Alabama ranked fifth-worst state for ‘sports lovers,’ according to study
The United States is a country obsessed with sports. And around here—and in the South generally—passion for a favorite team or school can run to a fever pitch. The Southeastern Conference’s “It Just Means More” slogan is as much a cliche as it is a tagline.
However, according to a new study by SmileHub entitled “Best States for Sports Lovers,” southern states mostly score in the bottom half of the 50 states and Alabama ranks as the fifth-worst state for sports lovers.
So, how did the study come to this conclusion?
There’s no doubt that Americans broadly love watching sports on television as, according to Sportico.com, 97 of the top 100 most-watched telecasts in 2025 were sports related. But the SmileHub study adds that besides TV, “how much Americans care about sports is reflected in the success of local professional and college teams, the access provided to youth, and education opportunities in related fields.”
From this baseline conclusion, the study used 20 different metrics separated into three categories—Sports Interest and Success, Sports Careers and Income, and Access to Sports—to compare and rank the 50 states. The 20 metrics, all weighed separately, ranged from things like “Google search interest for sports teams” to “sports and recreation charities per capita” to “college team stadium capacity” to “sports-related degrees awarded” to “sporting goods stores per capita.”
Data for this study was pulled from various sources such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the IRS, various sports leagues, and Legal Sports Report, among many others.
Coming in at No. 1 overall in the rankings with a score of 58.49 was Ohio which ranked second in Sports Interest and Success, fourth in Sports Careers and Income, and fifth in Access to Sports. The top five was rounded out by New York, Pennsylvania, California, and Illinois.
Alabama, coming in at 46th overall, had a score of 20.98 and was ranked 30th in Sports Interest and Success, 49th in Sports Careers and Income, and 36th in Access to Sports. Here is how Alabama ranked in some of the metrics:
27th – Number of Professional Teams
37th – Sports & Recreation Charities per Capita
28th – Sports-Related Degrees Awarded per Capita
45th – Sports-Related Jobs per Capita
38th – Sports Clubs per Capita
32nd – Sporting Goods Stores per Capita
Trailing Alabama at the bottom of this study’s rankings were New Mexico, Idaho, Alaska and 50th-placed Hawaii.