Football expands lead over Baseball as America’s Favorite Sport.

Football season comes to a close this week, pitchers and catchers will soon report to Spring Training, and this is the prime time for the run to March Madness. As the season for one sport ends, another begins, but there will be some disappointed fans going through football withdrawal next week. Of those who follow one or more sport, over one-third (35%) say professional football is their favorite — an increase of 4% over last year.

“If you had to choose, which ONE of these sports would you say is your favorite?”

Baseball comes next as 16% of sports followers say that is their favorite sport, followed by 12% who say college football. Both of these are unchanged from last year. Football leads over baseball by 19 points; its lead between 2006 and 2008 was 15 points.

Next on the list of favorites are auto racing (which includes NASCAR) at 9%, then men’s professional basketball (5%), hockey (4%), men’s golf (4%), and men’s college basketball (3%).

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,276 adults surveyed online between December 7 and 14, 2009 by Harris Interactive.

Favorites among Different Groups

Each sport has groups of people who are more of a fan and also less of a fan. For professional football, African Americans are more likely to say it is their favorite (45%) as are those aged 40-49 (42%) and those aged 25-29 (38%). On the reverse side, Hispanics (26%), those aged 18-24 (27%) and Westerners (28%) are less likely to say professional football is their favorite sport.

Baseball has its own sets of fans. Hispanics (24%), Easterners (21%) and College graduates (19%) are all more likely to say baseball is their favorite sport while African Americans (7%), those with a post-graduate degree (11%) and Southerners (12%) are less likely to say so.

Younger adults aged 18-24 who might be in college or have just graduated are the most likely to say college football is their favorite sport (26%) followed by Republicans (20%) and Southerners (19%). Easterners are least likely to say college football is their favorite (3%), followed by African Americans (6%) and those aged 40-49 (7%).

When it comes to auto racing, which does include NASCAR, those with a household income of between $35,000 and $49,999 a year (15%), those with a high school education or less (14%) and older Americans, aged 65 and older (13%) are more likely to say this is their favorite sport. African Americans (less than 0.5%), those with a post graduate education (2%) and those aged 25-29, on the other hand, are all least likely to say auto racing is their favorite.

To view charts CLICK above on ‘More Images’.

For more information at http://www.harrisinteractive.com