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Southeastern Geographer Vol. 23, No. 2, November 1983, pp. 78-106 SOUTHERN MAJOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL: SUPPLY, DEMAND, AND MIGRATION OF PLAYERS* Harold McConnell Even the most casual observer is aware of the fact that college football is an important part of the Southern tradition. Southern colleges aspire to and have achieved football success. The accomplishments of the South's traditional powers, such as Alabama, Georgia, LSU, and Texas, those of such comparative late-comers as Clemson, Florida State, and SMU, and those of such distinguished black institutions as Florida A&M, Grambling, and Jackson State need not be reiterated here. The sociocultural factors responsible for the South's extraordinary preoccupation with football have been considered at length by Rooney, especially for the state of Texas. (J) The unusually large role played by the 13-state area extending from Maryland to Texas in the geography of major college football player production in the United States is examined in this empirical study. The South's surplus and deficit areas are identified, an overview of the spatial structure of its major programs is presented, and various recruiting patterns are analyzed. A regression model of high school-tocollege interstate migration is given particular attention. Data are derived from 1981 season rosters. (2) PRODUCTION OF PLAYERS: THE SOUTH VERSUS THE REST OF THE COUNTRY. Major college football is defined here as that played by the member schools of National Collegiate Athletic Association * The author expresses his appreciation to Ranee Ellis and Virgil Tetsworth for their research assistance, to Don Patton for his editorial expertise, to the sports information directors of the various institutions for providing rosters (especially Wayne Hogan, now at Florida State University, but at the University of New Mexico in 1981), and to the staff of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for answering numerous inquiries and supplying the rosters of several programs. Dr. McConnell is Professor of Geography at The Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL 32306. Vol. XXIII, No. 2 79 (NCAA) Divisions IA and IAA. There were 187 such programs in 46 states in 1981 (the single program in the District of Columbia was included with the two in Maryland). Eighty-one (43 percent) were in the South (one would expect the South to have supported but 59, based on the national norm of 0.83 programs per million population). Division IA, the highest level of football competition, had 137 members. Fifty schools competed at the less renowned IAA level. Examination of all 187 rosters revealed that the 46 states with major programs produced 17,695 players, or approximately one player per 12,780 people, a ratio which compares favorably with Rooney's 1974 ratio of 1:12,500. (3) The four states without major programs (Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota , and Vermont), Puerto Rico and U.S. Territories, Canada, and other foreign countries produced an additional 87 players. Since high school athletes residing in the four states without major programs had fewer opportunities to participate in major college football than residents of states that supported such programs, their populations were excluded in calculating the national norm. By comparison, the South produced 7, 195 players, or approximately one player per 9,790 persons. Its production rate was 31 percent larger than the national norm. Only three Southern states (Maryland, Kentucky , and Arkansas) were below the norm. Louisiana (1:5,048) and Mississippi (1:6,978) were the two most productive states in the country, considering their populations. The South had only 31 percent of the population of the United States in 1980. However, the 7,195 Southern residents listed on all rosters comprised 40 percent of the major college football players in the United States in 1981. The South also seems to have become an increasingly larger producer in recent years (Table 1), particularly with the advent of Division IAA in 1978, which resulted in the upgrading of a number of Southern institutions from College Division (currently Divisions 2 and 3) to major status. Four Southern states (Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and Georgia) ranked among the 10 largest producers in 1981, whereas only Texas and Florida were similarly ranked in 1974. Lest one conclude that this increase is merely a function of the South...

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