March Madness and the Best College Basketball Fans
Our good friends at WalletHub who often supply The Lobster with topical subject matter, bring you the following tidbits related to college basketball’s annual tournament of champions which rolls off this week.
It’s doubtful any of this will help you build a winning bracket although it will amuse you while you are building that bracket.
According to WalletHub the best city in the U.S. for college basketball fans is Chapel Hill, NC home to the University of North Carolina, a school that has seen its share of college hoops success.
UNC is followed in the WalletHub ranking by Los Angeles, home to the University of California at Los Angeles, which in the 1960s began captivated basketball fans with a series of teams coached by the legendary John Wooden and featuring great players like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Thanks to Coach Wooden and his seemingly never-ending parade of stars at UCLA, Los Angeles owns the most NCAA national championship banners. This may help explain its second-ranked fan base. It’s easy to be a fan when you sit in Pauley Pavilion and stare up at 11 banners hanging from the rafters.
Number 3 on the WalletHub Hit Parade is Durham, NC, home of Duke University usually a perennial contender to take home the championship hardware but not this year.
Fourth on the rundown is Bloomington, Indiana in the basketball-crazy state of Indiana and home to Indiana University of the Big Ten Conference.
Number Five on the list of the best college basketball fans is Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, take that Philly sports fans haters. This city sports a multitude of successful big time basketball programs, lead by the Owls of Temple University, and followed by St. Joseph University, La Salle University, and Penn of the Ivy League.
And throw in nearby Villanova University, which by virtue of its gaudy record this season will lead the field of 64 on to the hardwood this tournament. Nova also has the highest winning percentage among men’s college basketball teams. Their 88 percent is 6 times that of the school with the lowest win rate, the Tigers of Grambling State, which has won about 16 percent of its contests.
All totaled, Philadelphia has 116 regular season titles, the most among major college teams.
Following Philadelphia is East Lansing, Michigan, home of the Big Ten’s Michigan State University.
Clocking in at seventh place is Lawrence, Kansas, home to perennial roundball power, the University of Kansas.
Following Lawrence is Lexington, Kentucky, home of the University of Kentucky, another annual championship contender. Lexington’s fan base may have ranked a lowly 8 in the best fans poll, but its fans did lead in one key area, the price they are willing pay for season tickets. Season passes to see the Kentucky Wildcats play start at 950 dollars, which is 21 times the starting price for a season of hoops in Hamilton, NY, home of the Colgate University Raiders.
Kentucky. Colgate. Sounds like a 1-16 bracket match-up to The Lobster
Next up is beautiful Storrs, Connecticut, home of the perennial woman’s basketball champion team.
Number 10 on the WalletHub list of the best college basketball fans is Cullowhee NC, home of the Catamounts of the Southern League.
The survey crunched the numbers on 291 cities. The 7 criteria by which the cities were evaluated included the number of teams per city, the winning percentage of each team to arena capacity, and social-media engagement.
To enjoy the full report and check out where your city ranks, visit http://wallethub.com/edu/best-cities-for-college-basketball/32944/