• Alabama Crimson Tide is the most popular college football team on Instagram, according to new data 
  • The most popular college basketball team on Instagram is the Duke Blue Devils  
  • Arizona Wildcats rank as the tenth most followed college basketball team on Instagram 
  • Florida Atlantic has the most dedicated fans on social media 

The dust has finally settled on March Madness, and there are still months to go until the college football season gets underway, but social media never sleeps, so we wanted to find out which NCAA giants dominate online.  

Our study took the current top 25 college men’s football and basketball teams (according to the latest AP rankings) and analyzed the team’s verified Instagram accounts to see their followers, engagement rate, comments and likes to determine which team is the most popular online.  

The result? Alabama Crimson Tide is the most popular college football team on social media, despite Georgia Bulldogs reigning supreme as the national champions, while Duke takes the title for college basketball teams on social media, even if it could only reach the second round of the NCAA Tournament.  

Meanwhile, the University of Arizona Wildcats rank as the tenth most followed college basketball team on Instagram, having racked up an impressive 112,000 followers. On average their posts have an engagement rate of 3.39%, with 59 comments and 4,196 likes. Arizona has always been up there when it comes to popularity and success. Whether it’s Gilbert Arenas or Deandre Ayton leading the way, you can always expect the Wildcats to be competitive and create a lot of attention on social media. The Wildcats are one of only 11 college basketball accounts with over 100 thousand followers. With the number seven recruiting class in 2024, this number should only rise. 

Read on to see how the figures break down… 

NCAA Football

Alabama Crimson Tide was found to be the most followed Instagram account compared to the other 24 teams. They have a following of over 1.1 million, and each post gains an average of 24,000 likes and 155 comments. Despite the high following, the team has a low engagement rate of 1.94%. This is low considering the team’s number of followers, showing that only a handful of followers engage with the account. On average, the Instagram engagement rate for the 25 football teams that were measured is 2.5%. 

Ohio State Buckeyes is the second most followed college football Instagram account, with over 1 million followers. The team’s posts receive an average of 16,000 likes, and 101 comments, and have an engagement rate of 1.5%. 

The third most popular team is the LSU Tigers, who have a following of 945,000. Though they rank third, their likes are significantly higher compared to Alabama Crimson Tide and Ohio State Buckeyes, with their posts receiving an average of 32,000 likes and 234 comments. Consequently, their engagement rate is also higher, at 3.38%.  

Oregon Ducks take fourth place with over 793,000 followers, an average of 4,000 likes, and 52 comments per post. Michigan Wolverines take fifth place with over 533,000 followers and an average of 13,000 likes and 44 comments per post. They also have an engagement rate of 2.45%. 

Georgia Bulldogs, the current national champions, ranked ninth with a following of over 308,000. On average, their posts receive over 2,000 likes and eight comments. Despite being the current champions, they have a low engagement rate of 0.7% which shows that most of their followers do not engage with the content posted. 

Surprisingly, the college football team with the highest engagement rate is the Pittsburgh Panthers, who rank at number 18 overall. The team has a following of over 110,000 and an engagement rate of 7.3%. This means that though their following is lower, more of their audience interacts with their content.

Popularity Rank Team Username Followers Engagement (%) Avg Comments Avg Likes NCAA Rank 
Alabama Crimson Tide alabamafbl 1,183,182  1.94 155  24,646  5  
Ohio State Buckeyes ohiostatefb 1,076,258  1.5 101  16,957  4  
LSU Tigers lsufootball 945,106  3.38 234  32,170  16  
Oregon Ducks goducks 793,652  0.56 52  4,624  15  
Michigan Wolverines umichfootball 533,081  2.45 44  13,765  3  
Tennessee Volunteers vol_football 522,065  2.3 67  12,435  6  
Penn State Nittany Lions pennstatefball 438,820  2.08 36  9,123  7  
Texas Longhorns texaslonghorns 355,061  1.46 32  5,936  25  
Georgia Bulldogs ugaathletics 308,882  0.7 8  2,236  1  
10 USC Trojans usc_athletics 269,620  1.11 25  3,126  12  
11 Clemson Tigers clemsontigers 236,590  1.32 13  3,305  13  
12 UCLA Bruins uclambb 230,019  4.24 121  12,517  21  
13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish thefightingirish 176,714  1.68 9  3,018  18  
14 Mississippi State Bulldogs hailstatefb 169,838  1.28 7  2,348  20  
15 Utah Utes utahfootball 162,447  2.19 36  3,857  10  
16 TCU tcufootball 160,042  2.92 18  4,934  2  
17 Washington Huskies uw_football 134,882  1.73 26  2,513  8  
18 Pittsburgh Panthers pitt_fb 110,740  7.3 40  8,188  22  
19 Oregon State Beavers beaverfootball 84,531  1.65 6  1,493  17  
20 Florida State Seminoles seminoles 77,187  1.42 3  1,139  11  
21 South Carolina Gamecocks southcarolinagamecocks 65,647  4.65 25  3,113  23  
22 Kansas State Wildcats kstatefb 58,528  6.48 47  4,073  14  
23 Fresno State Bulldogs fresno_state_football 55,508  3.09 11  1,834  24  
24 Tulane Green Wave greenwavefb 36,254  2.38 2  871  9  
25 Troy Trojans troytrojansfootball 24,625  2.65 8  1,040  19 
Football (Associated Press, Week 15 – Released January 10th) 

NCAA Basketball

Duke Blue Devils are the most popular college basketball team on Instagram, compared to the other 24 teams. They have a following of over 1.3 million – one million more than any other team in the top 25 – and receive an average of 25,000 likes and 252 comments per post. The average engagement rate for all basketball teams on Instagram is 6.2%, and this team is on the low end with an engagement rate of 1.29% – the lowest engagement rate out of the 25 college basketball teams that were measured. 

The Kansas Jayhawks is the second most popular team, with a following of over 274,000. The team’s posts receive an average of 9,000 likes and 55 comments, with an engagement rate of 3.3%. 

UCLA Bruins come in third place with a following of over 230,000, an average of 12,000 likes, and 121 comments per post. Their engagement rate is higher compared to the previous two teams, coming in at 4.24%. Tennessee Volunteers are the fourth most popular team on social media, with 171,000 followers and an average of 9,000 likes and 145 comments per post.  

In fifth place are the Indiana Hoosiers, with a following of 167,000. They receive an average of 9,000 likes and 86 comments per post, leaving them with an engagement rate of 5.15%. 

UConn Huskies are the newly crowned national champions, and they have ranked number eight, with a following of 132,000. Their posts, on average, receive 16,000 likes and 122 comments, giving them a high engagement rate of 7.21%.  

The college basketball team with the highest engagement rate is Florida Atlantic. They have over 21,000 followers and receive 5,000 likes and 172 comments per post, giving them an engagement rate of 26.13%. The team have seen a significant increase in engagement on their Instagram page after making it to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament and have accumulated more than 13,000 Instagram followers over the past 30 days.

Popularity Rank Team Username Followers Engagement (%) Avg Comments Avg Likes NCAA Rank 
Duke Blue Devils dukembb 1,334,645  1.29  252  25,449  12  
Kansas Jayhawks kuhoops 274,150  3.30  55  9,707  4  
UCLA Bruins uclambb 230,019  4.24  121  12,517  7  
Tennessee Volunteers vol_hoops 171,947  5.16  145  9,087  20  
Indiana Hoosiers indianambb 167,712  5.15  86  9,307  21  
Alabama Crimson Tide alabamambb 146,884  5.80  190  8,729  1  
Gonzaga Bulldogs zagmbb 135,709  8.05  97  11,301  9  
UConn Huskies uconnhuskies 132,961  7.21  122  16,782  10  
Purdue Boilermakers boilerball 124,922  8.19  41  10,507  3  
10 Arizona Wildcats arizonambb 112,408  3.39  59  4,196  8  
11 Texas Longhorns texasmbb 106,259  6.66  90  9,137  5  
12 Virginia Cavaliers uvamenshoops 89,385  4.06  58  4,289  14  
13 Memphis Tigers memphis_mbb 89,120  3.99  87  3,669  24  
14 Miami Hurricanes caneshoops 84,071  10.41  163  9,077  16  
15 Baylor Bears baylormbb 70,466  3.39  7  2,496  11  
16 Missouri Tigers mizzouhoops 61,221  4.11  13  2,711  23  
17 Kansas State Wildcats kstatefb 58,528  6.48  47  4,073  15  
18 Marquette Golden Eagles marquette.basketball 57,076  8.36  46  5,908  6  
19 Houston Cougars uhcougarmbk 49,658  5.09  28  2,632  2  
20 Texas A&M Aggies aggiembk 43,838  5.68  54  2,628  17  
21 San Diego State Aztecs goaztecs 36,669  8.40  34  3,044  18  
22 Xavier Musketeers xaviermbb 33,926  5.76  39  1,935  13  
23 TCU Horned Frogs tcumbb 28,589  7.15  19  2,165  22  
24 Florida Atlantic faumbb 21,766  26.13  172  5,677  25  
25 Saint Mary’s Gaels saintmaryshoops 7,544  9.99  3  834  19 
Basketball (Division 1 – Associated Press Rank, Week 19 – Released 13th March)