The life of a sports fan in the Southeast vs. a sports fan in the Northeast

With a slow week in sports leading up to the Final Four I decided to take a step away from the normal sports chatter and give some detail around my own experiences as a NY sports guy living in the south. 

Are the regions different when it comes to what sports they root for?  Hell yes.  Growing up in the Northeast it was Professional Sports and toss in some college bball.  Down here it is the complete opposite.  Again, not saying one is better than the other, just purely stating the facts here. Saturdays in the fall usually consisted of hanging with friends or playing sports but it rarely consisted of watching college football.  A huge part of that is because college football just isn't that good in the Northeast. The second part is that there just aren't enough teams to root for.  Down here in the south, Saturdays in the fall are looked at like playoff games.  SEC Football reigns supreme and all year round we've got talk shows dedicated to UGA football and how we can’t wait until the spring game next week to see what young guys will step up.  I must say, I've found myself getting more and more into college football down here. Games are a ton of fun to go to and it’s absolutely treated like a religion to the folks here. 

Here’s the major break down:

Northeast

Love for all Professional Sports (minus MLS) with a heavy focus on NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB.  Possibly in that order.  Huge interest in college bball.

Little to no interest in College football, College baseball, Golf, and Tennis.

Southeast

Love for all College Athletics with a heavy focus on Football and baseball.  Light on the bball.

Professional Sports - MLB (Most popular sport in southeast in large part because of the Atlanta Braves.) NFL – Some interest and little interest in NBA.  Absolutely no interest in NHL.

Golf and Tennis are huge.

Both Regions

Both share equal interest in NASCAR and UFC believe it or not.  NASCAR is much more popular then I would have ever thought among both parties and I still cant personally understand why.

Final Thoughts – Of course a lot of this makes sense when you think of the climate in both regions.  Golf, baseball, and tennis are played outdoors and you can do that more down here but the difference in love for Professional Sports vs. College always had me in awe.  When you think about state schools up north you don’t have many power house athletic programs.  Down here, everyone went to Auburn, Bama, FSU, Florida, and UGA…all of which are state schools. 

In closing I don’t know if I would say one is better than the other.  My interest in Professional sports will always be strong.  I will say that I have gotten into Golf and college football way more since being down here…tennis, not so much.