A Marist poll breaks down who is fans of college and professional football. 20% of Americans follow professional football "a great deal," compared with 12% who follow college football a great deal. A huge part of the gap comes from the Northeast. In every other region, between 13% and 15% of respondents say they follow college football a great deal. In the Northeast, it's 4%:
This is one way I've noticed that the Northeast really is completely different than the rest of America. College football is a major part of the cultural landscape everywhere else in America, but here it's totally invisible. There's almost no decent college football in the region, and most college graduates thus went to schools with terrible football, and many of them faintly (or not so faintly) look down on schools where football was a major part of the campus experience.