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With March Madness finally upon us after taking a unprecedented year off thanks to the ongoing pandemic, personal finance website WalletHub has released its annual March Madness Stats and Facts infographic and video, as well as its report on 2021’s Best Cities for College Basketball Fans to help get hoops lovers psyched for this oh-so-magical and very much missed time of the year.
To find 2021’s top spots for NCAA hoops, they crunched the numbers on more than 290 cities using nine key metrics, ranging from the colleges in each city, the winning percentage of each, and social media engagement to the number of conference and national championships.
Among the many fun facts they found were…
• The Gonzaga Bulldogs have the highest current winning percentage among college basketball teams, 89.87% – 8.3 times higher than the winning percentage of the Chicago State Cougars, the team with the lowest at 10.85%.
• Charlotte, Terre Haute and Ithaca have the least expensive season tickets, starting at $49 – 19.9 times less than a season of hoops in Lawrence, Kansas, at $975.
• Los Angeles is home to the country’s most national championships (11), while Philadelphia has the most regular season titles (93).
Out of all the teams that actually made it into tournament this year, here are the Top 25 Rankings of best cities for college basketball fans during March Madness, based on WalletHub’s metrics.
1. East Lansing, MI (Michigan State University)
2. Lawrence, KS (University of Kansas)
3. Storrs, CT (University of Connecticut)
4. Los Angeles, CA (UCLA, USC)
5. Chapel Hill, NC (University of North Carolina)
6. Philadelphia, PA (Villanova University, Drexel University)
7. College Park, MD (University of Maryland)
8. Washington, DC (Georgetown University)
9. Morgantown, WV (West Virginia University)
10. Charlottesville, VA (University of Virginia)
11. Fayetteville, AR (University of Arkansas)
12. Ann Arbor, MI (University of Michigan)
13. Stillwater, OK (Oklahoma State University)
14. Hamilton, NY (Colgate University)
15. Iowa City, IA (University of Iowa)
16. Clemson, SC (Clemson University)
17. Houston, TX (University of Houston, Texas Southern University)
18. Tulsa, OK (Oral Roberts University)
19. Champaign, IL (University of Illinois)
20. Provo, UT (Brigham Young University)
21. West Lafayette, IN (Purdie University)
22. Syracuse, NY (University of Syracuse)
23. Cheney, WA (Eastern Washington University)
24. Chicago, IL (Loyola Chicago)
25. Knoxville, TN (University of Tennessee)
They also determined the best and worst college basketball towns when it comes to winning, ticket price, arena accessibilty, and fan engagement.
wallethub.com
East Lansing Named The Best City For March Madness In 2021
View the entire study over at WalletHub.com.