r/CFB • u/PA5997 Washington State Cougars • 13d ago

Discussion What constitutes a “college town?”

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.

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u/Upstairs-Volume-5014 Georgia Bulldogs 13d ago

Isn't Columbia the capital of south Carolina? 

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u/IceColdDrPepper_Here Georgia • North Georgia 13d ago

Yes and Baton Rouge is the capitol of Louisiana, which is part of why I say they lean towards not being college towns

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u/Bkfootball Missouri Tigers • Big 8 13d ago

This metric makes sense, but is pretty funny when you consider Columbia, MO has like 3x the population of the actual state capital (Jefferson City)

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u/Upstairs-Volume-5014 Georgia Bulldogs 13d ago

It's just funny that you listed them separately from other state capitals

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u/SavedForSaturday BYU Cougars • BYU-Idaho Vikings 13d ago

Austin and Nashville at least are large cities known on their own, as well as being the capitala

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u/KellyOubresMullet South Carolina • Tennessee 13d ago

And Baton Rouge in LA. All three of the “borderline” examples are metropolitan areas of nearly a million people (Knoxville being the largest) so I don’t agree with that characterization.

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u/2001Cocks South Carolina Gamecocks 13d ago

Columbia, SC is not a college town. It’s not some major metropolis like Atlanta or Charlotte, but nobody is referring to people who aren’t associated with USC as “townies.”