MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — West Virginia fans have never held back in their passion for sports. The state unity that comes with the Mountaineers is unlike any across the country, and a new study by WalletHub proves it.
In a recent study done by the website, Morgantown, WV ranked as the #11 best city for college basketball in the nation. This places the Mountaineers just behind Loretto, PA, which hosts the Saint Francis University Red Flash, and in front of West Point, NY, home of Army.
The study claims that its rankings were based on nine key metrics of good college hoops cities.
- Number of teams per city (Full weight: ~12.5 points)
- Winning percentage (Full weight: ~12.5 points)
- Stadium capacity (Full weight: ~6.25 points)
- Social media engagement (Full weight: ~18.75 points)
- Number of championship wins (Full weight: ~6.25 points)
- Number of Hall of Fame head coaches (Full weight: ~12.5 points)
- Season ticket price (Full weight: ~12.5 points)
- Number of different coaches in the past 10 seasons (Full weight: ~6.25 points)
Morgantown scored a total of 42.89 points in the final rankings with the top score of 55.37 going to Durham, NC, home of the Duke University Blue Devils. For those interested, Pittsburgh, PA ranked #129 with a score of 23.75.
The study also re-ranked its cities into separate categories based on size rather than all together. Morgantown fell into the “small city” category, in which it ranked #7 in the nation, in between the same two cities as before.
The website also conducted similar studies regarding college basketball and its fans. One of these studies was of the cities with the highest engagement for college hoops, which ranked Morgantown as tied for #1 with Chapell Hill, NC, Bloomington, IN, Lawrence, KS and East Lansing, MI.
WalletHub also ranked Morgantown among the top cities for football fans across the nation, as well as Huntington, WV. They both ranked at #52 and #53 respectively. Pittsburgh (unfortunately for any WVU fans) took first place in this study.
