-country game in late November shaped Trojan fandom for nearly a century, and that resentment seeped into the largest college football fanbase in the state. In New York, Syracuse fans built up a decade of Big East–era ND grudges, and the Eastern media's love affair with the Irish has kept the eye-rolling alive since.
Throughout New England -- Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont -- Notre Dame's institutional gravity as the Catholic football program creates a strange dynamic where its biggest local fanbases are also where its loudest detractors live.
Add it all up and the Irish hit eight states without needing a conference scheduling alliance to do it. That's the power of being a national independent with a built-in identity that other fanbases find easy to despise.
The SEC dominates the hate map — but not how you'd think
Alabama earns six states (AK, GA, HI, LA, MS, TN) and it's exactly the SEC West map you'd draw on a napkin: every neighbor of Alabama hates Alabama. The Iron Bowl rival in Georgia, the Egg Bowl combatants in Mississippi, the SEC East tormentor in Tennessee, and the LSU/Bama heavyweight game in Louisiana. Alaska and Hawaii round out the six as the universal-villain placeholders -- they don't have a deep CFB tradition of their own, and Alabama is the default antagonist for fans of any of the SEC's other programs.
But the SEC's spread of hate goes well beyond Tuscaloosa.
Georgia is hated in three states -- Alabama (mutual SEC blood feud), Florida (the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party), and South Carolina (where Gamecock fans and Clemson fans share UGA hate as the only thing they agree on). Georgia is rising as a regional villain in a way that didn't exist 10 years ago, a direct byproduct of Kirby Smart's run.
LSU picks up Arkansas in the Battle for the Golden Boot, the annual game LSU has mostly domianted in recent years. The game moves back to Thanksgiving Week this year, as well.
Tennessee is the hated villain in Kentucky, where the SEC East border rivalry has been a fall fixture for over a century.
The story in the South is consistent: hatred follows conference proximity. The closer the geography, the more bitter the feeling.
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Ohio State runs the Big Ten -- for better and worse
The Buckeyes are the hated team in five states (IL, IN, MI, PA, WI), which is the most concentrated regional dominance of hate on the map. Every single Big Ten state that borders Ohio picks them as the villain.
The Michigan-Ohio State assignment is the most predictable pick on the entire map -- The Game is the defining annual rivalry in American sports, and the back-and-forth dominance of the last decade has made the resentment in Michigan especially raw. Pennsylvania goes Ohio State because Penn State fans have spent two decades being the second-best team in the Big Ten East and watching the Buckeyes hoist conference trophies and CFP banners almost every year. Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana all pick Ohio State for the same reason: it's the team that always seems to be standing in the way.
The mirror image: Ohio's most-hated team is Michigan, completing the most iconic two-way pick on the map.
Wisconsin also pops as the hated team in two states -- Iowa (Heartland Trophy, the closest thing to a real B1G West fistfight) and Minnesota (Paul Bunyan's Axe, the oldest trophy game in college football).
The Mountain West has its own ecosystem
One of the more interesting micro-regions on the map: a Mountain West cluster where the hated team in each state is another MWC program rather than an SEC or Big Ten power.
- Wyoming → Colorado State (the Bronze Boot, a border-state trophy game)
- Idaho → BYU (the next program over geographically; in-state Boise State is out under our out-of-state rule)
- Montana → Boise State (regional dominance — even though Montana is FCS, the Broncos are the program that defines the region)
- Nevada → Boise State (UNLV and Nevada both watch the blue field win the conference annually)
- New Mexico → Arizona (border-state Pac-12-then-Big-12 rivalry that goes back over a century)
These are the picks most casual fans wouldn't predict. They're real regional rivalries that hardly ever get national media attention but absolutely shape how fans in those states feel about the sport.
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The Northeast hates Notre Dame, the Mid-Atlantic hates Penn State
Penn State's three states form a tight cluster: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey. Maryland's case is the most pointed -- the Terps' 2014 Big Ten arrival put them in PSU's annual rivalry trophy game, and the Nittany Lions have wrecked Terps fans most Saturdays since. New Jersey is a Rutgers/PSU recruiting battleground that has tilted Penn State's way for two decades. Delaware fans hate PSU because Penn State is the closest big-time program and constantly poaches the talent that would otherwise go to Maryland or Rutgers.
The Northeast Catholic-school spillover is even more concentrated. Notre Dame picks up Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont -- six states where the Irish are the national football team people grew up either rooting for or rooting against, with no real in-between. Add in New York and California (USC's anti-fanbase), and you have the geographic spread that no other program in college football can match.
Surprising picks worth defending
A few state-team pairings will get arguments from fans. Worth the defense:
Nebraska → Texas — not Oklahoma. The 1996 and 2009 Big 12 Championship Game losses to Texas, the second ending on a field goal as time expired, are the most painful single-game memories in Husker fan history. Oklahoma was the Big 8 rival, but the Texas losses are the ones that cost Nebraska a national title shot.
Colorado → Nebraska — the old Big 12 North feud has been dormant since CU left for the Pac-12, but the rivalry was renewed with a home-and-home in 2024, and CSU is blocked under the out-of-state rule. For older Buff fans, this is still the team you wanted to beat above all others.
Missouri → Kansas and Kansas → Missouri — the Border War got dramatic life in 2025 when the series renewed after a 14-year hiatus. The hate never went away.
West Virginia → Pittsburgh — the Backyard Brawl, played continuously for over 100 years, restarted in 2022 after a decade-long break. For WVU fans, no team comes close.
Texas → Oklahoma — the Red River Shootout. Some pairings are eternal.
What this state-by-state map reveals about college football's emotional geography
The map sits at the intersection of two things: the biggest college football rivalries that have defined the sport for decades, and the modern conference realignment that's reshuffled who plays whom. A few patterns emerge once you step back.
Conference rivalry beats brand power. With one exception (the Notre Dame and Alabama universal-villain spread), every state's most-hated team is a conference rival or a former conference rival. Fans don't hate teams they never play. They hate the team that beat them last November.
Border states matter more than national rankings. New Mexico hates Arizona. Wyoming hates Colorado State. Iowa hates Wisconsin. Kentucky hates Tennessee. The most-hated team is almost always the geographic neighbor — because that's the program your fanbase has the most reason to know intimately.
The "universal villain" effect is real but rare. Only Notre Dame and Alabama generate enough cross-country resentment to be the most-hated team in a state without a conference connection. Both rely on prolonged dominance combined with a brand identity that fans outside the program find easy to dislike.
Some rivalries refuse to die. Nebraska-Texas. Missouri-Kansas. WVU-Pitt. These are the dormant rivalries that came roaring back, proving that conference realignment can pause a hatred but rarely kills it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most hated college football team?
Notre Dame is the most-hated college football team in the country by geographic spread, listed as the #1 villain in 8 states -- California, New York, and the six New England states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont). Alabama comes in second with 6 states. The Irish's status as a national independent with a polarizing institutional identity makes them uniquely capable of generating hatred far beyond any single conference footprint.
Who is the most hated team in college football by state?
It depends on the state. Inside SEC country, Alabama is the dominant villain -- hated in Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In the Big Ten footprint, Ohio State is the most-hated team in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Penn State is hated most in the Mid-Atlantic (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey). Notre Dame dominates the Northeast and California. The full state-by-state map is in the interactive widget above.
What is the biggest rivalry in college football?
Michigan vs. Ohio State -- "The Game" -- is widely regarded as the biggest rivalry in college football, played annually since 1918 with massive Big Ten and national championship implications almost every year. Other top contenders include Alabama vs. Auburn (the Iron Bowl), Army vs. Navy, Oklahoma vs. Texas (the Red River Shootout), and USC vs. Notre Dame, the longest-standing intersectional rivalry in the sport. Within RotoWire's state-by-state hated-team analysis, conference rivalries account for nearly every pick on the map — proving how central these annual grudges remain to college football's identity.
How is the "most hated" team for each state determined?
Each state's most-hated team was selected based on a four-factor weighting: conference rivalries (the team your in-state programs play most often), recent on-field damage (head-to-head results from 2016–2025), historic blood feuds (long-running trophy games and defining moments), and universal-villain narratives for states without a dominant CFB tradition. All picks are FBS-level programs and exclude any team based in the state itself.
Methodology
This map of college football teams by state was built using a four-factor weighting system:
- Conference rivalries -- the team your in-state fanbase plays most regularly in a meaningful game
- Recent on-field damage -- head-to-head results from 2016 through 2025
- Historic blood feuds -- rivalries with trophy games, century-long histories, or single defining moments
- Universal villain narratives -- programs whose national identity makes them easy to dislike from anywhere
Every pick is FBS only. Intra-state programs are excluded -- for example, South Carolina's most-hated team can't be Clemson (it's in the state), so the pick goes to Georgia, the team both Gamecock and Tiger fans agree is the regional villain. The 10-year recency window weights modern rivalries above ones that ended decades ago, with exceptions noted in the editorial commentary.
The final map covers all 50 states with 23 unique FBS programs identified as someone's most-hated team. 11 of those 23 are hated in multiple states. 16% of all states pick Notre Dame.
