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It is with a heavy heart and downcast eyes that I report to you the findings of the latest Movoto Real Estate’s Big Deal List. With college football season upon us, I was tasked with finding the best Big Ten school and city for football fans. I had high hopes this city would would be Columbus, Ohio, home of my alma mater, Ohio State University. However, after I created a list of criteria and ran the numbers through my spreadsheet, I found that Ann Arbor, the birthplace of the University of Michigan, OSU’s nemesis, was, in fact, the best city for Big Ten football diehards.
I ask forgiveness from all my Buckeye brethren. Please be kind in the comments, and realize that while I bleed Scarlet and Gray, I refused to manipulate the numbers in OSU’s favor; the university taught me better than that.
For everyone the rest of you gridiron kooks who could care less about The Game, here is how each of the 12 university ranked:
- 1. University of Michigan/Ann Arbor
- 2. University of Nebraska-Lincoln/Lincoln
- 3. Purdue University/West Lafayette, Indiana
- 4. Ohio State University/Columbus
- 5. University of Wisconsin/Madison
- 6. University of Minnesota/Minneapolis
- 7. Pennsylvania State University/State College
- 8. University of Illinois/Urbana and Champaign
- 9. Michigan State University/East Lansing
- 10. University of Iowa/Iowa City
- 11. Indiana University/Bloomington
- 12. Northwestern University/Evanston, Illinois
Looking for the list, I was struck by Michigan’s dominance. I did think they would place highly, but not in the No. 1 spot. Additionally, I was surprised by the University of Nebraska – Lincoln’s strong showing, but then I looked into the school’s history. Yeah, the Cornhuskers are good. They have claimed at least part of five national championships.
At this point, most of you will want to know how I came up with this power ranking. If so, strap on your helmet, lace up your cleats, and prepare for kickoff.
Making a Game Plan
Source: Wikipedia
- Sports bars per capita
- Overall win percentage
- Claimed conference championships
- Claimed national championships
- Received sports radio stations
- Stadium capacity compared to average attendance
- Wins over major rival
As with Movoto’s previous Big Deal Lists, I ranked each university and city for each criteria and then calculated the average ranking. The city and university with the lowest overall ranking ranked the highest; in this case becoming the best Big 10 university for football fans. If you’re interested in how Movoto comes up with our lists, you can read more about them here.
Like two-a-days, I’m glad that bit of tedium is out of the way. Let’s take a look at each criterion for the top winners and losers.
Sports Bars per Capita
While I wish every weekend could be a home game, sadly, it’s not remotely possible. This is why I calculated the number of sports bars per capita. My basic thought for this section was the more sports bars in an area, the more locations you could watch an away game–hopefully a bowl game. What I found was that on a per capita basis Indiana University had the most sports bar, followed by the Boilermakers. Bottoms up IU. Don’t get too rowdy.
Overall Win Percentage
I looked at each of the 12 teams’ all-time win percentage. What team is the most likely to carry home a V? The University of Michigan, and how it pains me to report this news to you. Michigan has a 0.734 percent win percentage. Close behind is Ohio State with a 0.716 win percentage. My thought behind this was that a team with the highest win percentage makes fans happier. Sportsmanship is nice and all, but everyone wants a W on their calendar.
Conference Titles
While rivalries cut conference boundaries, I have the impression that most major hatefests are bound together by school ties. For this section I researched the number of claimed conference titles. I found that University of Nebraska claims 43 conference titles. Right behind is Michigan, which claims 42. (Yes, I’m aware that Nebraska is new to the conference. I counted their previous conference wins.)
Claimed National Championships
Nothing is better than being the best team in the land. With that in mind, I researched the number of national championship title each school claimed. Michigan came in first with 11 claimed wins. Ohio State and Minnesota are next with 7 claimed titles each.
Received Sports Radio Stations
What’s a sports fan to do when they are driving along and can’t constantly check ESPN or Bleacher Report? Turn on the radio and listen to the sports wonks hymn and haw. I looked at the number of sports radio station each city receives on a per capita basis. The city with the most air waves per person was Purdue University, followed by Pennsylvania State University.
Stadium Capacity
This category is bit more convoluted than the other, so I’ll try to make it simple. I wanted to measure fan attendance for home games. To do this, I created an index of the average attendance for each university for the last four years. Once I had the numbers I looked up each team’s stadium’s capacity and compared them. The University of Nebraska average more fans than the university’s stadium’s official capacity. Right behind was Ohio State.
Wins Over Rivals
For this section, I looked up each school’s biggest rival. This is the subjective portion of my list. I did recruit the opinions of sports writers, who asked to remain nameless. This is the list I came up with in alphabetical order:
- Indiana University v. Purdue University
- Michigan State University v. University of Michigan
- Northwestern University v. University of Illinois
- Ohio State University v. Michigan University
- Pennsylvania State University v. University Pittsburgh
- Purdue University v. Indiana University
- University of Illinois v. Northwestern University
- University of Iowa v. University of Minnesota
- University of Michigan v. Ohio State University
- University of Minnesota v. University of Wisconsin
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln v. University of Oklahoma
- University of Wisconsin v. University of Minnesota
The team with most wins over its rival, which indicates both a long rivalry and a ton of bragging rights, was Purdue. The Boilermakers have beaten Indiana 71 times. The team with the second highest wins over its rival was Minnesota with 59 wins over Wisconsin.
Overtime
While some of you might not be happy with the news that your team, didn’t rank highly as it should, perhaps it should be a wake-up call. So pull on your jersey, paint your face, and start cheering. As for the winner, this might be the only time I’ll ever say this, but good job Wolverines. I still hate you, though.
(click to enlarge)
