National polling released on Thursday claims that the Alabama Crimson Tide are the most “hated” team in college football.
The results, collected by the research firm Lightspeed at the request of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), showed that 16 percent of respondents “hated” Alabama the most out of any team in the nation. Nick Saban’s program was followed by Ohio State, Notre Dame, Penn State, Michigan, Southern California (USC), Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska respectively.
The WSJ theorized why the top teams were included, saying, “Alabama and Ohio State, have won national titles in the last four years, while No. 4 Penn State is still emerging from the shadow of the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal.”
They continued to note that, “Notre Dame irks the rest of the country by remaining independent instead of joining a conference like almost every other school. Michigan irks by simply being Michigan.”
MOST HATED https://t.co/oCkfj8RHyX pic.twitter.com/TCju3k2EXk
— Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) August 31, 2018
Alabama opens its season Saturday at 7:00 pm CST against Louisville in Orlando. The game will be televised on ABC.
For the rest of the state’s games and how to watch, click here.
For a schedule of all the nationally televised college football games over Labor Day weekend, click here.
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
