LAWRENCE, Kan. — It’s March and the madness of college basketball is right around the corner.
Later this week, the Big 12 Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments tip off in Kansas City. In two weeks, T-Mobile Center will host the Men’s Midwest Regional games.
Fans attending the games may be in the best area to watch college basketball, according to a new ranking.
WalletHub, a personal finance website, ranked the best cities for college hoops fans.
It ranked Lawrence, Kansas, the home of the Jayhawks, as the second-best city for fans who love college basketball. Lawrence jumped two spots, up from No. 4 in the same ranking last year.
The company ranked Durham, North Carolina, home of the Duke Blue Devils, as the top city for fans.
WalletHub said it analyzed information from 290 cities provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, ESPN, NCAA.org, and each team’s website and social media accounts.
The analysis crunched information from the following nine areas:
- Number of D1 college basketball teams
- Performance level of D1 college basketball teams
- Number of D1 college basketball championship wins
- Number of D1 college basketball conference regular season championship wins
- Number of Hall of Fame head coaches
- Minimum season ticket price
- Fan engagement
- Number of coaches over past 10 seasons
- Stadium/arena capacity
This is the top 10 list, according to WalletHub’s latest ranking.
- Durham, North Carolina
- Lawrence, Kansas
- Storrs, Connecticut
- Lexington, Kentucky
- Los Angeles, California
- East Lansing, Michigan
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- Fayette, Mississippi
- Loretto, Pennsylvania
This is how the Big 12 Conference stacks up against the rest of the country when it comes to college basketball cities.
- 1. Lawrence, Kansas
- University of Kansas Jayhawks
- 11. Morgantown, West Virginia
- University of West Virginia Mountaineers
- 24. Norman, Oklahoma
- University of Oklahoma Sooners
- 27. Stillwater, Oklahoma
- Oklahoma State University Cowboys
- 51. Ames, Iowa
- Iowa State University Cyclones
- 64. Waco, Texas
- Baylor University Bears
- 94. Manhattan, Kansas
- Kansas State University Wildcats
- 108. Lubbock, Texas
- Texas Tech University Red Raiders
- 271. Fort Worth, Texas
- Texas Christian University Horned Frogs
- 287. Austin, Texas
- University of Texas Longhorns
The full ranking is available at WalletHub.com.
