Player position by home state in college football

In economics, comparative advantage is the ability of a person or country to produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than others. The result of a comparative advantage is that people or countries that are relatively good at some activity will tend to specialize in that activity.

The same principle applies to high school football. Some states are relatively good at producing athletes for particular positions, and so players at these positions are over represented from those states at the next level. For example, Australia is relatively good at produces kickers, so that 9 of 12 college football players from Australia in 2011 were kickers/punters. Domestically, Hawaii is particularly good at producing defensive lineman, so that 28% of Hawaiians in college football play on the defensive line while only 15% of college football players (as listed on team rosters) are defensive lineman.

In the chart below, I've also added a specialization score. This score ranks states by the degree to which they specialize by position. Hawaii is the most specialized, being most over-represented at linebacker and defensive lineman and most under-represented at running back and tight end (I've included only the 37 states with at list 50 representatives in FBS football). 

Some notable trends quickly emerge. First, four of the top five defensive back states come from the South (Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Texas, with Maryland as the fifth) while four of the bottom six come from the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, with Oregon and New York rounding out the bottom six). The trend reverses for offensive lineman, with the bottom five all coming from the South.

State Comparative Advantages by Position
State	Spec.	DB		LB		DL		OL		QB		RB		TE		WR		K/P		N
Ave	Score	15.5%		12.6%		14.7%		17.8%		4.8%		8.9%		5.7%		12.3%		4.9%
AL	35	16.7%	13	15.0%	6	15.0%	17	15.7%	25	4.1%	24	9.4%	12	4.6%	22	13.8%	11	1.9%	33	413
AR	6	16.0%	18	6.9%	37	11.5%	33	13.0%	34	9.9%	1	13.0%	2	8.4%	6	13.7%	12	5.3%	15	131
AZ	36	15.3%	20	11.9%	23	15.8%	14	19.8%	9	3.4%	29	9.0%	17	5.1%	19	9.0%	33	6.2%	7	177
CA	30	18.9%	6	12.3%	20	13.3%	27	15.0%	30	6.6%	5	9.4%	13	4.6%	23	13.6%	13	3.7%	26	1,524
CO	21	13.0%	28	15.5%	5	13.7%	26	16.1%	22	4.3%	22	13.7%	1	5.0%	20	9.9%	29	5.6%	12	161
FL	10	22.5%	2	12.4%	19	13.9%	23	12.6%	36	4.6%	20	9.2%	15	4.5%	24	14.2%	10	4.2%	24	1,503
GA	16	18.1%	9	15.0%	7	17.8%	3	12.5%	37	3.1%	33	11.4%	5	3.3%	32	10.9%	26	4.4%	22	734
HI	1	13.5%	25	20.0%	1	27.7%	1	16.1%	23	3.9%	27	3.9%	37	1.9%	37	10.3%	28	1.3%	36	155
IA	5	9.6%	35	10.5%	29	13.2%	29	20.2%	7	7.0%	3	4.4%	36	11.4%	1	12.3%	19	8.8%	3	114
IL	2	9.3%	36	10.4%	31	12.9%	30	28.1%	1	6.2%	7	9.6%	11	5.3%	17	9.6%	31	5.3%	16	356
IN	31	12.0%	32	10.9%	27	14.1%	20	19.3%	11	5.7%	9	8.9%	21	7.3%	11	15.1%	8	5.2%	18	192
KS	34	16.5%	16	12.0%	22	12.0%	31	18.8%	13	6.0%	8	6.0%	34	5.3%	18	10.5%	27	6.0%	8	133
KY	15	13.2%	27	10.4%	30	9.0%	37	20.8%	6	6.9%	4	9.0%	18	5.6%	16	13.2%	14	8.3%	4	144
LA	17	21.1%	3	12.7%	17	13.7%	25	14.5%	33	4.4%	21	7.6%	29	3.4%	31	16.2%	4	4.2%	25	408
MA	18	17.7%	11	12.9%	16	11.3%	34	19.4%	10	3.2%	31	8.1%	28	11.3%	2	11.3%	23	3.2%	29	62
MD	8	24.2%	1	14.5%	10	14.0%	21	15.9%	24	3.4%	30	9.2%	16	3.9%	28	11.1%	25	1.4%	35	207
MI	37	15.4%	19	12.5%	18	14.2%	19	16.5%	21	4.9%	17	9.0%	20	4.9%	21	15.7%	5	5.2%	17	345
MN	14	10.5%	34	14.7%	8	15.8%	15	23.2%	4	3.2%	32	8.4%	25	6.3%	14	11.6%	21	1.1%	37	95
MO	29	12.0%	31	13.9%	13	13.3%	28	18.4%	15	6.3%	6	12.0%	4	6.3%	13	11.4%	22	5.7%	11	158
MS	28	18.7%	7	11.4%	25	16.3%	8	17.1%	19	2.8%	36	8.1%	27	4.1%	27	13.0%	15	2.0%	32	246
NC	19	14.5%	22	16.3%	4	15.3%	16	12.8%	35	4.8%	18	8.8%	24	3.8%	29	14.3%	9	6.0%	8	399
NE	3	14.9%	21	11.7%	24	10.6%	35	27.7%	2	5.3%	14	7.4%	30	9.6%	4	8.5%	36	3.2%	30	94
NJ	24	13.3%	26	16.4%	3	16.0%	12	16.9%	20	5.3%	13	7.1%	31	6.7%	12	15.1%	7	1.8%	34	225
NM	4	18.5%	8	11.1%	26	9.3%	36	14.8%	31	5.6%	11	9.3%	14	7.4%	9	9.3%	32	13.0%	1	54
NV	11	16.3%	17	10.9%	28	20.7%	2	15.2%	28	1.1%	37	9.8%	9	3.3%	33	16.3%	3	4.3%	23	92
NY	13	11.2%	33	9.6%	33	16.0%	10	24.1%	3	3.7%	28	11.2%	7	4.3%	26	12.3%	18	5.9%	10	187
OH	33	17.5%	12	14.3%	12	16.0%	11	15.4%	27	4.6%	19	6.3%	33	7.4%	10	11.2%	24	4.9%	19	798
OK	22	17.9%	10	9.7%	32	16.9%	5	22.1%	5	4.1%	25	6.7%	32	5.6%	15	11.8%	20	3.6%	28	195
OR	7	9.1%	37	9.1%	34	17.0%	4	14.8%	32	5.7%	10	11.4%	6	9.1%	5	17.0%	2	6.8%	6	88
PA	26	13.8%	24	14.6%	9	16.4%	7	19.1%	12	4.2%	23	8.2%	26	8.0%	7	8.0%	37	4.5%	21	377
SC	9	19.5%	4	8.2%	36	15.9%	13	15.5%	26	5.5%	12	5.9%	35	2.7%	34	17.7%	1	4.5%	20	220
TN	27	16.7%	14	13.0%	15	11.5%	32	20.0%	8	4.1%	26	11.1%	8	4.4%	25	8.9%	34	5.6%	13	270
TX	25	19.3%	5	12.2%	21	14.6%	18	15.1%	29	5.1%	16	8.8%	22	3.7%	30	15.6%	6	3.7%	27	1,741
UT	23	12.0%	30	14.5%	11	16.9%	6	18.1%	16	3.0%	34	12.0%	3	7.8%	8	9.6%	30	5.4%	14	166
VA	32	16.6%	15	13.7%	14	14.0%	22	17.3%	18	7.8%	2	9.8%	10	2.6%	35	12.7%	16	2.6%	31	307
WA	20	14.3%	23	8.5%	35	13.8%	24	18.0%	17	5.3%	15	9.0%	19	10.6%	3	12.7%	17	6.9%	5	189
WI	12	12.5%	29	17.6%	2	16.2%	9	18.4%	14	2.9%	35	8.8%	23	2.2%	36	8.8%	35	8.8%	2	136