March Madness

Which College Basketball Team Does the Chicago Area Root For? Use This Interactive Map to Find Out

With March Madness just around the corner, people in the Chicago area are already creating their personalized brackets with college basketball teams from across the U.S.

Chicago-based ticket marketplace Vivid Seats created a way to check which collegiate basketball team each zip code of the Chicago area roots for.

Take a look at the interactive map below:

Based on the data from the map, these are the top 10 favorite teams for Chicagoans:

  1. Northwestern
  2. DePaul
  3. Notre Dame
  4. Purdue
  5. Marquette
  6. Illinois
  7. Loyola
  8. Indiana
  9. Michigan State
  10. Wisconsin and Xavier (tie)

According to the data, Northwestern was primarily dominant in the northern parts of Chicago, while DePaul had a strong presence in the Loop. Notre Dame appeared to be the most popular for the South Side Irish.

For cities along the eastern Illinois-Indiana borderline, Purdue appeared to have the most loyal fan base. Meanwhile, the University of Illinois dominates support in the Chicago suburbs. Marquette and Wisconsin had the most fans near the northern Illinois border.

Vivid Seats determined the Chicago area's favorite college teams by the number of tickets previously sold through their platform.

The ticket company noted that areas of black on the map had insufficient data to draw a clear favorite team.

Due to the pandemic, the entire NCAA men's tournament will take place in Indianapolis and the surrounding area beginning with First Four games March 18 at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette and Assembly Hall in Bloomington. The Final Four will take place at Lucas Oil Stadium with the championship game scheduled for April 5.

The women's tournament, which begins with first-round games March 21, will take place in San Antonio and neighboring cities of Austin and San Marcos. The Final Four is set for the Alamodome with the title game April 4.

The basketball committees formulated their contingency plan based on four core tenets: once the bracket is released, it will not be changed or reseeded; it will attempt to ensure a full field before the tournament with no replacement teams once play begins; every participating conference should have at least one team in the field; and the replacement teams should be the best teams considered for an at-large that still remain.

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