Hampton Roads, Va. – Each year Virginia Tech and UVa. compete for the Commonwealth Cup and bragging rights around the state. Lately that rivalry hasn’t been close. Tech has a 13-1 record over UVa. since 2000. That might be part of the reason why Virginia Tech dominates Virginia when it comes to college football Facebook likes.
The New York Times has released an interactive map that breaks down college football fandom based on Facebook likes by zip code. In Virginia, it is not even close. As you can see below, most of Virginia is covered in Virginia Tech maroon, with the exception of Charlottesville which is strongly Cavalier blue.
“Like the other sets of maps, these were created using estimates of team support based on each team’s share of Facebook ‘likes’ in a ZIP code,” the Times wrote. “We then applied an algorithm to deal with statistical noise and fill in gaps where data was missing. Facebook ‘likes’ are an imperfect measure, but as we’ve noted before, Facebook likes show broadly similar patterns to polls.”
Virginia will look to end its football losing streak when the Cavaliers travel to Blacksburg November 28, the Friday after Thanksgiving.
