College football’s postseason has been an outlier for most of its history. In fact, Sports Poll data showed that it was the only major sport in which fan engagement typically declined during the postseason. Every year, interest would peak in late November around rivalry games and conference championships. Then interest would fall during the extended break before bowl games. It didn’t help that seasons would often end with controversy over the true “national champion.” The sport finally instituted a 4-team College Football Playoff in 2014, but the fan base continued to lose interest during the postseason.

2024 College Football Playoff Fan Engagement

In 2024, the Playoff expanded to 14 teams, and Sports Poll showed the immediate impact. We measure “fan engagement” as the number of fans who follow the sport in some way during the week (view, attend, read, social media, etc.).

College basketball traditionally sees the largest postseason boost of any sport, but NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL fans also engage more during their playoffs. College football may not receive the same lift as those sports yet, but postseason fan engagement improved during the first year of the 14-team Playoff (-3% drop in engagement, compared to -18% in previous seasons). It was a positive sign for a sport looking to sustain fans’ excitement from the regular season.

New Challenges for Fan Engagement in 2026

As the College Football Playoff moves to its final four this week, there will be a new challenge. Last year’s Playoff featured four of the most popular teams in the country (Ohio State, Notre Dame, Texas, and Penn State). This year’s four teams have the lowest popularity of any field since the first Playoff in 2014. No schools rank among the top 10 fan bases in the country. Oregon (11th) and Miami (19th) rank in the top 20, but Indiana (51st) and Ole Miss (61st) have smaller, regional fan bases.

We’ll be watching closely to see if the sport can build on the momentum from last season without the benefit of the largest brand-name schools.

For more information on college football or the other 83 sports we track, please contact the Sports Poll team.