Penn State Football: Is State College the 5th best Big Ten College Town?

Saturday Tradition, a website dedicated to Big Ten Football, recently released a ranking of the Big Ten college towns.

The replies have been, to say the least, entertaining:

As much as I dislike the Wolverines, Michigan is an acceptable choice for number one.

After that, the list losses credibility faster than a Rutger’s offensive drive. I would think that a town that balloons to a state’s third-largest city on Saturday gamedays would warrant a higher ranking than a suburb of Chicago.

I certainly struggle with Illinois, Purdue, and Northwestern being listed higher than Penn State. It’s funny how popular these lists have become over the past few years due to social media. It’s also enjoyable to see how angry the common college football fan is when their team doesn’t land where they think they should. I say this as I write this article about my favorite team getting snubbed on a list.

With that being said, I am even more interested in visiting some of these towns to do a deep dive. Thankfully, the Penn State community will be able to visit a Big Ten West team as the Nittany Lions travel to Champaign, Illinois to take on the Fighting Illini on September 16th (week 3 of the 2023 college football season). A place that Penn State fans typically don’t get to visit on a year-to-year standpoint.

I’ve done some searching and haven’t run across any list of criteria for this horrible list. It evidently does not take stadium grandeur into account. Northwestern has the conference’s smallest stadium, seating only 47,130 people. Purdue and Illinois are ninth and eighth, respectively.

At least they got one thing right. Rutgers, Ohio State, and Nebraska should be at the bottom of any Big Ten list.