Best Cities to be a College Basketball Fan

[ml2]

I saw this referenced on TV during the NCAA tournament and checked it out. A website ranked every city in the country with one or more Division 1 basketball programs for "Best Cities for College Basketball Fans." They also include a detailed description of their methodology for the rankings (it's included in the link below).

Valpo comes in 80th out of 289 cities - and the best among the 10 MVC cities.

Valparaiso, IN - 80th
Cedar Falls, IA - 97th
Normal, IL - 102nd
Chicago, IL - 111th
Terre Haute, IN - 155th
Evansville, IN - 159th
Carbondale, IL - 176th
Springfield, MO - 211th
Peoria, IL - 255th
Des Moines, IA - 265th

https://wallethub.com/edu/best-cities-for-college-basketball/32944/

[vu84v2]

The study is interesting. One might not agree with the methodology, but it is pretty rigorous. I would say that the methodology used probably inflates Valparaiso versus other cities and disregards the impact of region (examples: Durham and Chapel Hill very high/Raleigh very low, Lawrence, KS very high/Kansas City very low). I can't buy that people in Raleigh and Kansas City don't closely follow the nearby teams.

The interviews with the 'experts' are a complete joke.

[ml2]

Yes, I noticed that too. It seems like it only rates each city relative to the team(s) specifically in that city. So it's only rating Kansas City on how strong its fandom for UMKC is and ignoring all the KU and Mizzou fans there.