How many times have you looked at a survey and thought to yourself that its findings are just so obvious that you wonder why anyone would have spent the time gathering and then analyzing all of that data?

We saw another pretty good example of that earlier in the week when WalletHub released it annual look at the Best and Worst Cities for Football Fans.

And, to the surprise of very few people, Pittsburgh again has topped the overall list.

Our region also finished first in the pro football rankings and 12th in the college football rankings.

A big part of the reason for that ranking, according to the Washington, D.C.-based personal financial website, is fan engagement. That’s just one of the 21 metrics that went into determining the final rankings. Pittsburgh finished tied with Green Bay in that metric for pro football, with Boston, New Orleans and Buffalo rounding out the top five.

Dallas finished second overall, followed by Green Bay, Boston, Kansas City, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans and Miami. Cincinnati finished 13th overall (15th in pro football rankings and 130th in the college rankings) while Cleveland was 24th overall (24th in the pro rankings and 241st in the college rankings.)

The love of the game in general and the Steelers in particular helped the city land the 2026 National Football League Draft, which is scheduled to be held April 23-25 one year from now.

Pittsburgh also fared pretty well — and not so well — when considering the accessibility of stadiums. Acrisure Stadium was ranked the fourth most accessible stadium in the professional ranks and the 237th most-accessible stadium in the college ranks. One of the biggest components in that low number on the college side is likely that the North Shore stadium sits about 5 miles from the University of Pittsburgh’s Oakland campus.

When looking at just the college component, Morgantown came out pretty well, finishing 22nd among the 250 cities that were included in the survey. State College, Pa., meanwhile, finished third in the college rankings, trailing Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Clemson, S.C. West Point, N.Y., Tallahassee, Fla.;Athens, Ga.; Stillwater, Okla.; Fayette, Miss.; Fargo, N.D.; and Ann Arbor, Mich.; made up the rest of the top 10.

What might come as a bit of a surprise is how far down the list you have to go to get to Columbus — the home of the Ohio State University comes in at just 109th on the list. That’s lower than Athens — the home of Ohio University comes in at 73rd on the college side — and even Youngstown (68th) and Loretta, Pa. (17th.)

Morgantown also comes in with the fifth most-engaged fans in college football, behind Clemson, State College and Tuscaloosa, who were tied for first, and Starkville, Miss.

It’s tough to figure out why the Columbus ranking is so low — Ohio State tends to rank consistently high in other polls. Maybe one of the reasons is that the Buckeyes are ranked 236th when it comes to having the highest minimum price for season tickets. Only College Station, Texas (the home of Texas A&M) and Gainesville, Fla. (the home of the University of Florida) are ranked lower.

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While the Steelers will, again, not be playing the Super Bowl, that doesn’t mean there won’t be a lot interest in Sunday’s battle between Kansas City and Philadelphia.

The day has become one of the country’s unofficial holidays, with 113.7 million Americans planning to throw or attend a Super Bowl party, and another 17.6 million people intending to watch the game at a bar or restaurant, WalletHub explains.

No matter where we watch the game, there will be plenty of food — Super Bowl Sunday is the second-highest food consumption day of the year, trailing only Thanksgiving.

All of that food adds up quickly — the average calories for a Super Bowl feast check in at 6,000. No surprise here — there will be 1.45 billion chicken wings eaten Sunday;10 million pounds of ribs sold in the week leading up to the game; 11.2 million pounds of potato chips eaten; and 304 million pounds of avocados purchased and transformed into guacamole. If you don’t feel like preparing any of that yourself, you will not be alone — there is a 41 percent increase in pizza orders on Super Bowl Sunday as compared with other Sundays.

By far, Buffalo and hot wings are the favorite foods of the day, coming in at 49 percent. Barbecue (37 percent) and seven-layer dip (36 percent) are our second and third favorites, followed by a three-way tie among pizza, chicken tenders and nachos, all at 30 percent. Rounding out our favorite big game treats are cookies (25 percent) and brownies, Buffalo chicken dip and potato chips, all coming in at 24 percent.

Those numbers mean there also will be a lot to drink — the survey shows that there will be 54 million cases of beer sold on Super Bowl Sunday. That works out to $300 million — which trails pop at $517 million, but is still higher than whiskey, which comes in at $226 million.

Many say we would be willing to give up drinking for one year (35 percent) our favorite food (28 percent) or all of vacation days from work (21 percent) for the chance to see the game in person, an opportunity that is likely out of reach for most of us — the average price of a ticket to this year’s game on the resale market is $11,067.

The Chiefs will be making their seventh appearance in the Super Bowl, while the Eagles will be making their fifth. The Steelers have been to the Super Bowl eight times, meaning they are tied for second with Dallas, Denver and San Francisco behind New England, which has been in 11 Super Bowls.

And, while the Steelers have again missed out on a trip to the big game, it might be a little comforting to know there are four teams that have never played in a Super Bowl at all — the Lions, the Texans, the Jaguars and the Browns.

Enjoy the game.

(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is executive editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times)