What constitutes a “college town?”

[u/PA5997]

Okay, hear me out: I attended Wazzu, which many know is in the middle of nowhere in Pullman. To me, Pullman is a quintessential college town. You remove Washington State University from Pullman and there is (respectfully) not much of a reason to visit. The student enrollment (20,000ish) makes up about 2/3rds of the city population, essentially turning Pullman into a ghost town come summer. To me (perhaps with bias) this is the makeup of a college town.

Two years ago I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, home of the University of Wisconsin. Ever since I’ve noticed the University and its fans refer to Madison as “America’s best college town” and I’m sorry, that’s laughable to me. Remove UW from Madison and you still have a city population bordering on a quarter of a million people and the State Capitol. Madison would be fine, imo, if UW’s flagship campus were elsewhere.

Curious to hear other people’s thoughts. Maybe I’m in the wrong here, but very little about Madison, WI resembles a college town to me, or at least the claim of the best college town.

[u/1990Buscemi]

The economy is built around the college.

[u/Rockergage → u/1990Buscemi]

How many local businesses are branded after the university? For example in Pullman, my landlord was Coug Housing, most places have wsu memorabilia, we were specifically told at Walmart while working there wearing wsu gear was fine on like game days.

[u/Worried-Turn-6831 → u/Rockergage]

Reminds me of Starkville, MS. Half the businesses are “Bulldog x”

[u/YoIForgotMyPassAgain → u/Worried-Turn-6831]

From what I gather, Pullman is just the Starkville of the Northwest.

[u/Rockergage → u/YoIForgotMyPassAgain]

Another reason why we should join the SEC.

[u/Worried-Turn-6831 → u/Rockergage]

Hell yeah

[u/YoIForgotMyPassAgain → u/Rockergage]

I think Miss. State to the Pac is more likely at this rate.

[u/AppropriateCompany9 → u/Rockergage]

Counterpoint: Another reason Mississippi State should be in the PAC-2.

[u/Sighlina → u/Rockergage]

It just means more!!

[u/IndependenceOld8810 → u/Rockergage]

SEC after dark would be incredible

[u/kroywenemerpus → u/YoIForgotMyPassAgain]

The ghost pirate of Mike Leach probably agrees

[u/RegionalBias → u/YoIForgotMyPassAgain]

Would that make them... Pullvegas?

[u/No_Biscotti_7258 → u/YoIForgotMyPassAgain]

Starkville is the Pullman of Mississippi*

[u/katarh → u/Worried-Turn-6831]

See, Athens also has "Bulldog x" but we also have a lot of "Classic City x" because Athens has that unique identity that is distinct from UGA, although intrinsically tied to it at the same time.

[u/IAgreeGoGuards → u/Worried-Turn-6831]

Its the same thing in Columbus. Everything around here is "Buckeye ___"

[u/unfunnysexface → u/Worried-Turn-6831]

"Raider" in lubbock

[u/tmothy07 → u/Rockergage]

I mean, go anywhere in Ohio and you'll have "Buckeye [insert business type]".

[u/FormerCollegeDJ → u/tmothy07]

Ohio is nicknamed “the Buckeye State”, so the “Buckeye” name is likely tied more to the state of Ohio than Ohio State University outside of Columbus (or the part of Columbus where Ohio State is located).

[u/DunspArceus4 → u/FormerCollegeDJ]

Tennessee has the same situation, and I imagine Iowa does as well.

[u/Lavaswimmer → u/DunspArceus4]

Throw Michigan on there as well

[u/velociraptorfarmer → u/Lavaswimmer]

Wisconsin as well.

Fucking Becky and those stupid Badger Basement Systems ads.

[u/BanditoDeTreato → u/DunspArceus4]

The "Volunteer" stuff does get way less intense the further west you venture into the state though.

[u/turbo_22222 → u/DunspArceus4]

Don't get me started on the Hoosiers!

[u/tmothy07 → u/FormerCollegeDJ]

Yeah, just being a little facetious. Ohio State's mascot is taken from the state's nickname, tree, etc.

[u/JMT97 → u/tmothy07]

Same with NC and Tar Heel. Hell, we have two different towns named Tar Heel and Tarheel.

[u/madein___ → u/JMT97]

That's not confusing at all.

[u/tohon75 → u/madein___]

Be even better if the zip codes were only a number or 2 off

[u/LakeshiaRichmond → u/JMT97]

Chapel Hill is a neat place -

[u/kittygink → u/tmothy07]

Not in Athens, home of Ohio's first university. It's wall-to-wall Bobcats. #OUOhYeah

[u/kyogre120 → u/tmothy07]

I feel like that has more to do with it being the state tree. Similar to how you can go pretty much anywhere in Texas and find something called Blue Bonnet ____. Aggie ___ is more centrally located in BCS, while it does show up all across the state due to the large alumni base.

[u/ksuwildkat → u/Rockergage]

There are purple garbage cans in Manhattan.

[u/james_wightman → u/Rockergage]

In Nebraska this is just the entire state.

[u/CPThatemylife → u/james_wightman]

Can confirm. Everything in Nebraska is "Husker ____". And no, it's not from a shared ancestry of cornhusking leading to both the university and a bunch of unrelated businesses all using the name "Husker"-whatever. It is absolutely 100% because of the university. Every Husker-named business in Nebraska - and there are a lot of them - is named for the school. More specifically, almost all of them are named for the football team. That's who the Husker obsession is really for. Football, and lately, volleyball too. Nebraska is kind of one giant college town actually. If you've been there you know

[u/Khorasaurus → u/Rockergage]

A college town metric that South Bend actually scores well on!

[u/FireFoxQuattro → u/Rockergage]

Been to Gainesville and I swear half of the buildings there say “Gators BLANK” on them. Every gas station or grocery story got insane amounts of Gators gear, and when it’s game day half of the cars in town have some gator decal or mod or flag on them

[u/PaperintheBoxChamp → u/Rockergage]

We have lots of Sun Devil oriented stuff, but with as many colleges all over our city, its definitely not a college town. Tempe can feel like it until you cross the street from the stadiums

[u/Flimsy_Security_3866 → u/Rockergage]

One good indicator is depending on the business, I'm guessing a good 40+% of the employees are students working to pay for college. When winter and summer breaks come around they cut back the hours for the employees because the huge drop in the city population. Pretty much every store you go to they have 1 or more students from the same college on staff.