Living in Missouri I surprised that they are trending with OU. Granted I live in the STL metro area. I never hear any love for OU.
Yo Kick their asses out of the SEC and let em rejoin the Big 12. You just never know who a region is going to root for or why. In the Virginia Beach - Newport area of southern Virginia you see more Pittsburgh Steelers stickers on cars than any other, even the Redskins. In northern Virginia and in Maryland around the DC area there are Redskins stickers everywhere like you would expect but even in that part of Maryland no Ravens stuff. You have to get within about 50 miles of Baltimore before you see lots of Ravens stickers.
Prob a fan vote thing. Only a handful of folks care to vote so its a participation award. Kinda like our gubernatorial elections... I'll add, the gumps are all in on Hurts. Enables them to claim another championship by proxy.