The University of Alabama’s football team remains one of the most popular in the nation, but it seems to be losing fans – at least in places outside of the South.

The Crimson Tide fell outside the top five on the list of favorite college teams among football fans across the United States, according to polling data from marketing research firm SBRnet and analyzed by AL.com and the Center for Sports Analytics at Samford University.

Last year, Alabama ranked No. 2, trailing only Ohio State University as the most popular team among college football fans.

This year, Alabama fell to No. 6.

[Can’t see the list? Click here.]

The Crimson Tide remained the most popular team in the Southeastern Conference, but it trailed three Big 10 schools and a pair of ACC schools on the national list. The Big 10 schools – Ohio State, the University of Michigan and Penn State University – led the list. Ohio State and Michigan, two blue bloods of the sport, both made the College Football Playoff last year.

Two surprises from the ACC were next – Duke University, historically an excellent basketball school, and Florida State University were both more popular nationwide than Alabama. Florida State edged out Alabama by just over 2,000 fans, based on this data.

This data came from polling of fans who watched or attended college football games in 2022. Respondents in that group were asked to list their favorite college teams. Based on the results, SBRnet produced these numbers.

RELATED: Where in Alabama do Tide fans most outnumber Auburn fans?

According to the data, Alabama lost roughly 700,000 fans between last year and this year, bringing the total number of college football fans who claim Alabama as their favorite team to roughly 3.4 million, compared to 4.1 million last year.

Alabama’s fandom may have declined year-over-year, but the number of Crimson Tide fans is actually up slightly since 2017. You can see fans over time for other schools, including every SEC school, by using the search bar of the chart below.

[Can’t see the chart? Click here.]

And while Alabama lost fans around the nation, the Crimson Tide actually strengthened its fanbase closer to home, according to the data.

Alabama was the most popular college team in the South as of January, moving up two spots within the region since last year. It jumped over both two-time defending champions the University of Georgia and their soon-to-be SEC rivals the University of Texas-Austin.

[Can’t see the map? Click here.]

Nearly 2.8 million of the school’s 3.4 million fans were in the South, and the number of Southern Crimson Tide fans increased by about 421,000 year over year. Over that same time, though, Alabama lost over 1.1 million fans in other parts of the country, including more than 775,000 in the Midwest.

It could be that some bandwagon fans are moving on from Alabama, as the Crimson Tide hasn’t won a national title since 2020. That may not seem like that big of a title drought, but Alabama fans are a bit spoiled, with the team having won six championships since 2009.

“When a team wins a championship, they always pick up new fans because people love to associate themselves with winning teams as a way of enhancing their self-esteem,” said Darin White, head of the Center for Sports Analytics at Samford. “This phenomenon is known as BIRGing, or basking in the reflected glory. However, once a team stops winning championships many fans will do the opposite, known as CORFing, or cutting off reflected failure.

“For many years Alabama has been the top team in college football and thus a great source of BIRGing for many fans. Now that is starting to change with the success of Georgia,” he said.

Alabama also lost fans among Generation Z, according to the data. Last year, Alabama was the most popular school among that age group, but this year it fell to No. 14.

AL.com in partnership with the Center for Sports Analytics at Samford University conducted an analysis of college football fans. All analysis is based on a nationwide survey of sports fans in the U.S. conducted in January, 2023 by marketing research firm SBRnet.

Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Or questions about Alabama that data may be able to answer? Email Ramsey Archibald at [email protected], and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. Read more Alabama data stories here.