Top 289 College Cities in America

[inthescoop]

*TOP COLLEGE BASKETBALL CITIES

Since it’s the offseason, I’ll start a new thread for it, to boost up the discussions here.

https://wallethub.com/edu/best-cities-f ... all/32944/

Amherst is ranked 86th nationally, and 46th among small cities.

[McKinney]

I think I have to question this list's "basketball cities". Cullowhee, NC (home of Western Carolina) is #15 overall? West Point is #22? I can tell you right now basketball does not steer the ship at Army. From what I know there is little interest among most cadets and old grads.

[McKinney]

Just as a general rule of thumb: when doing analysis on city performance like this it's best to use statistics on the metropolitan area or at least the county level. Using the "city" level can skew things because instead of looking at where people live, work, shop, and their general behavior you're looking how local governments designate areas.

[McKinney]

Some criticism of their methodology:

Number of College Basketball (Division 1) Teams: Full Weight (~14.29 Points)

The impact of multiple teams in one region should already be accounted for by the other metrics. Further, does this matter? Is a city really better if it has five awful to mediocre teams versus one dominant national player?

Performance Level of College Basketball (Division 1) Team(s): Full Weight (~14.29 Points)
Note: This metric was calculated by dividing “Number of Wins” by “Total Games Played” and using the past three seasons’ averages.

Why is this indicative of performance? Yes wins matter, but a win in the Atlantic Sun Conference is different from a win in the Atlantic Ten Conference is different from a win in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Number of Basketball (Division 1) Championship Wins: Full Weight (~14.29 Points)

National Championship? Conference Championship (see previous note)? What are we talking here? And there should be some weighting by time. UCLA was dominant in the '70s but should those wins have the same impact on Los Angeles as UConn's wins from the 2000s have on Hartford? This goes back to my comment on metro areas. Why does UCLA impact Los Angeles instead of Westwood while UConn impacts Storrs instead of Hartford? There's always going to be major differences in region land area and population, but using MSAs helps to normalize this so that we're examining the bigger picture instead of a brush stroke.

Number of College Basketball (Division 1) Regular Season Championship Wins: Half Weight (~7.14 Points)

See previous two notes.

Number of National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Head Coaches: Full Weight (~14.29 Points)

Is the coach still at the school? I'd say Calipari has a greater influence as a HOF coach at Kentucky in 2018 than he does on the performance at Massachusetts.

Minimum College Basketball (Division 1) Season Ticket Price: Half Weight (~7.14 Points)

I understand this is trying to measure demand. However I doubt it accounts for the cost index between different metro areas. Even if it did, wouldn't total revenue from basketball be a better metric? Why not account for TV revenue, sponsorships, merchandise, single-game tickets, etc. too?

College-Basketball Fans Engagement: Sesqui-Weight (~21.43 Points)
Note: This metric was calculated by adding “Number of Twitter Followers” and “Number of Facebook ‘Likes’ per Capita.”

Unfortunately this doesn't account for older fanbases who might be just as engaged as younger fanbases, but I'd assume less likely to use Twitter and Facebook. Again, the per capita is weird, it's the metro area versus city argument. The other factor this doesn't account for is bandwagon likes. How many folks "liked" UNC on Facebook after the 2017 National Championship game, but have no intention of purchasing tickets or donating to the program?

Number of Coaches in Past 10 Seasons: Quarter Weight (~3.57 Points)
Note: “Past 10 Seasons” include seasons 2007–2008 to 2016–2017.

Why is this indicative of a good program? There's programs like VCU who have had four coaches in the past decade, but have been to the NCAAT eight of those years. There's programs like Lafayette who have had the same coach for 23 years and only made NCAAT three times in that tenure (including a 14 year drought) and only once in the past decade.

College-Basketball Stadium Capacity: Quarter Weight (~3.57 Points)
Note: This metric was calculated by dividing “Stadium Capacity” by “City Population.”

Again see my note on metro areas. Also, isn't attendance more important than capacity? What about a program like Robert Morris who plays in PPG Paints Arena (19,100) but as an NEC team they struggle to regularly draw 1,000 people (averaging 766 per game in 2017-18).

[eldonabe]

Any metric that somehow make Boston an above average College town is just fucking stupid.

Boston is a pro sports town 1st, 2nd, 3rd, HIGH SCHOOLS 4th, the pro again 5th, 6th, and 7th. College may slip in at 8th IF they have a local who is decent.

[MJatUM]

Any metric that somehow make Boston an above average College town is just fucking stupid.

Boston is a pro sports town 1st, 2nd, 3rd, HIGH SCHOOLS 4th, the pro again 5th, 6th, and 7th. College may slip in at 8th IF they have a local who is decent.

^ Or if they are HIGHLY nationally ranked in basketball or football only.

[McKinney]

OT and I don't mean to single you out eldon, but I've heard that argument about Boston being a "High School Sports Town" before. Why is that? Now granted I'm not from Boston, so I don't know first hand, but I've never heard of a culture like you see on Friday Night Lights in New England. I've never seen the crazy high school stadiums like those in Texas. Even in basketball, I was just out in the Bay Area last week and saw on TV highlights from the NorCal High School Championship (something like that) and there had to be a good 5,000+ people in that arena. I don't know the attendance figures for sure, but it looked like a decent college-gym type arena and it was packed to standing room only.

[eldonabe]

Slightly metaphorical...... Boston and the state of Mass in general is not a "college town" when it comes to sports. I would argue that they have better following in Hockey than either of the "Major" sports.

Don't get me wrong - It is great when the bandwagon is filling but that is the only time it is notable. Otherwise the northeast as a whole sucks when it comes to college football and is lukewarm to hoops.

[PintOGuinness]

OT and I don't mean to single you out eldon, but I've heard that argument about Boston being a "High School Sports Town" before. Why is that? Now granted I'm not from Boston, so I don't know first hand, but I've never heard of a culture like you see on Friday Night Lights in New England. I've never seen the crazy high school stadiums like those in Texas. Even in basketball, I was just out in the Bay Area last week and saw on TV highlights from the NorCal High School Championship (something like that) and there had to be a good 5,000+ people in that arena. I don't know the attendance figures for sure, but it looked like a decent college-gym type arena and it was packed to standing room only.

As far as HS sports go, perhaps Massachusetts cannot be compared to Texas in football, NYC in basketball, Florida in baseball, etc. But I just went to the Super 8 Hockey final Sunday night between BC High and Pope Francis at the new Garden. The place was rocking and the game was fantastic(BCH won in OT). I'd put Massachusetts HS hockey right up there, along with perhaps Minnesota, as the best HS hockey in the nation.

[inthescoop]

OT and I don't mean to single you out eldon, but I've heard that argument about Boston being a "High School Sports Town" before. Why is that? Now granted I'm not from Boston, so I don't know first hand, but I've never heard of a culture like you see on Friday Night Lights in New England. I've never seen the crazy high school stadiums like those in Texas. Even in basketball, I was just out in the Bay Area last week and saw on TV highlights from the NorCal High School Championship (something like that) and there had to be a good 5,000+ people in that arena. I don't know the attendance figures for sure, but it looked like a decent college-gym type arena and it was packed to standing room only.

As far as HS sports go, perhaps Massachusetts cannot be compared to Texas in football, NYC in basketball, Florida in baseball, etc. But I just went to the Super 8 Hockey final Sunday night between BC High and Pope Francis at the new Garden. The place was rocking and the game was fantastic(BCH won in OT). I'd put Massachusetts HS hockey right up there, along with perhaps Minnesota, as the best HS hockey in the nation.

I guess the main difference being, the kids in Massachusetts don't have the flow that them Minnesotans do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwDpSKDyKRU