Aug. 24, 2001
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – An ESPN Sports Poll (a service of TNS Intersearch) lists Notre Dame as the most popular college football team in a recent poll of fans.
The poll asked 3,748 college sports fans, aged 12 or older, from January through June ’01 to name their favorite college football team.
Notre Dame and Florida State are the only two teams named in each region’s top 10.
Here’s how the five rankings looked:
* In the overall national poll, Notre Dame finished first with 7.1 percent of the votes, followed by Florida State (5.4), Michigan (4.7), Penn State (4.3), Ohio State (3.8) and Nebraska (2.7).
* In the West, Notre Dame (7.7 percent) was second behind UCLA (9.9).
* In the Northeast, Notre Dame (12.5 percent) was second behind Penn State (21.4).
* In the North Central, Notre Dame (8.9 percent) was third behind Michigan (12.7) and Ohio State (10.5).
* In the South, Notre Dame (3.6) was seventh behind Florida State, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Florida and Oklahoma.