P5 Football Programs in top 100 US cities

We frequently mention that the University of Houston is a prime candidate for a P5 invitation because it is located in the 4th most populous city in the United States of America.

This got me thinking, how many P5 Football programs are actually located inside the city limits of one of the 100 most populous cities in the United States. These schools have to be located within the city, a regional school, or a school “only hours” away but in the TV market does not count. I’m not looking at Universities that have large alumni bases because of the proximity to a regional school…I’m looking at the location inside the large city. I did include ones that are relatively close to the hub city because it is reasonable to assume a University 5-10 miles from the city is IN the city.

As we’ve learned with UH’s current Final Four…the city Houston does not a support a P5 school I their region (i.e. Texas A&M) or another state school (i.e. Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech) the same way it supports a University inside its actual city.
I’m just putting the information out there.

Here’s what I found:

  1. NEW YORK CITY
  2. 2. LOS ANGELES- YES- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES & UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (PAC-12)
  3. 3. CHICAGO- YES- NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY (EVANSTON, ILLINOIS) (B1G 10)
  4. HOUSTON
  5. 5. PHOENIX- YES- ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY (TEMPE, ARIZONA) (PAC-12)
  6. PHILADELPHIA
  7. SAN ANTONIO
  8. SAN DIEGO
  9. DALLAS
  10. SAN JOSE
  11. 11. AUSTIN- YES- UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN (BIG 12)
  12. JACKSONVILLE
  13. 13. FORT WORTH- YES- TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY (BIG 12)
  14. 14. COLUMBUS, OHIO- YES- OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY (B1G 10)
  15. CHARLOTTE
  16. 16. SAN FRANCISO- YES- STANFORD UNIVERSITY (PALO ALTO) (PAC-12)
  17. INDIANAPOLIS
  18. 18. SEATTLE- YES- UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON (PAC- 12)
  19. DENVER
  20. 20. WASHINGTON, D.C.- YES- UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND (COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND) (B1G 10)
  21. 21. BOSTON- YES- BOSTON COLLEGE (CHESTNUT HILL. MASSACHUSETTS) (ACC)
  22. EL PASO
  23. 23. NASHVILLE- YES- VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY (SEC)
  24. DETROIT
  25. OKLAHOMA CITY
  26. PORTLAND
  27. LAS VEGAS
  28. MEMPHIS
  29. 29. LOUISVILLE- YES- UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE (ACC)
  30. BALTIMORE
  31. MILWAUKEE
  32. ALBUQUERQUE
  33. 33. TUSCSON- YES- UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA (PAC 12)
  34. FRESNO
  35. MESA
  36. SACRAMENTO
  37. 37. ATLANTA – YES- GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (ACC)
  38. KANSAS CITY
  39. COLORADO SPRINGS
  40. OMAHA
  41. 41. RALEIGH – YES- NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY (ACC)
  42. 42. MIAMI – YES- UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI (CORAL GABLES, FLORIDA) (ACC)
  43. LONG BEACH
  44. VIRGINIA BEACH
  45. 45. OAKLAND- YES- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKLEY (PAC-12)
  46. 46. MINNEAPOLIS- YES- UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA (B1G 10)
  47. TULSA
  48. TAMPA
  49. ARLINGTON
  50. NEW ORLEANS
  51. WICHITA
  52. BAKERSFIELD
  53. CLEVELAND
  54. AURORA
  55. ANAHEIM
  56. HONOLULU
  57. SANTA ANA
  58. RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA
  59. CORPUS CHRISTI
  60. 60. LEXINGTON- YES- UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY (SEC)
  61. HENDERSON, NEVADA
  62. STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA
  63. SAINT PAUL
  64. CINCINNATI
  65. ST. LOUIS
  66. 66. PITTSBURGH- YES- UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH (ACC)
  67. GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
  68. 68. LINCOLN, NEBRASKA- UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA (B1G 10)
  69. ANCHORAGE
  70. PLANO, TEXAS
  71. ORLANDO
  72. IRVINE
  73. NEWARK
  74. 74. DURHAM – YES- DUKE UNIVERSITY (ACC)
  75. CHULA VISTA, CALIFORNIA
  76. TOLDEO
  77. FORT WAYNE, INDIANA
  78. ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
  79. LAREDO
  80. JERSEY CITY
  81. CHANDLER, ARIZONA
  82. 82. MADISON, WISCONSIN- YES- UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN (B1G 10)
  83. 83. LUBBOCK- YES- TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY (BIG 12)
  84. SCOTTSDALE
  85. RENO
  86. BUFFALO
  87. GILBERT, ARIZONA
  88. GLENDALE
  89. NORTH LAS VEGAS
  90. 90. WINSTON-SALEM – YES- WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY (ACC)
  91. CHESAPEAKE
  92. NORFOLK
  93. FREMONT
  94. GARLAND, TEXAS
  95. IRVING
  96. HIALEAH, FLORIDA
  97. RICHMOND
  98. BOISE
  99. SPOKANE
  100. 100. BATON ROUGE- YES- LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY (SEC)
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Phoenix has Arizona St.

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Thanks. They have it in Tempe, Arizona but I’ll put it under Phoenix since it Is in the city area.

It is within sight of downtown Phoenix. Very near their Airport. Tempe is completely surrounded by The City of Phoenix.

U. of California is not in San Francisco but rather adjacent to Oakland.

Stanford is just South of San Francisco, in Palo Alto.

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I revised the Bay Area Cities.

As long as they are considered “in the city” and not a school in the region like the Houston- Texas A&M(College Station) relationship.

Gilbert, Mesa, and Glendale all are part of Metro Phoenix.

Plano is part of Metro Dallas. Boulder is part of the Denver SMSA and is home to U. of Colorado.

Try SMSA’s to better locate the Power 5 programs.

I was trying to avoid the MSAs and only locate ones located within the City limits because that drastically changes the reach.

This one is based off of top 100 cities, by population…not the MSAs.
The MSA is probably a different list.

I came across UM which is technically in Coral Gables but it can be said it is in/near the heart of Miami so I would say that is the School IN Miami.

Only thing UH is in football crazy state so that helps us. Like I mentioned, if we keep growing there will always be chances outside the 2024 realignment but worse case, the aac is the 6 th best conf overall and could become the new big East.

Is Washington D.C. on the list?

I didn’t see it.

That’s a metro area of at least 5.5 million or so.

The University of Maryland is located literally right across the border from DC on the Maryland side, and has a stop on one of the DC metro lines.

It should be on the list.

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He’s just doing the P5 schools, so Maryland yes, the others you mentioned would not be included as they are on the outside looking in.

because none of those have a P5 football program

Ah, I get it. Just P5s.

Should have read more carefully!!!

I’ll delete my other posts.

What about Detroit? Ann Arbor is part of a set of contiguous suburbs and is as close to DTW airport as downtown Detroit is.

Size of the city doesn’t matter nearly as much as the television size for college football audiences. Houston is 4th in population size but not in the top 10, or even 20, in college football viewership.

Oh we’re counting Vanderbilt today ok.

Yeah there’s no additional qualifier than being in a top 100 metro and being in a P5 conference they check both boxes.

The Metroplex plus Greater Houston has at least 14 million people and yet has only TCU as a P5 school.

Find that to be astonishing. Seems like you could sell College Football tickets to 14 million people. Would also think that lots of TV viewers exist for College Football.

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Yes, Vanderbilt is in a top 100 populated city and has a football program that is a member of a P5 conference (SEC).

Thats an interesting way to look at where the
P5s reside. One conclusion I would draw from
this is that there is a large potentially untapped
market that could be developed if some entity
or consortium wanted to develop it.

For better or worse , I tend to think of college football as semi-pro ball these days. We have had probably 3 or more failed secondary professional startup leagues that I can recall ( usfl, wfl, xfl, ???). If somebody wanted to develop or cultivate these untapped markets by working with the excluded schools it might be interesting. The investing party would not
have to start from scratch or pay high salaries or need facilities, etc.

Just trying to think outside the box here. Im not
sure the long hopeful 2024 contract negotiations will include calling many, if any, schools up. Unless the money to the bottom 2/3 of the P5 was gigantic enough to make expansion a must do deal.

I’d say there’s an apples to oranges comparison between cities like Houston and say Baton Rouge or Lexington, KY. Also, some of the teams were well established before TV and the NFL exploded.