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That's underranking Bloomington, IMO. Yes it probably doesn't quite have as much things to do as say Ann Arbor or Madison(but how few places are exactly in that caliber?), but I feel it at least can hold its own vs. Lincoln, Champaign, Iowa City, etc. Plus being not too far of a drive away from Indy or Louisville, is nice. Too bad it no longer has Amtrak service anymore, vs. years ago.
Don't know how College Park or New Brunswick are like, since yes they are the new bastard children of the Big 10. Had always wanted to visit State College and East Lansing, but hadn't yet.
Nothing really excites me about Indiana, but I agree Bloomington maybe doesn't deserve the bottom of the barrel. Call College Park a bastard, but I'll take DC over anything.
Full disclosure, I'm taking this concept from a post I saw on reddit a while back. Basically, I think it's a cool idea to rank the ten or so cities in each of the NCAA conferences by the attractiveness of living there.
I'll start with the Pac-12 since it has the places I know the best.
1. Los Angeles, CA - Obviously the most attractive place for people in the Pac-12, and it's why USC and UCLA usually bring in the top recruits. Has good weather, beaches, lots of nice houses, etc.
2. Stanford, CA - In a very upscale part of the Bay Area with warm weather and close to the coast, as well.
3. Berkeley, CA - Basically the same reasons as Stanford, but also is a bit more rundown and has a large homeless problem and worse traffic.
4. Seattle, WA - Would be the top choice in the group, I think, but the weather is way too offputting for most people. Still a very nice place, though.
5. Tempe, AZ - Warm winters and good urban location in Phoenix. Many people are simply drawn to the thought of living in Arizona alone.
6. Boulder, CO - I think people are turned off by it being so small and sort of isolated, as well as getting a lot of snow. Still super popular and hip, and has a beautiful natural setting with tons of outdoorsy things to do.
7. Salt Lake City, UT - Most people think of here as being kind of lame and boring without nightlife, and having cold winters, but it also still has the mountains and a larger population/more going on than the places lower on the list.
8. Tucson, AZ - Really the only thing it's got going for it in the eyes of most people is the weather and being in Arizona. It's small and isolated and rumor has it that it smells pretty bad there.
9. Eugene, OR - The historically successful athletic program is really the only drawing point here, as well as proximity to Portland because people don't really want to spend too much of their time here.
10. Corvallis, OR - Smaller, less popular version of Eugene with really nothing going on except proximity to Portland.
11. Pullman, WA - Dead last. Super isolated and bad weather make Pullman the least popular PAC-12 destination.
To clarify, none of this was my personal opinion. I'm just stating what I think most people go by if they were to be presented with all of these cities. This also does not have anything to do with the individual programs and schools, only the cities they reside in.
Interesting topic and I can only nitpick your list. I would have Seattle over berkely and Boulder over Tempe bu otherwise, good ranking order.
Full disclosure, I'm taking this concept from a post I saw on reddit a while back. Basically, I think it's a cool idea to rank the ten or so cities in each of the NCAA conferences by the attractiveness of living there.
I'll start with the Pac-12 since it has the places I know the best.
1. Los Angeles, CA - Obviously the most attractive place for people in the Pac-12, and it's why USC and UCLA usually bring in the top recruits. Has good weather, beaches, lots of nice houses, etc.
2. Stanford, CA - In a very upscale part of the Bay Area with warm weather and close to the coast, as well.
3. Berkeley, CA - Basically the same reasons as Stanford, but also is a bit more rundown and has a large homeless problem and worse traffic.
4. Seattle, WA - Would be the top choice in the group, I think, but the weather is way too offputting for most people. Still a very nice place, though.
5. Tempe, AZ - Warm winters and good urban location in Phoenix. Many people are simply drawn to the thought of living in Arizona alone.
6. Boulder, CO - I think people are turned off by it being so small and sort of isolated, as well as getting a lot of snow. Still super popular and hip, and has a beautiful natural setting with tons of outdoorsy things to do.
7. Salt Lake City, UT - Most people think of here as being kind of lame and boring without nightlife, and having cold winters, but it also still has the mountains and a larger population/more going on than the places lower on the list.
8. Tucson, AZ - Really the only thing it's got going for it in the eyes of most people is the weather and being in Arizona. It's small and isolated and rumor has it that it smells pretty bad there.
9. Eugene, OR - The historically successful athletic program is really the only drawing point here, as well as proximity to Portland because people don't really want to spend too much of their time here.
10. Corvallis, OR - Smaller, less popular version of Eugene with really nothing going on except proximity to Portland.
11. Pullman, WA - Dead last. Super isolated and bad weather make Pullman the least popular PAC-12 destination.
To clarify, none of this was my personal opinion. I'm just stating what I think most people go by if they were to be presented with all of these cities. This also does not have anything to do with the individual programs and schools, only the cities they reside in.
I won't argue with your rankings other than to say that Tempe doesn't have a very good "college town" vibe. It's actually kind of a soulless suburb outside of it's Mill Ave campus district.
Boulder certainly isn't "small and isolated". Boulder has been able to maintain it's college town ambiance despite it becoming an elite Denver suburb over the last 40 or so years.
Tucson certainly isn't small, it has about a million people in it. It is surrounded by spectacular mountains, has a great campus and still has a good college town vibe within it's core despite Tucson's size and maddening grid traffic. Finally Phoenix and Tucson are about the same distance as Eugene from Portland so I don't really think Tucson is all that "isolated" if viewed from that perspective.
Eugene is interesting because although in many ways it is disappointing it is known as "Little Berkeley" and is kind of considered a raw version of Boulder by some people.
on the metro level princeton would be n.y.c. though closer in feel to philly and upenn would be philly, brown would be providence, yale would be new haven (kinda' a stretch).
what league do you propose is better ?
I'd say the ACC, CUSA, and Pac-12 are all above it.
[=eddie gein;49015782]I won't argue with your rankings other than to say that Tempe doesn't have a very good "college town" vibe. It's actually kind of a soulless suburb outside of it's Mill Ave campus district.
Boulder certainly isn't "small and isolated". Boulder has been able to maintain it's college town ambiance despite it becoming an elite Denver suburb over the last 40 or so years.
Tucson certainly isn't small, it has about a million people in it. It is surrounded by spectacular mountains, has a great campus and still has a good college town vibe within it's core despite Tucson's size and maddening grid traffic. Finally Phoenix and Tucson are about the same distance as Eugene from Portland so I don't really think Tucson is all that "isolated" if viewed from that perspective.
Eugene is interesting because although in many ways it is disappointing it is known as "Little Berkeley" and is kind of considered a raw version of Boulder by some people.
Yeah, I realise that Tempe isn't a college town, but the reason I feel so many are drawn to it is because it's in an urban center in a state that is seen as having warm weather and a lot of partying.
Boulder isn't small and isolated in compared to most of the country, but in comparison to the cities on this list, like Seattle, LA, Phoenix, it really is one of the more isolated ones. Same goes for Tucson, Eugene, Corvallis, Pullman, etc. They aren't really isolated geographically speaking, sure, but compared to the others on the list they are especially talking for convenience's sake.
Interesting about the "Little Berkeley" thing, I've lived here for over ten years and never heard it. I assume it's probably something that's said more by people who don't live here/have never visited. I could see it being something that's said in the bay area, I remember when I was in my group at freshmen orientation at the U of O in my group of over twenty students I was one of just six students who wasn't from the bay area.
+maybe the acc; the pac-12 is a stretch; what collection of metros in the c-usa is better than boston, n.y.c., philly ?
I'd say Boca-Raton and Miami lead the pack as both are super attractive places to move for most peole. San Antonio, Charlotte, and Houston are all super popular right now for low COL and warm winter weather.
Pac-12 is a stretch? Man, we must just be on different pages lol. Multiple places in the bay area and southern California, joined by Boulder and Seattle (and maybe Tempe if you're down to party and go swimming), would give the Pac-12 the overall highest quality of life of all conferences.
The person who ranked Raleigh ahead of Chapel Hill in college-town vibe based on aesthetics and "good sports"...must be drunk right now.
Or I was stating my preference,. I don't think a person must be drunk if they prefer NCSU to UNC. I did not state or imply that UNC has bad sports programs and I mentioned negatives in my post about Chapel Hill that you did not mention. Despite those negatives in my view, I still had UNC at no. 5 overall.
My point about sports is more about the stadiums, arena, gameday atmosphere, etc than win-loss. Generally NCSU and UNC are even in football and football is my main interest. NC State has been solid in basketball over the years as well.
I prefer the NCSU campus to UNC's campus partly because it doesn't have a hospital complex and I like the architectural style of the buildings better.
Last edited by ClemVegas; 07-31-2017 at 03:33 PM..
1. Seattle
2. Los Angeles
3. Palo Alto
4. Tempe
5. Boulder
6. Berkeley
7. Tucson
8. Salt Lake City
9. Corvallis
10. Eugene
11. Pullman
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Had always wanted to visit State College and East Lansing, but hadn't yet.
