SAN MARCOS – In a study ranking the happiness of every college football fan base by ESPN, Texas State football fans are labeled as the least happy fans in the Football Bowl Subdivision (or known as FBS).
ESPN’s methodology ranks fan happiness based off of six categories: Program power, Rivalry dominance, Coaching stability, Recruiting trend, Revenue growth and Twitter Buzz.
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According to the study released on Tuesday, Texas State football lacks in program power, rivalry dominance, and Twitter Buzz.
But as ESPN points out, “It’s only up from here.”
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Bobcat fans can at least celebrate some moral victories as the football program dominates in the categories of recruiting trend, revenue growth, and coaching stability.
In the study, ESPN includes all 128 FBS schools within NCAA’s Division I, ranking the fan base for the Mighty Bobcats at the very bottom of the list.
The label as the “unhappiest in college football” isn’t the only issue for Bobcat fans to tackle (pun intended).
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Their I-35 rival, UTSA Roadrunners, are ranked high at 43 and the third “happiest” Texas college program on the list.
The Roadrunners beat out other Lone Star State powerhouses such as the University of Houston (47), Texas A&M (91) and Texas Tech (113).
Despite Baylor University being hit by a sexual-assault scandal last season, resulting in the loss of high-profile recruits and a coaching change from Art Briles to Matt Rhule, Bear fans are still ranked as the happiest among the Texas college football teams, and at 30 nationally.
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The other Texas teams ranked in ESPN’s study are University of Texas (37), University of Texas at El Paso (101), North Texas (125) and Rice University (125).
For now, Bobcat fans will have to find much more than just “Eat ‘Em Up” if they wish to lose the title as unhappiest in college football.
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Texas State Bobcats kick off their 2017 season at home in Bobcat Stadium against the Houston Baptist Huskies on Sept. 2, 6 p.m. CT.
agarcia@ksat.com
