Of the teams in the Final Four, Michigan State has generated by far the most activity on Twitter, according to the gambling website betonline.ag.
The site began calculating geotagged Twitter data once Michigan State, Virginia, Texas Tech and Auburn advanced to the Final Four last weekend. More than 20,000 tweets using fan hashtags such as #gogreen for Michigan State were counted, the site's spokesman, Ryan Taylor, wrote in an email message.
Michigan State generated the most Twitter interest in 27 of the country's 50 states, the website said.
"This is almost certainly due to the fact that they took down Duke, which to many is a big program they are tired of seeing," Taylor wrote.
Texas Tech generated the second-most interest. The Red Raiders "won" 10 states, while Auburn won eight and Virginia five.
In Kentucky, the most social media activity has surrounded Michigan State.
"That is almost certainly due to its Midwest location," Taylor wrote. "There are likely a lot of people originally from Indiana and Ohio in Kentucky, and with Kentucky and Louisville out, they are defaulting to the Midwest team. Likely a lot of Big Ten fans there as well for the same reason."
Curiously, the states tweeting the most about Auburn included Alaska and Rhode Island. States tweeting the most about Virginia included Oregon and Hawaii.
The hashtags used to make the calculations were:
For Michigan State: #gogreen, #gospartans, #spartandawgs
For Texas Tech: #wreckem, #gunsup, #4to1
For Virginia: #gohoos, #wahoowa, #presson
For Auburn: #UnfinishedBusiness, #doitforchuma, #wardamneagle
Betonline.ag staffers who concentrate on college sports put together the data, Taylor said. They do state-by-state maps calculating Twitter activity for every big sporting event.
For example, the last two Super Bowls showed much more Twitter interest in the teams playing the New England Patriots.
In this year's Super Bowl, 35 states had more Twitter activity based on the Los Angeles Rams. Fifteen states, including Kentucky, had more activity on the Patriots, the website said.
"It would appear that most football fans are suffering from Patriots fatigue," the website said.
The tilt away from the Patriots was even more dramatic in 2018. That year's Super Bowl had 45 states with more Twitter activity on the Philadelphia Eagles than on New England.
