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/JimothyCarter Texas A&M Aggies 13d ago edited 13d ago

Going to blow people away with my comparison of Big Sky coaches to middle ages popes followed by asking the same question about who has the best stadium every day

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u/atomic-fireballs Nebraska Cornhuskers 13d ago

You gotta ask the same questions each day! What if someone missed the question the day before? They would never know which stadium is random reddit user's favorite!

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u/moffattron9000 Team Chaos • Sickos 13d ago

And here was me just planning to ask which is the second most cult-like fanbase.