College football fans' rooting guide to Super Bowl 59: What schools should pull for Chiefs, Eagles?

College football fans’ rooting guide to Super Bowl 59: What schools should pull for Chiefs, Eagles?

Posted by author February 9, 2025 Football

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The 2024 college football season has come and gone, with Ohio State knocking off Notre Dame three weeks ago in the national title game.

What follows the thrill of a champion being crowned is a long and occasionally arduous wait for games to resume. After five months of non-stop action and excitement, which was capped off by the first-ever month-long College Football Playoff, college football fans will have to wait seven months for the 2025 season to kick off.

Thankfully for them, there’s at least one more football game to grab their attention until August.

The Super Bowl is America’s secular holiday, the annual spectacle that doubles as the NFL’s championship game. While the event is staged to determine the best team in professional football in a given season, it does have some college-related ties. All but one player between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs rosters played college football, leaving behind legions of fans who have an emotional attachment to them and follow their NFL exploits.

If you’re not an Eagles or Chiefs fan — and judging by reaction to the results of the AFC and NFC championship games, that would appear to be a healthy majority of the American public — who can you generate some kind of rooting interest for on Sunday? And how might your college allegiances allow you to find a team to get behind?

Here’s a rooting guide for college football fans for Super Bowl 59:

College football fans’ rooting guide for Super Bowl 59

For many college football fans, favoritism for the Super Bowl comes down to which team has the most players from their school of choice. In other cases, it could be one particularly impactful player. The Chiefs’ roster isn’t teeming with former Texas Tech standouts, but there’s an awfully notable one who plays a pretty important position.

Here’s a look at who fans can root for in the Super Bowl based on their favorite college programs:

Who should root for the Chiefs?

Texas Tech

Red Raiders fans only need so much of a nudge on who to root for in this matchup, if they even need one at all. Former Texas Tech star Patrick Mahomes II has been the best quarterback in the NFL since his first season as a starter in 2018. On Sunday, he’ll be 60 minutes away from his fourth Super Bowl championship, which would put him in a tie with Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for the fourth-most ever. And, to think, he’s still seven months away from his 30th birthday.

Oklahoma

No college program is better represented on the Chiefs than Oklahoma, which has six former players suiting up for coach Andy Reid’s team. The most notable of the group is center Creed Humphrey, a newly minted first-team All-Pro, though wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown could end up playing a sizable role in the game’s result.

Cincinnati

For a future Pro Football Hall of Famer who’s dating arguably the most famous woman in the world, Kelce had a relatively anonymous college career with the Bearcats, though he did enjoy an excellent senior season in 2012 in which he had 722 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. Cincinnati fans won’t be nearly as emotionally conflicted as they were in this same matchup two years ago, when Kelce’s brother and fellow Bearcat Jason Kelce, who has since retired, was an All-Pro center for the Eagles. Kansas City starting safety Bryan Cook also went to Cincinnati.

Mississippi State

The Bulldogs have a defensive standout on each team, with Chris Jones on the Chiefs and Darius Slay Jr. on the Eagles, but Jones gets the edge here. The ninth-year defensive tackle is one of the best, most productive players in the league at any position and has been a first-team All-Pro in each of the past three seasons.

Purdue

If Boilermakers fans are looking for a pick-me-up after a disastrous 1-11 season in 2024, they need not look further than George Karlaftis, the Chiefs’ regular-season sack leader in just his third season. His ties to the region go beyond just his time at Purdue, as he graduated from West Lafayette High School, just across the street from Ross-Ade Stadium.

Georgia Tech

If it’s a closely contested game that comes down to the final seconds, it’s quite possible former Yellow Jacket Harrison Butker’s right foot will determine who hoists the Lombardi Trophy, just as it did in Super Bowl 57, when he kicked a chip-shot field goal with eight seconds remaining to give the Chiefs a 38-35 win over the Eagles.

NC State

Believe it or not, Mahomes doesn’t have the most Super Bowl rings on his own team. That distinction belongs to All-Pro offensive lineman and former Wolfpack standout Joe Thuney, who could win his fifth Super Bowl on Sunday (he has won two apiece with the Chiefs and New England Patriots). A victory against the Eagles would move him into a tie with Charles Haley for the second-most Super Bowls won by a player.

Who should root for the Eagles?

Georgia

For years, Philadelphia’s draft strategy appeared to be simply to select the best players from the Bulldogs’ tenacious and fearsome defense. It has worked out quite well. The Eagles have six Georgia players total, including three defensive starters: Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Nolan Smith Jr. Were it not for a season-ending injury to linebacker Nakobe Dean in the wild-card round, Kirby Smart would have had even more former players starring for coach Nick Sirianni’s team on Sunday.

Penn State

In his first season with the Eagles, Nittany Lions fans have gotten the opportunity to watch the Saquon Barkley they knew so well and loved so much during his time in State College — not the lesser, oft-injured version they got for six seasons on a mismanaged New York Giants team. Wide receiver Jahan Dotson, another first-year Eagle, went to Penn State, as well.

Alabama

For all of its overwhelming success under Nick Saban, the Crimson Tide doesn’t have a single player on the Chiefs. Thankfully, the Eagles more than make up for it, with six former Alabama players on their roster. Offensive lineman Landon Dickerson is a 2024 first-team All-Pro while DeVonta Smith, the 2020 Heisman Trophy winner, is the team’s No. 2 receiver. And though he finished his college career at Oklahoma, quarterback Jalen Hurts played his first three seasons for the Crimson Tide and maintains a strong, positive relationship with the school.

Oklahoma

Sooners fans, you’ve got a choice on your hands. While the Chiefs have triple the number of former Oklahoma players, the Eagles boast offensive lineman Lane Johnson, a six-time Pro Bowler, and Hurts, who was the 2019 Heisman Trophy runner-up in his lone season in Norman.

Ole Miss

A.J. Brown, a two-time first-team All-SEC honoree with the Rebels, has been the Eagles’ top receiver since joining the team via a trade from the Tennessee Titans in April 2022. No word, though, on whether his interest in the work of self-help author Jim Murphy stems from his time in Oxford.

Wisconsin

With all due respect to his former Badgers teammate, Kansas City starting linebacker Leo Chenal, Eagles linebacker Zack Baun makes this a relatively easy call for Wisconsin fans after a breakout 2024 season in which he is a finalist for NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Memphis

The Tigers are one of only 12 programs with at least three players between the two teams in the Super Bowl. All three happen to be on the Eagles. Though he has uncharacteristically struggled this season, kicker Jake Elliott is a former Pro Bowler. Elsewhere, Kenneth Gainwell has lived up to his last name as the Eagles’ No. 2 running back and Bryce Huff has 2.5 sacks as a backup defensive end.

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