- Just eight NFL teams remain in the hunt for a trip to Super Bowl LVIII.
- The betonline.ag team used X (formerly Twitter) trends to determine the top teams in each state.
- The Detroit Lions have the support of more than half of US states heading into the Divisional Round.
The NFL Playoffs are underway.
After a thrilling Wild Card weekend, just eight teams remain in the hunt for a trip to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas next month. But first, they'll have to survive this weekend's Divisional Round.
The games begin Saturday with the two top-seeded teams — the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC and the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC — facing the lowest remaining seeds in their conferences: the Houston Texans and Green Bay Packers, respectively. On Sunday, the Detroit Lions will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs head to Buffalo for a blockbuster matchup against Josh Allen and the Bills.
But only one of those eight squads can be America's darling for the 2024 playoffs, and the team at betonline.ag sought to determine which franchise had the most support across the United States. They analyzed geotagged data from X (formerly Twitter) based on more than 200,000 posts sent out across the country, flagging the use of fan hashtags like #BillsMafia, #GoBucs, #ChiefsKingdom, #OnePride, #GoNiners, #GoPackGo, #RavensFlock, and #WeAreTexans.
They found that the majority of US states are pulling for Detroit in the playoffs after the Lions broke a 32-year playoff drought with a Wild Card victory over the Los Angeles Rams. Much of the Midwest — barring Packers country in Wisconsin and Chiefs faithful in Iowa and Missouri — is supporting Jared Goff and company.
Somewhat surprisingly, the bulk of the South — aside from the Buccaneers' home state of Florida and the Texans' bloc of Louisiana and the Lone Star State — is rooting for the Lions in the Divisional Round. Even some Northeastern states, including most of New England, are rooting for the Lions in the Divisional Round.
The 49ers and Bills rank second and third, respectively, on the list of teams with the most state support, though no franchise besides Detroit has more than 10 states in its corner.
Check out the full map below:
